Tomato Horn Worms in December!!!

[rebbetzin]

I found these on my Morning glory vines!

I figured that the brown color is from them eating old dried leaves.

The chickens liked them!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

After seeing you post, I thought I'd look up tomato horn worms to see what the butterfly looked like. I came up with this. I never knew that tomato and tobacco hornworms were different. I always thought it was the same pest. From looking at the horns, yours do look like the tomato hornworm.

The tobacco hornworm larva is generally green with seven diagonal white lines on the sides and a curved red horn. The tomato hornworms have eight V-shaped marks on each side, and their horn is straighter and blue-black in color. The adult of the tobacco hornworm is the sphinx moth. The five-spotted hawk moth is the adult of the tomato hornworm. Both moths are stout-bodied, grayish-colored insects with a wing spread of 4 to 5 inches. They're not exactly pretty butterflies but are large and striking.

And to give credit to where I found it.

http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/expert/tomato_hornworm.html

 

[Greenthumb18]

Hi rebbetzin ,
Thats odd to find hornworms in December, were they maybe hibernating or hiding under fallen leaves for spring. Or perhaps they were offspring from last summer's hornworms.
I bet the chickens enjoyed them !!

 

[ducks4you]

You need some chickens to feed them to!

 

[jojo54]

We didn't have any hornworms last year but they had them at the ranch my DS was working at. He brought some home for the chickens but they were young and the worms were big so they were scared of them. We put the worms in a pan so they wouldn't escape but everytime a worm moved the chickens jumped back. One got close enough to pick one up but as soon as it moved in her beak, she dropped it and ran. LOL I'm sure now they would make short work of the worms because they eat anything and everything!

 

[4grandbabies]

This is a pic of a hornworm in action, he was distracted by the close camera, looks sassy does it?

 

[rebbetzin]

You need some chickens to feed them to!

I have four chickens and they each got one!!

 

[journey11]

The chickens liked them!!

I bet they did!