Hornworms

Dino Sized Caterpillars, Beautiful Moths, Total Destruction

🦋 Garden Pests | by Guy Saldiveri | March 14, 2026

I remember the first time seeing a hummingbird moth. I was stunned. I honestly hadn't known things like that existed. I stared at it for as long as I could, completely mesmerized.

Was it a moth or something else? It looked like a moth, but I swear it looked—and acted—more like a weird type of hummingbird. 

Time for some research!

Yep, it was a Sphinx Moth. Exactly which one though, I have no clue. There are a few in the family, and all are amazing to look at. 

Sphinx moths belong to the family Sphingidae (hawk moths), which is composed of over 1,400 species. 

The ones most commonly found here are the:

• Carolina Sphinx (Tobacco Hornworm)

• Five-spotted Hawkmoth (Tomato Hornworm)
• White-lined Sphinx
• Hummingbird moths (Clearwing Moth)

Most folks call all of them hummingbird moths, and to be honest, that's just fine by me. I don't know any entomologists, and I'm certainly not one myself. I go by the "if it looks like a hummer, acts like a hummer, well, then it must be a hummer!" rule.

Regardless of what you call them, once you’ve seen them and know what to look for, they are impossible to mistake for anything else. The moths are high-end pollinators. They are fast, they hover, and they flit around your yard just like a hummingbird, but they are fuzzy, colorful, and shaped just like a giant moth.

One of these guys can pollinate your entire yard. Unfortunately, that same one can also wipe out every tomato and pepper plant you’ve got.

The moths themselves aren't the problem; that moniker belongs to their offspring—at least while they're still in the larval stage.

The Carolina Sphinx and the Five‑spotted Hawkmoth are the two species responsible for hornworms, with the Carolina Sphinx being the more common one down here in the Deep South. 

It's kind of ironic that the one you see most often on your tomato plants is actually the tobacco hornworm. It's also the one with the "red" horn. The tomato hornworm has a blue or black horn, and while it loves nightshades as well, it's usually found up north and is much less common in this area.

Both caterpillars are just as destructive, but to give you a full description for identification:

Tobacco Hornworms:

• Carolina Sphinx moth

• Seven diagonal white stripes with black borders

• Red horn on the back end

Tomato Hornworms:  

• Five-spotted Hawkmoth 

• Eight V-shaped white chevrons with no borders

• Blue or black horn

The moths love the flowers in the yard. They will flit around and help pollinate everything they see. They also love your pepper and tomato plants, but only for depositing their eggs. The larvae thrive on the nightshade leaves and once they are loose, they can defoliate a plant (even a large one) seemingly overnight. 

The biggest kick—and honestly the most astonishing head-scratching moment—is coming out in the morning and seeing your plants devastated, but not seeing any sign of the thing that destroyed them.

Nature, in its amazing detail, made sure these caterpillars blend in perfectly with the color of the plants. You see the evidence of the attack, you see the droppings from the critters, but you DO NOT see the hornworm. 

You know it's there though, so you stare, you examine, you look at every leaf, every branch, every stem. Then you see it. A 4-inch-long dinosaur-sized caterpillar that is thicker and longer than your thumb. And yep, your eyes will open as wide as mine did the first time I saw one. 

Then your brain starts to process it. Just how can something the size of my index finger sit there, two inches in front of my face, AND I CAN'T SEE IT. It hides that well… it's truly amazing. 

Needless to say, it's completely frustrating as well. You can have a dozen of these things crawling around on a single plant and never see them—well—not until the damage is done.

Here are a few tips that can help you locate them:

• Black light—a UV flashlight at night. Hitting them with the black light makes them shine. They go from a perfect camouflage state to the "I see you perfectly" state in the blink of an eye.

• Follow the droppings. Yeah, I know, but in all honesty, this is the biggest and most identifiable tell these things leave you. Their droppings look like miniature grenades—dark green and black, striped, and barrel‑shaped. Very easy to see and very hard to miss.

• Sometimes spraying them with a mist of water can make them jump too. 

One other really interesting thing to note here: You might find one that looks like it's covered in "white rice." If you do, it's a good idea to just leave it alone. The "white rice" is actually from a wasp in the Braconid family. This wasp is beneficial, and it lays its eggs on the hornworm. The grains of white rice you see are actually the cocoons of the larvae that will eventually hatch and devour the hornworm. Once again, just nature doing its thing…

So, what's the best plan of action when you find these guys on your prized plants? Well, that depends on what side of the aisle you tend to sit on. Some people go after them with the kill-them-all mentality, while others just like to pick them off and relocate them.

Personally, while I used to kill them, I tend to just relocate them now. Like I said earlier, the moths are beautiful, fun to watch, and wind up being a very important part of the local ecosystem. While killing a few won't cause any major disruption, I find it easier and much less messy to just move them to the brush along the fence line. I leave it to nature and the birds to figure the rest out.

If you have chickens, they absolutely love them as well. You can take care of two problems at once. You want them off the plants and the chickens need to eat. For them, I'd imagine it's equivalent to you sitting down to a perfectly grilled rib-eye. The chickens go after them like you are feeding them a true delicacy. 

Hornworms are another one of those things that just fall into the realm of the "gardening experience" we all share. Some years I have tons of them; other years I don't see any at all. I'm always on the lookout though—even when I know I can't see them.

Stay vigilant and Happy Gardening 🌱