did you ever consider putting him in an empty aquarium.. and feeding him leaves until he pupated and turned into one butt ugly moth .. lol

just for the show???

or was it payback time ... lol

ken

Another moth that will breed more of these tomato plant munchers? Nope. Bird food. lol I have compassion for all living things. I can't say that I didn't feel bad about it. He was quite beautiful after all. Once I got over the creeped out feeling from having my hand right by him and not even knowing. Even spiders. I don't like them but they are so helpful that they can't be all bad, right? So I leave them alone. I'm sure that bird had a nice full tummy!

It is a spectacular caterpillar and a marvelous moth. Quite something to see fluttering around the garden plants in the evening. I am totally in agreement, though, that it feels OK to feed these big guys to the birds.

When they are that mature, it's about time for them to seek a place to pupate, Try finding them BEFORE they do all of that damage, lol. The tomato factories are the leaves, after all.

Wow that was a big one!

why not hatch the moth ..

they are BAT FOOD ...

[i cant type out the theme to batman.. .. just a bunch of N's and A's ... lol]

i suppose you have never seen a bat circling the area???

ken

I saw the same or similar caterpillar last October (probably Tobacco Hornworm), but that was very early on in my gardening / pest experience. I'm glad they haven't returned since, but if they do, I plan to raise one through adulthood. I can only imagine how big those types of sphinx moths really are to the eye. The largest moths I've seen so far were probably no bigger than 2.5" across...

The tobacco /tomato hornworm moth doesn't have an enormous wingspan, but its body (head+thorax+abdomen) are impressive! I think they look like they're wearing big fluffy fur coats.