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Photo#570309
Jalapeno Killer - Manduca sexta

Jalapeno Killer - Manduca sexta
O'Fallon, St. Charles County, Missouri, USA
March 26, 2011
Size: 7.6 cm at rest on branch
This is one of the two sphinx moth larvae that invaded my wife's garden and destroyed our jalapeno plant! It was quite the shocker for us since a nice, juicy tomato plant was sitting right next to the jalapeno plant and they didn't even touch it! We placed them in a large jar to keep them out of trouble and fed them the remaining few bits and pieces of the decimated jalapeno plant. The other sphinx larva has already burrowed down in the soil in the jar to pupate, so I decided to leave him/her alone during the photo shoot.

I'm thinking they are tomato hornworms, but I'll let them pupate and hatch out just to be sure.

Bill, I had much the same problem child
but mine tended to eat my okra and nibble a bit on the tomato plants. For some reason, they left the jalapeno and banana peppers completely alone. The deer taste-tested everything.:-)

 
LOL!
Yeah, we have problems with the deer in our area, too. Come November, though, they suddenly disappear. It's almost as if they know its hunting season! :)

- Bill

Moved
Moved from Sphinx Moths.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

TOBACCO HORNWORM
The tobacco hornworm can be distinguished by its seven diagonal lines on its sides;

Tomato hornworms have eight V-shaped markings.

A mnemonic to remember the markings is tobacco hornworms have straight white lines like cigarettes,

While tomato hornworms have V-shaped markings (as in "vine-ripened" tomatoes).

M. sexta has mechanisms for selectively sequestering and secreting the neurotoxin nicotine present in tobacco.

From wikepedia

I had allot of these this year and they destroy quickly - evening/morning picking from underside of leaves(my tomatoes) and throw into soapy water or squash’em? They stay under leaves out of sun and are difficult to spot - portable battery powered black light will show the white v and cigarettes very well.
Mine were soooooo bad i had to use BT to get rid of the smaller ones and that with picking eliminated them and my tomatoes recovered.

 
Excellent Info!
Wow! That mnemonic is a really good way to remember which hornworm is which. I'll not soon forget that one!

Also, I told my wife about your black-light hornworm hunting technique and she's VERY excited to try that out tonight. You see, just yesterday afternoon she picked off a couple of tiny hornworms from one of her potted tomato plants and was worried that she hadn't got all of them because they were so small and well camouflaged. Now, she has a way to light 'em up and defeat the little buggers!

Many thanks!

see the red horn?
the tomaot hornworm would have a black one i think, so how about:
Species Manduca sexta - Carolina Sphinx - Hodges#7775
they like tomatos and peppers too. thanks!

 
Thank you!
Yup, those are the critters! Thank you for helping to identify them.

Cheers

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