Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
eclpsprinc

Tobacco Hornworm

eclpsprinc
16 years ago

Hello,

I was wondering if any of you can tell me how long it takes for one of these guys to pupate once they've dropped in the ground? I have a big guy I captured a couple of weeks ago while he was defoliating one of my Iochroma plants. After only a couple of days in his new home, he buried himself in soil. I dug him up 2 days ago and he's still in cat form.

Melanie

Comments (29)

  • eclpsprinc
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Ooopppssss.... nevermind. I peeked today and he is now a pupa.

  • susanlynne48
    16 years ago

    Yippee! In your area he will probably emerge in a couple of weeks or so.

    Susan

  • eclpsprinc
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I'm hoping so. I don't want to worry about him all winter if he decides to stay put. I placed his digs inside of a cat crate with a stick for when he emerges. My 4 year old was pretty amazed to see what his 'Green Goblin' (that's what he named him) turned into. :)

  • angel1234
    15 years ago

    Hi,
    My daughter found a tobacco hornworm on one of my tomato plants and wanted to keep it. Since she was so fascinated by it I gave in. It was in its new home for about a day and went into the ground. I live in Texas and was wondering about how long it will take before it emerges as a moth?

  • nardaf
    15 years ago

    {{gwi:537304}}

    {{gwi:537305}}

    Funny you should mention tobacco hornworms. I found these on my tomato plant last week and promptly took some pics. They are devastating to tomatoes, but I gladly sacrificed my tomatoes for these guys. I had more hornworms, but these were full of wasp larvae already. I feel sorry for them - being eaten alive. I took some pics of live larvae coming out of the wasp but they are way too disgusting to look at!!!

  • tracey_nj6
    15 years ago

    Great pics nardaf! I haven't seen a hornworm in years, probably because I grow extra tomatoes just for them, LOL. The last one I saw had to be roughly 10 years ago, and it was already parasitized; agreed, truly disgusting.

  • todancewithwolves
    15 years ago

    I love those little guys. I have so much fun raising them.

    I isolate them to one tomato plant and put a cage over the plant.

    Edna

  • butterflymomok
    15 years ago

    Fascinating pictures, Nardaf.

  • susanlynne48
    15 years ago

    I have grown them now for several years. They really are easy (unless they've been parasitized; and the big ones like this often are). I put the cats in a large plastic container, with shredded paper towels in the bottom.

    Once they form the chrysalis (this can take them a few days, so don't be too anxious), I remove the paper toweling around the cocoon, and just let them sit as pupae in the container. This time of year, they will probably emerge, but there's is always the "oddball" that wants to wait until next spring. If this is the case, just leave it alone, and leave the container outside. It will be fine because it needs the winter temps for continued diapause (if they emerge too early, there is no food for them).

    I just released 2 last week.

    Susan

  • rob1195
    15 years ago

    I've overwintered a few inside with no problems

  • greenhaven
    15 years ago

    What the heck kind of camera and lens do you do your macro with???? That is amazingly clear, and the pics are SO COOL! I have a problem feeling sorry for these critters, but they sure are beautiful and amazing.

    Feel free to email me the emerging wasp pics....I would be morbidly fascinated to see them and discuss your photgraphy technique at greater length.

    Thanks!

  • nardaf
    15 years ago

    Hi Greenhaven (Northern IL? Me too!)

    I use any of my 3 Nikon digital SLRs (D70s, D200, D80), a 105/2.8 Nikkor Micro Lens (sometimes with an extending ring or a Raynox 250 macro lens), and a ring-flash. I set everything on manual, and I try to set a smaller aperture to get more depth of field, while still trying to get enough light through the lens. You need a lot of patience, and have to take lots of pics to get a few good ones.

    Luckily caterpillars are easy to photograph because they don't move much, and because they are relatively large.

    I consider myself a bloody beginner still, though.

  • greenhaven
    15 years ago

    I have never even considered using a ring flash...talk about beginner! I have been one for about twelve years, now, lol!

    Pretty cool you are from N IL, too! I live about 35 miles SW of Rockford.

    Your pictures have great edge-to-edge clarity. I use a set of close-up filters for my macro shooting right now. The higher the magnification the less DOF, obviously, but also the more edge distortion I have. But it was a cheap way to get started in macro. A good close-up lens is on my wish list along with a good ultra-wide-angle lens.

    I almost always shoot in manual mode. Occassionally I get too excited to concentrate then use my automatic so I don't lose ALL of my shots. I also shoot with a Canon digital Rebel so that my film camera lenses would crossover. But I love the camera, it has been really good to me over the years.

