It's a tomato hornworm caterpillar. KILL IT NOW!

I killed it with a stick. The thing was flogging the stick like a dog protecting its food bowl, but I won the fight. It has done a lot of damage,luckily to just my bell pepper plants,in the last few days.

Keep an eye out... if there's one there may be others. They can clean out your peppers and tomatoes in no time.

If you're not up for a fight to the death or just plain forgot to recharge your light sabre, next time just knock them into a bucket of soapy water and let them drown quietly.

Tobacco hornworm, but, same difference as far as we're concerned as pepper growers. Tomato Hornworms have V markings on their side rather than the plain diagonal ones in the pic. At leas that's what I have read on the 'net.

If you seen one with a bunch of white "eggs" (cocoon really) those are from a parasitic wasp who's larvae feed off the host hornworm. It is recommended that you spare the ones that have been parasitized (sp??). Though, personally, I don't know if I really want any more wasps around than I already have. :-)

They are pretty common (I've had a couple in my tiny garden before), and as Ottawa mentions, they can flat strip your garden in no time.

I read something like that. If I see one with eggs on it I will let it live, though I hope I don't see one ever again. That thing tore up at least a quarter of my plant if not more. So they are quick at destroying plants. Tried burning it off so I could save the leaf it was on but that did not work. So not only did he tear up half my plant but he took a good sized leaf with him as well.

Go tomorrow and buy something called BT worm killer from green light. It is organic and contains that hormone Thurgenisis or something like that which will kill hormworms over night after they nibble on a leaf sprayed with it. GET IT cause if you have one worm you have 10 and 100 babies ready to come out. They will eat holes in 20 tomatoes over night that took months to grow.

Daryll

Nasty looking beast.

Yah, since the picture didn't have anything good for a size comparison, my first thought was to pull out a gun and call 911 immediately.

Peppernoob: Where are you from? I hope they don't migrate this way.
Bruce

BT isn't a hormone. It's a bacteria that infects caterpillars and kills them. It is harmless to other organisms. Works well as long as you get the strain of BT that works on that type of caterpillar, so read the label and make sure you get the right one.

Best way to search for those things is at night. Take a handheld blacklight and scan the plants with it. Those things will glow under blacklight like a scorpion, makes them very easy to spot.

I say best way to look for those things is to load up the shotgun and search for leafless pepper plants. Then empty the magazine to get them to show themselves, reload and take out the survivors.
Bruce

Bruce, I'm glad I'm not your neighbor!

I occasionally wear a baseball cap with a plastic tomato hornworm on top.

Ottawa,
Yep, that is like wearing a fur coat in the woods during dear season. So, next time you go out in the yard with the cap, put on some blaze orange. I have a 10 gauge and it has some pretty good range on it.

Bruce

I will try that bt worm killer. I on the internet and the only other defense that I could find is to plant marigolds around the plant. Although if none of that works, taking a shotgun and blowing off another half of the plant doesn't sound like a bad idea.

I'd like to see a university study on the effectiveness of using a shotgun for small insect/pest control on peppers before I spend $200+ on this device.

I've been fooled before on pest control devices like wildly swinging a machete at bugs...which did a lot more collateral damage than one would imagine.

Yah, I agree. Buying a shotgun specifically for pest control is a bit pricey. But if you already have on in the house, the ammunition isn't too bad at about 25 cents a round. And the effectiveness is unparalleled. And another beneficial by product is all the new drainage holes in your containers.
Bruce

Bruce,

I like the way you think BUT I'll say it again... I'm glad I'm not your neighbor ;-))

Bill

Bill:
Too bad because you got some good pepper growing going on and i would love to breed some of my peppers with yours.

OK, my wife has just ordered me to put the keyboard down and shut off the computer. She is threatening an "intervention". She says I need to start by admitting that I have a problem. I told her: "Yes, you are".

*%&*$*&(*^&()(*&$#$*)(_*)R&$E

Bruce,

You owe me a beer and possibly a new keyboard. I just sprayed my 2nd swig of my only beer on my keyboard and screen and knocked the bottle over laughing at your post.

Not funny.

Yah, well, just remember who has the horn worm killer in his closet.
Bruce

Bruce, let your wife out of the closet. It isn't civil, and what if the neighbors find out?

Bruce, let your wife out of the closet. It isn't civil, and what if the neighbors find out?

Yeah, they might try it too.

Then what would we do with all that peace and quiet.

Reminds me of that old bit about why dogs are better than women (sub men if you prefer)...put them both in the trunk of the car, drive around for a while, then stop and open the trunk and see which one is happy to see you! haha!

You open that closet and there ain't gonna be any peace or quiet! LOL

Edymnion, that's a great tip! I used a regular flashlight but man they're a b**ch to find! I got lucky and found one on a cloudy day in the afternoon. He destroyed almost the top fifth of my tomato plant in just the few hours that I was at work. I'm going to have to invest in a black light now. I'm actually kind of excited! Ha! I'd love to catch these little (or not so little) boogers before they do so much damage. What else glows in the garden?

BT K variant is what you want, but I've read that it isn't effective on large hornworms like yours. I've just made it a practice to make sure I have some BT around at all times and to spray my peppers and tomatoes every 2-3 weeks whether I see the pest or not--- because spotting them is absolutely hopeless--- whenever I've found one, it was by pure luck. On tomato plants, it's especially hard to find them. And that blacklight trick didn't work for me either. Try it yourself--- go into your garden at 10 pm with a blacklight and try to find something most likely under a leaf on a 8 foot tomato plant with a frickin blacklight. LMAO

Another organic defense is to plant umbrella flowering plants to attract the trichogramma wasps that lay their eggs into them and kill them--- parsley, carrots, dill, et al.

I also read that spinosad was very effective also---it's OMRI approved but I guess it harms bees. Use your best judgment or research more.

Let us know how it works out becuse those things are a problem for me also.

BTW, I believe tsheets is correct about it being a tobacco hornworm. Same thing either way - just different looking adult moths. I believe Tobacco in southern latitudes, tomato in northern.

Internet research, so don't hold me to anything. :)

Good Luck.