Hornworm Horror
 

Is anyone having a particularly gruesome hornworm problem this year? I am in Eastern Iowa, in the middle of town. I've had tomatoes here out in the country in farmland and in my backyard for years. I have never seen anything like this. We don't have much sun in our yard, so I am growing 4 plants on the Southeast side of the house in the ground, and have about 6 more plants in large planters on my back patio.

We had a mild and short winter, early but slow spring... and have been inundated with all kinds of bugs like never before. But I have lost count of the hornworms I have pulled off these plants. I am starting to put them in my bird feeder out front. I am tired of picking them off every single day and finding more damage the next morning.

This is something I haven't had a problem with in about 23 years of growing backyard tomatoes here. I am revolted by squishing them now! :evil:

Oh ya!!!!!!!!! Worst year ever for them. I am making a note about the time I first started to see them all over the plants. I scouted all my plants twice this morning found two more loaded with wasp eggs and then neighbor came over to look at my tomatoes and when I was explaining to her about pruning from advice here, darn if I didn't spot another one and while I was trying to get it, she spotted another one right behind it. Both loaded with eggs.

Ginger/Marsha suggested in another thread here for me yesterday or day before to use BT. The birds don't seem to want to eat them. I haven't found a natural predator yet for them. I'm not even sure if there is some sort of trap crop for them or not.

I wish mine were loaded with wasps. They are healthy, hungry and growing at an alarming rate. This morning's haul disappeared from the bird feeder, so something scooped them up. Either that, or they are in my front lawn, inching their way back to the tomato bed. We still have to splat the big guys though. The little ones went into the birdfeeder- the big three or four inch mutants might eat my friendly birds.

Only on six plants I planted at my cabin. Killed 6 of them already, they were big and did a lot of damage, even stripped 2 pepper plants. I squished them, not waiting for the wasps.

I haven't seen hide nor hair of one this year.

Worth

The only one I saw was being carried off by a thread-wasted wasp (Or something that looks just like it)

Looks like Patti Labelle.
[IMG]http://cdn-img.essence.com/sites/default/files/images/2012/05/22/patti-labelle-240.jpg[/IMG]
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Not yet, but the other bugs are so numerous that it's drawing praying mantises and dragonflies to the garden like never before. (New this year: green stinkbugs and locust-like swarms of oriental beetles. What fun!) Another plus -- the local bats treat my yard like a smorgasbord each evening at sunset, and they're fun to watch.

I've been spraying Thuricide (BT) on the squash plants weekly to prevent vine-borers (haven't lost one yet) and will apply it to the tomatoes at the first sign of hornworms. I'm sure it'll be any day now...

I hadn't checked the tomato patch in two days but when I did found 7 hornworms. Two tomato plants and tomatoes were eaten down to the main stem. Found one more yesterday. I am in southeast Iowa.

Unfortunately Bt is not going to help with squash vine borers because the larvae develop inside the stem and the BT is on the outside of the stem. Sorry.

[QUOTE=brownrexx;653662]Unfortunately Bt is not going to help with squash vine borers because the larvae develop inside the stem and the BT is on the outside of the stem. Sorry.[/QUOTE]

I thought that it killed the eggs, too, that are laid around the bases of the plants. No? Anyway, I also did BT stem injections with a syringe, so hopefully I'm covered. Last year I had already lost squash plants and had replanted seeds by this date; fingers crossed!

Not it doesn't kill the eggs, eggs cant eat.

Surround or Sevin dust on and around the stems.

BT stem injections will work to kill the larvae that are inside the stem. I also do those. I also we plant some more squash after the first plants start producing so that I have back-up plants in case the first ones die after all.

Well, that's interesting. The other thing I used was spinosad a few weeks ago, when the cucumber beetles showed up. That could be why I haven't seen vine-borers yet. The Sevin will come out soon -- Japanese beetles have arrived -- but I don't use it on edibles unless really necessary. This year's bug bonanza might make it necessary!

[QUOTE=HudsonValley;653670]I thought that it killed the eggs, too, that are laid around the bases of the plants. No? Anyway, I also did BT stem injections with a syringe, so hopefully I'm covered. Last year I had already lost squash plants and had replanted seeds by this date; fingers crossed![/QUOTE]

It's a timing issue. BT and spinosad will help [B]IF[/B] they're freshly applied/effective and on the plant surface consumed by the borer when it first bores into the plant. But obviously, it's easy to miss a small spot, have the spray not stick to every single place a borer could start boring, etc.

After it starts boring, you have to inject.

I spray my cucurbit plant bases with BT nearly daily or spinosad every few days once July rolls around. But I also check them them visually every day for eggs and picking them off and starting to inspect carefully for bore holes once I start seeing eggs. I haven't lost a squash plant to SVB and have only found 1 bore hole which never turned into a problem for the plant, but I only grow a few so can take the time to really stay on top of inspection.

