Public Enemy #1 - Tomato Horn Caterpillar

I suppose I should not be surprised that my tomato plants in Temecula would be visited by Tomato Horn Caterpillars. After all, those tomato plants were earlier attacked by tiny little green grasshoppers that de-leaf the plants.


I was checking on the tomato plants when I saw the tell tale droppings of a caterpillar.

The leaves were stripped off most of the plants.

I looked between the branches and under the leaves and found those caterpillars

I remove as many as I could find but I am sure there are many more that I did not see. I guess that the price of being an absentee gardener. I cut off the stalks the caterpillars were on and left them out in the open on the ground, away from my plants, so that the birds could get at them and have a meal of them as they were making a meal out of my plant!!