08/22/2026
Tomato Hornworms: Friend or Foe?
I found tomato hornworms on my tomato plants—and I’m a little torn about what to do with them! 🍅🐛
These guys can devour tomato leaves (and sometimes the tomatoes) incredibly fast, but the caterpillar is only one stage of their life cycle. Eventually, they become beautiful hawkmoths that visit flowers and can serve as pollinators.
So what do I do? I’ll probably remove most of them to protect my tomatoes—usually by hand-picking them and giving my chickens a treat—but I may leave a few because I really enjoy seeing the moths later in the season.
Sometimes the “pest” in your garden is just one stage of something pretty amazing.