If you grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, or other nightshades, there’s a good chance that you’ve encountered large green caterpillars feeding on your plants. Known as the tobacco or tomato hornworm, ...

Have you ever gone out to your tomato patch in the morning to find a plant that consists only of stalk and leaf veins? If you have, then you are probably familiar with tomato hornworm. This voracious ...

I saw your recent column about tomato fruitworms, and was wondering if this pest also eats leaves. The leaves of one of my tomato plants are being eaten by something. A couple of the branches now have ...

While squirrels, deer and woodchucks are generally the most destructive consumers of garden tomatoes on Staten Island nowadays, the caterpillars known as hornworms pose a more subtle threat. The ...

Last summer I found three tomato hornworms feeding on my tomato vines. I was impressed with their bright colors and 4-inch length and wondered just what kind of a moth these turn into when they ...

One of the most loathsome garden pests, the tomato hornworm, is just as nasty as he looks. Despite its name, the “hornworm” isn’t a worm at all. This garden pest is actually a caterpillar, the larvae ...

Q: We’ve had this guy around for the last few days. What is he? A luna moth perhaps? What should we look for in coming days? A: It’s a hornworm, Manduca rustica (aka rustic sphinx moth), to be precise ...

Question: A huge magnolia tree in my yard started blooming again this month. It bloomed profusely this spring, and I’ve never seen it bloom again in the fall. Someone told me that this means the tree ...

Q: I saw lots of these bugs at the community garden this morning. They are massed on the open pods of a vine-like plant that has grown up the chain-link fence. The pods are about 3 inches long, ...

I'm probably jinxing myself by writing this, but I have not seen a single hornworm on my tomatoes this year. Maybe this is one of the good things about planting your garden late. Or maybe they're out ...

My hopes for a new addition to the family have been officially shattered. However, I have gained a new friend with no strings attached. Last Sunday I had a great time with the neighborhood tabby. We ...