They come from big brown fast flying hawk moths that you won't see in the daylight. I saw some related moths in Florida feeding on flowers at dusk and I thought they were hummingbirds in the dim light.
Do a google seach and you'll find pics.

They come from a moth. Just Google (tomato horn worm moth images) and you will get lots of hits with pictures and info. I got hit hard with them this year.

They eat tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplant. Possibly other things, but those are the ones I know. Do you have any of those planted as well as your peppers? If you do keep an eye on them as well.

Also, if you have one, no doubt there are others. The little buggers blend in very well. Look at the poop under the plant that it ate then look for the poop under other plants that look nibbled. If you look straight up from the poop you will usually find them, but again it may take a while looking as they blend in very well.

I am not sure what you use to spray them with as I use the pick and squish method. I am sure others will chime in.

Hope that helps some.

Thanks! I think I had seen those moths flying around, but didn't realize what they were. Thought they were hummingbirds or those giant carpenter bees we have here. Now I know what to look for. I also have tomatoes planted, I have a few plants that are stripped down to nothing, but I thought it was from the whitefly / stinkbug attack I had that pretty much killed all the foliage. I'll go look for the poop, might be hard to see with the cedar mulch I have around my plants?

I found two on my tomato Saturday, but thought nothing of it. Today, I check out my plant and the worms are 3x larger and all of the LEAVES are GONE!!! Does that mean my plant is dead? I can't do the pick and squish thing. I read there was someone named Worm59 who wanted them sent to him? Anyhow, is there a more humane way to get rid of them?

Me too! I have the Tabacco hornworm, though, since I'm in the south and it had a brown horn. The tomato hornworm is more in the Norther regions and has a black horn. Same difference tho. BIG, GREEN and UGLY. And stripped all the leaves and took such big bites out of my baby tomatos that I thought at first it was squirrel damage.
As for the more humane way to get rid of them. I went for the squeemish way. I cut off the branch they were clinging to and dunked them branch and all in a bowl of soapy water. Drowned them over night and discarded. I couldn't bear to squish something that BIG. Yuck. The ones on my plant were over 6inches long! Double yuck.

I see I need to shrewishly waggle my reminder finger at my fellow gardeners that there are starvling lizards, birds and toads in their gardens who would gratefully welcome the disdained tomato hornworm. Once encouraged, they're more likely to find worms you miss. Today I found a phoebe (local insectivorous bird) hanging out on my tomato rack. Who knows how many worms this enterprising bird removed. Toss prey near, but not too near, guest predator. If that doesn't work for you, drop it down the neck back of somebody else's shirt.

Some people walk around with scissors and snip them to kill them, so that they don't have to touch them. They are easy to raise for research purposes, and I think that you can buy them in large quantities for reptile food so I wouldn't worry too much about anyone who wants them.

I have found both tomato and tobacco hornworms on my plants this year, but mostly tobacco hornworms, which are more solid bright green. The tomato hornworms have a lot of speckles on them so they don't look as bright.

The poop usually sticks to leaves just under where the worm was feeding so mulch isn't usually detrimental in finding them.

tomatozilla you don't have to worry about the birds and critters not getting fed in my garden because I am stomping on my horn worms. There is vast array of other delicacies for them to dine on: grasshoppers, asparagus beetles, leafhoppers, cutworms, slugs.............

Ugh, I found my first worm this week too. Right in my face as I was picking tomatoes, startled the crap out of me! They were a lot bigger and ugly in real life than I thought. I didn't want to go anywhere near it so I opted for two long wood pieces which I mashed together...so that was that!

It appears I only had one luckily!

"It appears I only had one luckily!"

Around here they are like vitamins, 1-a-Day, no matter how hard I look.

I have been fighting these things all Summer. Back in July I left town for a few days and they devastated several of my tomato plants. They even ate the tomatoes. I never dreamed that they would be such a problem here in the desert. I have several posts about them on my blog linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Gardening in the Desert

I'm pretty suspicious I had more than one too! But I've been checking carefully on all my tomatoes for any sign of them and haven't managed to find anything. Hopefully they don't come back any time soon, but I'm not holding my breath. These are probably my least favorite pest. Aphids and other bugs are much easier to squish, and give a satisfying pop!