I do suspect that I've lost cukes in the past to borers before I realized that SVBs sometimes make do with cucumber plants.

I sowed my squash very late this year, and so far I haven't seen any borer eggs at all. The plants may be too small still to give off whatever odors the borers use to find them, or maybe the borer emergence is delayed. But a nice side effect is that there isn't much difficulty in inspecting the bases because the plants are still small and the bases are still easy to access. A disadvantage is squash envy.

I don't inject mine right at the base. I inject several inches above the base and let the liquid run down the inside of the hollow stem. I figure that this way the bt will coat the inside of the stem and I have a better chance for the larvae to eat it.

I have never had a SVB in a cucumber plant but I have had them bore into spaghetti squash fruits.

I was literally going to take a black light outside last night and was just too exhausted. I will try that tonight and if it doesn't work- I will use BT.

I'm up to 10 hornworms I've plucked off of 6 plants, its amazing how much they can eat! I've gone over plants and there are more the next day. They must grow overnight.

Here is south Florida..U need to spray Bt BEFORE u start having problems with hornworms. Spray early morning or after sunset. The UV rays from the sun weaken the Bt ingredients. Make sure the leave are DRY before u spray. I check my plants every morning and every night for those horn worms. I'm also lucky..the bluejays LOVE them and will hunt for them on the plants. Spray every 2 weeks regularly and you shouldn't have a problem..or at least not a big problem. U can also use a black light at night to find them..they glow in the dark with the black light. :surprised:

I am heading out with the black light in a few minutes. I found 4 small ones when I came home from work today. Put them on the bird feeder and then through the window I watched them throw their evil little bodies off the birdfeeder- presumably to inch their way back to my tomato bed.

I have a total of about 11 tomato plants and over the last week and a half I have pulled off somewhere near 30 or 40 hornworms. I am not finding any more of the giant ones, but the little ones can do a lot of damage on their way to becoming dragon sized.

Wow. Are you guys near commercial tomato or tobacco fields? That's crazy.

Yeah, I have never seen anything like that. I may see one or two all summer.

[QUOTE=brownrexx;654301]Yeah, I have never seen anything like that. I may see one or two all summer.[/QUOTE]

Same. Last year, I thought I had an unusually high number when I found 2 (both around the 1 1/2 inch stage) and then another later that had been parasitized and was already turning black (the cocoons had already hatched).

This year, I've found and picked off 3 eggs. That seemed like a lot for me.

[QUOTE=brownrexx;653662]Unfortunately Bt is not going to help with squash vine borers because the larvae develop inside the stem and the BT is on the outside of the stem. Sorry.[/QUOTE]

The larvae have to eat through the outside to get to the inside. If they ingest the BT while trying to get in it can kill them. It may not be 100% but it does work relatively well.

I am in the middle of town in the Quad Cities. We are about 100 yards from a wooded creek area. we have been here at this house four years and have never seen a hornworm here before. We were closer to downtown for six years and had no hornworms there. 20 years ago we lived out in the country surrounded by corn and soy fields, and I would get a horn worm or two every year.

[QUOTE=pjhootch;654371]Quad Cities[/QUOTE]

Tobacco farming is booming in IL, from what I understand. Not sure whether there are any growers in your vicinity, but hornworms are typically a much bigger problem where tobacco is being grown.

Tons of hornworms here also. I just pulled 10 tonight in the greenhouse. Outdoor toms. dont have any. They seem pretty easy to kill with bayer spray. I just realized theres a hornworm pic on the bottle!

[url]www.amazon.com/dp/B0052K0V20/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_N9bAzbV8197PF[/url]

[QUOTE=gorbelly;654373]Tobacco farming is booming in IL, from what I understand. Not sure whether there are any growers in your vicinity, but hornworms are typically a much bigger problem where tobacco is being grown.[/QUOTE]

Nothing is booming in Illinois except taxes, we grow more horseradish, no tobacco except for me...

I only found one yesterday morning for a change and none today. I am hoping that between the wasps and birds that the worst is over, but I doubt it. Probably just taking a break.

Somebody here last year, did a nice post about the life cycle of the hornworm. I tried a search, but didn't find the exact one.

I got a feeling that the ones without the wasp eggs in their backs have done enough munching and are now doing the pulpating thing in the soil, which means more to come later.

Think it was BBV that said to plant Zinnias that predators of the hornworm like the nectar from the Zinna and will hang around. Could be very true as I had some Zinna plants sitting in a flat not to far away from the tomatoes that all had the wasp eggs on them.

so far just 1 here in Oklahoma