"Cut worms don't cut at the top, right."

Climbing ones do. I got a tip from Carlos to use BT, and I haven't noticed any new damage on my tomatoes since the first night I sprayed. You can also try going out a few hours after dark and looking for them on the plants, or digging around the roots by day, and killing them by hand. Good luck with that, it seems like my cutworms knew I was coming and hid from me.

I came in from the garden about five minutes ago, it is now 2308. My son and I looked over our 25 tomato plants pretty closely with flashlights. Probably spent three to five minutes on each plant. The culprit was Tomato Horn Worms, found six of the suckers. Can't remember ever seeing them before. They are hard to find because they pretty well blend in with the foilage. Every worm found was at the top of the plants that had damage first seen just before dark. I keep a pretty good eye on the plants and today was the first time I noticed the damage. Any recommendations on the best stuff to kill the worms out. Tonight was the first time I have been out in the garden after dark. I'll probably check the plants again for the next three or four nights.

BT works on all caterpillars...but for hornworms the pick n' squish method works well. You may have already gotten them all.

Going to check again after dark. Did look some this afternoon but it was hard to see anything. Got all the vines stuffed inside the cage which makes it pretty difficult to see to darn horn worms. Hope the six I found last night were all of them. Thanks for the info.

great thread --- thanks topper for the photo and good info. I have never seen a tomato hornworm in the flesh but I am ready now.

Tracy

Attaching a photo of one of the six horn worms found last night. My ten-year old son got a hold of them while I was charging the camera battery. CLICK on the link below. This is the only one in one piece. With the car key in the photo you will get an idea how big these darn things are. Tonight I'll look again in the garden for some more worms. I'll photograph one if found.

Here is a link that might be useful: Horn Worm Photo

Checked the plants again a little over an hour ago. Only found two tomato horn worms this time. Found six the night before. I'll check again late tonight. Four of our 25 plants have worm damage. All of the worm damage is at the top of the plants. Looks like I caught the rascals before they had a chance to start chewing further down the plants.

Took three photos a little over an hour ago. Two are of the worms before they were removed from the plants. The remaining image is a close-up of the damage to one of the four plants. Learned something new the past two days. This is my first experience with horn worms.

Click the link below to see the photos

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Horn Worms before removal from the plants

Those are tobacco worms, not the tomato species. What you have is Manduca sexta. E-mail me if you find more.