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Monday, April 10, 2017

Brown, Cigar Shaped, Alien-like Thing Found in Garden Bed

Q. The second pertains to the attached photo. Specifically, what will it develop into? I found only one of these, about 6" down as I turned over my garden beds. The last thing grown in the raised beds were two very successful crops of grape tomatoes. One in the spring, and another from the same plants in the fall.
Tomato hornworm pupa
Tomato hornworm larva before it turns into the pupa

Sphinx moth or Hummingbird moth, the adult which he emerges from the pupa. These 3 inch long moths fly at night and at dusk visiting the flowers of plants just like a hummingbird, hence the name.

A. The photo is the pupa of the humming bird moth aka tomato hornworm as a larva. Voracious feeder of many plants Including tomato, grapes and ornamentals.. A bad guy.

Easy to control the larva with handpicking in home gardens. Easy to see at night with a black, UV light because the irridesce green under a UV light. Otherwise they blend right into the foliage of the plants and are difficult to see during the day. 

Sprays of Bt (Dipel, Thuricide) or Spinosad. Don't spray Spinosad during daylight hours because it is lethal to honeybees.

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