Maryland Grows

A few weeks ago you were sitting back admiring your freshly planted garden. Neat little rows of tomato, pepper, squash, and cucumber plants accompanied by flowers and herbs were all planted in view from your back deck. As you sat there basking in the evening sun, relishing in your hard work, a little moth fluttered from flower to flower sipping nectar.

With her hummingbird like flutters, a Carolina Sphinx Moth floated through your garden, unassumingly laying her eggs on your newly planted tomato and pepper plants. Within a few days, from her little green eggs emerged a tiny but very hungry green caterpillar.

Since that day, the ravenous little green hornworm caterpillar has spent his days munching away, perfectly hidden by the copious green foliage of your tomato plants, growing bigger and bigger. You begin to notice stems of complete defoliation. Maybe you think it’s a bunny or deer having a nighttime nibble as the little green caterpillar stays camouflaged, until the moment you notice the red-tipped horn and the very large green body of a caterpillar measuring almost 4” in length hanging on your prize winning tomato plant.

During the last month the hornworm caterpillar has gone through 4-5 instars (growth stages) while feasting in your garden. If the hornworm reaches the final growth stage he will begin to wander looking for the perfect site to pupate. Once the perfect site has been found the caterpillar will form a pupal cell below the leaf litter or soil.

However, in our area there are many natural predators that love to make a meal of the delicious protein- rich hornworm caterpillar or eggs. Birds, small animals, and other insects find the hornworm caterpillar particularly delicious. Paper wasps use the caterpillars as a future food source in nest cells containing the wasp’s eggs.

In sci-fi movie fashion, parasitic wasps (Braconid wasps), also use hornworms as a food source for their young, but in a much more diabolical manner. The small parasitic wasp inconspicuously stings the caterpillar depositing her eggs inside the hornworms body. As the larval wasps develop they devour the caterpillar, feeding on its blood as they grow. In the final pupal stage, the immature wasp spins small white cocoons that resemble grains of rice that protrude from the body of the living hornworm. Eventually, the parasitized hornworm will fall victim to the wasp and will stop eating and die. Using nature as your method of control is perhaps the best way to rid your garden of this very hungry
caterpillar, so just sit back and watch the show.

By Rachel J. Rhodes, Master Gardener Coordinator, Queen Anne’s County, University of Maryland Extension. Follow the Queen Anne’s County MGs on Facebook. Visit the UME Master Gardener webpage to find Master Gardener events and services in counties throughout Maryland.