  • susanlynne48
    15 years ago

    Rob, if you've overwintered them inside, do you put them in your fridge? They need those cold temps to sustain diapause for when they are ready to emerge in spring (when nectar plants are available). If released too early, there is nothing for them to eat in order to survive.

    Just wondering how you do that since it appears you are in Michigan, where you probably don't have any nectar plants available during winter????

    Susan

  • mytabbycat
    15 years ago

    Last year was the first year I saw a tomato hornworm and I loved them right away. I had gotten 2 and kept them in a container but of course they were both parasitized :( I was very upset. This year I found a huge tobacco hornworm and only a day after capturing him, he burrowed in the soil! I was shocked figuring I'd never be able to find one that wasn't parasitized or "infected" as I call it. I'm still worried about it, though. Is it possible for him to still be parasitized even when entering the pupating stage? I have no idea how he's doing today. I guess I sort of figured with all the pictures you see with stages of their pupating that they did some of that before they buried themselves, but I suppose people just "unearth" them to take pictures. I'm so curious how he's doing and what he looks like, but I don't want to disturb him? I would so love for his pupation to be successful. Any tips or tricks?

  • susanlynne48
    15 years ago

    You can kind of turn the container slowly from side to side so that the dirt kind of "swishes" around and see what he's doing in there. At first they look like a tiny bunch of inner tubes stacked on top of each other, or one of those ring toys for babies, that they stack on a wooden stake? But, soon, it will form a hardened cocoon that is a dark brown and has a hook on the end (this contains the probiscus). At that point you can just leave him in the dirt in the container, and put some sticks in there for him to climb onto when he emerges, so he can hang, his wings can fill with fluid and stretch out. Otherwise, the wings will be deformed. Whew, I learned that lesson the hard way!

    I love em, love em, love em. If any of you grow Virginia Creeper, be sure to check that, too. Lots of different sphinx moths love this vine in the grape family. Some of the large ones lose their "horn" in the 4th or 5th instar, so if you find some really BIG cats on it, they're some species of sphinx. I have raised both Nessus Sphinx (find them at the bottom of the vine early morning) and Eumorpha achemon sphinx (these lose their horns).

    Eumorpha achemon on Virginia Creeper foliage:

    {{gwi:477417}}

    Nessus sphinx on Virginia Creeper foliage:

    {{gwi:472903}}

    Snowberry Clearwing sphinx on honeysuckle:

    {{gwi:477659}}

    So, you can find and raise a lot of different sphinx moths in your own back yard if you have their host plants!

    Susan

  • mytabbycat
    15 years ago

    Today was very exciting! It's been a week since my Tobacco hornworm buried himself and I had my mom gently push away the dirt to see how he was (I was too nervous to do it myself). Boy, he buried himself pretty deep! Well, I guess all is well because he is now in the brown shell stage and boy he was wriggling around a lot! Whew! I was so nervous, but it looks like he is doing well. I put some sticks in now that I know where he is so I don't stab him. I guess if all goes according to plan in maybe 2 weeks he should emerge? Should I move away some of the soil on top of him so he doesn't have so far to have to come up? And when he does emerge, I guess he'll be good to let go when he's ready and able to fly? I suppose he'll be hungry. That was just part one of the excitement. Accidentally of course, my mom discovered an itty bitty baby hornworm on one of her tomato plants!! I have never seen one so small!! I had another container for him, and am so excited to actually be able to watch him go through all his instars. But I am very nervous again that he may be parisitized. I'm keeping my fingers crossed since he's just a little guy and my other one was huge when I found him and was okay, that he'll be okay too. It was just so hard last year when the 2 I found ended up being parisitized. It broke my heart. But anyway, so it's been an exciting day indeed. I don't know if the baby is a tomato or tobacco hornworm yet. His horn is black, but he's too small for me to count the white lines. Susan, those last pictures you posted of the different hornworms were so neat! I'll have to see about getting some of those plants for my yard.

  • mytabbycat
    15 years ago

    I can't believe it, but I found another one today munching on hot pepper plants! I'm running out of "hornworm condos" to keep them in! ;) He was fairly big and I gave him some tomato stems and pepper stems, but he just prefers the hot pepper leaves. My smaller hornworm is doing well, he's shed his skin twice so far. No sign of the moth yet, it's been 2 weeks today since he buried himself.