Lol lemonwater. where there's one, there's bound to be more. i found several over a 2 day period and gave them to the neighbor girls to "take care of". they come knocking on the door everyday for more food. luckily i have a volunteer plant that is their food source. suckers eat alot!

I had a massive attack of horn worms this year. They got my tomatoes and peppers.

I had the last laugh when the stupid things tried to eat my Habanero peppers. I found one dangling from a branch by only one set of legs right next to a half eaten hab.

**I see I need to shrewishly waggle my reminder finger at my fellow gardeners that there are starvling lizards, birds and toads in their gardens who would gratefully welcome the disdained tomato hornworm.**

I somewhat agree, but in no way recommend leaving them to feast....... unless they have been used as a host from a parasitic wasp.
I will snap off the branch they are on and relocate them to take their chances in nature elsewhere.

The tobacco hw will display white chevrons ...or .."V's" along it's side. The tomato worm has slanted vertical lines.

The moth we see around here lately is spectacular, the size of a hummingbird, displaying similar flight patterns. and depending on the variety of moth.............. translucent wings outlined in deep ruby red, with bodys banded in black and orange that truly resemble a lobster in flight. (minus the claws:)

Others are camoflaged so you would be hard pressed to see them right off, on the side of a tree, or in the foilage.

As so often in nature all is not as it seems........
Look for them at the hummer feeder, and around the tomato garden. It's well worth it, if you like that kind of thing..........

Tom

jefferyl That is just too funny for words!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to tell my husband! He has spent almost as much time crawling around in the tomatoes as I have looking for the nasty buggers. FINALLY, someone won one for the Gipper. I do the dance of joy for you now. lol

I found a pic of the moth.

I remember several occasions, towards sunset, where I see flashes of something out of the corner of my eye that looked like a small bird. Now I know what it actually is.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

I had a lot of these guys this year, too. I only have 3 tomato plants! Anyway, after smashing the first 2 I found with rocks (and getting splattered with hornworm guts), I discovered an easier method. I snip the branch the worm is on off (if it's not a major one with fruit), then I put it on the ground and snip the worm at the neck and the butt. They ooze something fierce! Anyway, they are still kind of moving at that point, so I take a rock and smash them up. They don't squirt at that point b/c I've already snipped them. I would go worm hunting every morning. So. Disgusting.

Well, here I've had my problems with them in my garden. This year I was leaving my garden fallow and fix high alkalinity in the soil, so I just had one container tom on the porch. I guess I did not pay attention as one hornword ( 3 inches or so ) devastated the plant. So I just left it alone. A couple days later my lady put her arm on the couch pillow and was poked by something. That darn hornworm came in the patio door, crawled across the floor and was eating the linen pillow case. Leaving the telltale poop spots on it.

I plant Sweet Basil in the rows of tomatoes,only had 2 hornworms this year.
Try It.

This year was my first hornworm experience. Joy.

I didn't know all the little black specks were worm poo. I thought the shriveled look to my leaves was the horrid weather we were having.

I finally googled about the black specks and was horrified! I ran out to my garden, remembering the wormy tomato and jalapeno I'd had, and sure enough, the buggers were EVERYWHERE!

The war began. I did the scissor thing as suggested on a bigger one. BLEAGH!! The result put me off avocadoes for weeks. I got a soap bucket and gloves and BT and went to war.

My tomatoes eventually recovered, and I got my first edible tomato on Nov 1. Even better, the eggplants that i thought were lost have started to produce! Yay! Only one pepper survived - the habanero *evil grin*.

A local gardener suggested a makeshift birdbath. Said I didn't have enough birds in the area. Another said to encourage preying mantids, but to encourage them encourages their deaths - my cat LOVES to play with them.

To the poster who mentioned basil - the hornworms were snacking on those like nuts, too!

The leftover BT has come in handy for the damn cabbage moth worms. DANGIT!!!