Tomato Bugs
All about Tomato Bugs
One of the pests that gardeners hate most, are tomato bugs. If you don’t have tomatoes, you probably have a lot less interest in these garden pests. Yet the creatures themselves are not as horrible as tomato growers would have us believe. In fact, tomato bugs are quite fascinating if you take the time to really look at them and watch the changes they undergo.
Some Basic Facts about Tomato Bugs
The scientific name for the tomato bug is Manduca quinquemaculata. It is often confused with the Manduca sexta or tobacco bug. This is partly because the tomato bug and tobacco bug look remarkably alike in their larval form and because, despite their names, both will eat either tobacco or tomatoes, along with eggplant, pepper, and potatoes. This is the reason why both tomato bugs and tobacco bugs won’t be receiving any Christmas cards from gardeners or tobacco farmer any time soon.
The tomato bug life cycle is just as interesting as any butterfly’s life cycle, however.
Egg
The tomato bug starts out as a tiny green or white egg left on the underside or base of a leaf. Within a week, the tiny larva hatch.
Larval Stage
When it hatches it becomes a cylindrical leaf green caterpillar with little “>” symbols adorning each of its eight spiracles. Within the “>” symbol that points to the head and opens towards the tail, you will find a light dot, like Cindy Crawford’s beauty mark, slightly offset from the apex of the triangle.
The larva’s tail has a slightly hooked black and white curved horn and two appendages that look like mud flaps on a truck. Because of its horn, the tomato bug is known as the hornworm at this larval stage.
How can you tell them from the Manduca sexta? The tobacco bug has diagonal lines instead of “>” sign on its spiracles. Its dots tend to be much more pronounced looking almost like eyes and it tail horn tends to be smaller and lighter colored.
This is the stage where gardeners and farmers hate the Manducas the most and where they are also most likely to find in them in the middle of their gardens, glowing in the moonlight, chewing on their beloved tomatoes.
Not every hates the hornworm, however. Certain types of wasps find the Manducas a tasty meal.
Pupa
In the winter, the tomato bug digs its way into a small burrow and cocoons. At first, it is just as green as in its larval stage and soft to the touch, but as it darkens, it hardens. Eventually it comes to look somewhat like a brown date.
Adult
When the tobacco bug emerges it looks like a mottled brown butterfly whose wings somewhat resemble that of the great horned owl. They have a furry texture and are quite beautiful in a subtle sort of way, although their brown color makes the interior body resemble a cockroach.
In its full adult stage, tomato bug is often referred to as the hummingbird moth because it flies quickly and feeds on the nectar of certain types of flowers while floating in the air beating its wings, thus leaving the gardeners to their tomatoes for now. Of course, it won’t be long before it lays eggs again.
At this stage, their membership in the “hawk moth” family is most clearly evident.
How can you keep them from eating your tomatoes?
If you don’t want them in your tomato garden, the easiest way to ward them off is by growing marigolds next to or between your tomatoes. Marigolds are not only beautiful themselves but they will ward off tomato and tobacco bugs, as well as nematodes.
However, you might just want to get your tomatoes at the supermarket and enjoy the beauties of the Manduca quinquemaculata.