  • vicque
    15 years ago

    We had a couple of hornworms that we decided to allow to grow into moths, so we left them on an eggplant plant that was not producing any fruit anyway. As the worms grew and grew, we checked on them every few hours; we wanted to see them drop to the ground and dig themselves in. But by evening they were both still on the plant, and the next morning they were both gone. I presume they have dug holes and are making themselves little changing rooms. My question: how can you tell where they are underground? The soil under my eggplants is sandy and composty, so it is soft, but there doesn't seem to be a hole or a mound that would indicate that something has dug itself under. The hornworms are SO BIG that it wouldn't seem they could just disappear like that...
    Here in frostless Southern CA the moths will probably appear in a couple of weeks, according to other writers on this forum, and my 4-year old grandson and I want to see them when they come.
    Vicki

  • butterflymomok
    15 years ago

    Wait about a week, then gently dig in the soil around your plants and see if you can find them. They shouldn't be more than 4" below the soil line. You can move them to a container to eclose.

    Good luck!

    If you get any more hornworms, put them in a container with about 6 inches of shredded paper towels or newspaper. They will pupate in the paper and eventually sink to the bottom of the container. You will be able to look at them and watch for them to eclose.

    Sandy

  • vicque
    15 years ago

    Thank you Sandy.
    I'll let you know how they do.
    Vicki

  • mytabbycat
    15 years ago

    I'm so depressed :( A few days ago I discovered the hornworm I got when he was so small was parisitized. Now today the bigger one that only wanted to eat the hot pepper plants was parisitized. Now I have no hornworms left. You'd think it would be so silly to cry and get upset about a bug, but they aren't just bugs to me. :( I hate those wasps so much!! I have no idea how the one I found first that was so huge escaped the wasps, but he's still under the soil. I'm starting to think he's never going to hatch into the moth. Maybe he'll end up waiting all winter. I guess maybe I should dig him up to check on him again. Everything looked good the last time.

  • vicque
    15 years ago

    Well, we dug all around the eggplant plants where the hornworms were growing, but found neither hide nor horn of the hornworm pupa underground. They must have traveled a little ways away from where they were on the plant, and then the boys (my grandsons) got bored with digging and finding nothing. I guess we'll just wait and see if we see the moths later.

  • itsmytimetoo
    14 years ago

    We found an egg, took daily photos, now have a very active cryslils (to the touch)I have him it a large tank open with lots of flowers, sticks etc. We want a final picture of emergence. BUT when??? This was last summers worm. I have all sorts of lights, heating pads etc since I like to clone plants. Really want this guy to survive.
    WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP IT?

  • KC Clark - Zone 2012-6a OH
    14 years ago

    If the chrysalis is still active, you are in good shape. As to when it will elcose, you need to provide a little more info. Where are you located and how did you overwinter the pupa (eg. I had it in the fridge from Oct.1 thru May 20)?

  • angwalla_yahoo_com
    14 years ago

    Hi! My daughter and I just found a hornworm on our tomato plant this morning. I really know nothing about them (just from what I've looked up this morning on the computer). Is there a way to keep them and watch them progress into a moth? This one I assume is at the end of the pupa stage and ready to soon drop off the plant. We'd like to have a container for him and observe the process. Any suggestions? I've (hopefully) attached a link of the big guy!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Hornworm on Photobucket

  • tdogmom
    14 years ago

    Lucky, lucky! I bought a tomato plant just so that I could possibly get one! Nope, not a single one. :( The tomatoes have been tasty, though. :) I do so love those hornworms. My neighbor usually bring me any that happen to find their way onto HER tomato plants. It usually takes a couple of weeks for them to undergo metamorphosis. The cool thing is that you can see how long their proboscis is when you look at the pupa. It looks like a hook. That thing is their tongue! Amazing, isn't it?

    Have fun!

  • cristythom99
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Hi there, I'm happy to find fellow lovers of this funny little, I mean BIG creature! I had 3 hornworms and plucked them from my heirloom tomatoes and bougly them their own tomato plant. Well as soon as I put them in the new plant, they quickly burrowed underground. It's been many weeks now and it's very hot in ca. I'd like to find them even if it's just an empty cocoon..... Any advice??

  • KC Clark - Zone 2012-6a OH
    8 years ago

    If you know where they went under you can dig carefully or put a tent setup over the area so the moths end up in the tent. The tents are called emergence traps. This is a pricey commercial example:
    http://bugdorm.megaview.com.tw/amphibious-emergence-trap-black-110x110x110-cm-pack-of-one-p-188.html