Does anyone know what this is??

976 Views 12 Replies 12 Participants Last post by Jenco, Oct 3, 2004

Jenco

Discussion Starter · Oct 2, 2004

I found a HUGE green catepillar in my house this morning. Actually the dogs woke me up "playing" with it and getting rowdy. I tried a search on google, but I can't find anything except this picture at another website that is asking for identification. I put it out in my front yard, as I really don't know what it is so I'm not going to kill it.

I measured it at 6.2" long!!

When I first saw it, I thought it was a small snake that the dogs had tried to kill...but then again, I didn't have my glasses on.

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vegascowgirl

· #2 · Oct 2, 2004

Jenco said:
I found a HUGE green catepillar in my house this morning. Actually the dogs woke me up "playing" with it and getting rowdy. I tried a search on google, but I can't find anything except this picture at another website that is asking for identification. I put it out in my front yard, as I really don't know what it is so I'm not going to kill it.

I measured it at 6.2" long!! When I first saw it, I thought it was a small snake that the dogs had tried to kill...but then again, I didn't have my glasses on.

Thats is what I always heard called a Tomato worm. If you have a garden, you had probably better check it for others. They prefer tomatos but will chew up beans, gourds,corn and well, just about anything else. Ugly little criiters aren't they, especially with that "horn".

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MichelleWI

· #3 · Oct 2, 2004

Here's a stock photo just like the nasty we caught in my parents' garden a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for helping to identify it! We've been wondering what it was.

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almostthere

· #4 · Oct 2, 2004

go to google imags, and type in green caterpillar...theres quite a few...google images is how I found my house centipede.

Sorry, that was supposed to say "images" not imags

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Meg Z

· #5 · Oct 2, 2004

My chickens will hang outside the garden fence while I gather hornworms. They'll fight over them like old ladies at the blue-light special! I figure Momma Nature puts them there so I can make my chickens happy! They are almost beautiful...until the parasitic wasps lay on them. The chickens don't get those. I leave them to grow another crop of hornworm parasites.

Meg

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Mid Tn Mama

· #6 · Oct 2, 2004

It's a tomato hornworm. If you see it in the garden and it has little white eggs all over it--leave it. It means that a paper wasp, a beneficial insect in the garden--has laid it's eggs on it and the larvae will eat it up and kill it. Saves you having to spray and it encourages good bugs that will keep the bad in check. Win-Win.

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margo

· #7 · Oct 2, 2004

I agree with the identification, and the point made that the chickens, once they figure it out, absolutely love them......Margo

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OD

· #8 · Oct 2, 2004

Wow!!! 6.2 inches is a lot of caterpillar!!! The longest one I've ever seen was a little less than three inches. They sure grow big in Arizona, or maybe they just grow small in Texas. :haha:

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jackie c

· #9 · Oct 2, 2004

That's really gross.

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whodunit

· #10 · Oct 2, 2004

I used to see those in CA all the time on tomatoo plants. Don't they become those huge moths I used to see flopping around once in awhile?

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boolandk

· #11 · Oct 3, 2004

I was totally grossed out the first time I saw a tomato worm. Yuk! I found it on my favorite little plum tree. It had already eaten an entire branch. Wouldn't bother me a bit if I never saw another one.

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Gayle in LA

· #12 · Oct 3, 2004

Tomato Hornworm

I have only seen them once in 10 yrs of gardening in SoCal. Had a single plant get 2 or 3 of them one year. I garden organically, so the beneficial wasps must be abundant, and I get none of these guys.

Unfortunately I get slugs and snails and squirrels and earwigs and cutworms and everything else known to man.

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Jenco

Discussion Starter · #13 · Oct 3, 2004

Thanks everyone for helping me to identify it! The dogs brought it in the house from outside (what a nice present, eh?) and I'm not sure which one of my backyard plants it may have been on as I can't find anymore back there.

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