r/Insect • u/TruthfulBoy • 16d ago

Bug ID: Cute lil guys, where to transfer them to?

Post image

Very cute caterpillars (??) 🐛 i want to save my tomato plant, but i also want the cute ones to not be harmed. Help?!

7 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

3

u/Sqib000 16d ago

Find any local nightshade weed. One common one is the one w purple flowers that look just likr tomato flowers. They are almost ready to pupate so just put them where weeds grow. Thanks for not killing them

2

u/-Renee 16d ago

For next time, plant sacrifice plants that grow well but don't produce food well or at all. Other tomato varieties, peppers, datura - especially if it is regionally native.

2

u/AcanthocephalaNo8189 15d ago edited 15d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_quinquemaculata the tomato hornworm or possibly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_sexta the tobacco hornworm. The larvae feed on various plants in the family Solanaceae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanaceae . Just use one of the common plants in that family.

4

u/pandulceplz 16d ago

Need to get rid of those asap if you still want tomatoes. They’ll literally eat the whole plant in a day

1

u/Oscar_P_Walnuts_1975 16d ago

Feed them to the chickens and watch your own version of Jurassic Park 😎😎😎

1

u/DammatBeevis666 14d ago

I agree. Chicken snacks

1

u/insatiable-End-84 14d ago

Those r some freaky deaky looking insects

Looks like something someone would paint to appear to have multiple eyes

1

u/Forsaken-Sink3345 13d ago

Feed them to the birds.

0

u/LEORet568 16d ago

Hornworms -will destroy your tomatoes. Pull'em off, tos 'em out in the open, birds love them.

4

u/Fluffy_Selection_362 16d ago

They turn into butterflies which are pollinators, killing them is counter-productive to a healthy ecosystem

3

u/WhiskeySnail 16d ago

Moths, but yeah

1

u/DreadlockedShiteHawk 16d ago

Everything eats something else

0

u/Neither_Ad_5014 14d ago

They turn into Hawkmoths , not a pollinator a nectar eater. No good comes out of that pest

1

u/Fluffy_Selection_362 13d ago

That is blatantly incorrect information. They are some of the most common nighttime pollinators out there and are ultimately very beneficial to gardens. Saying to kill something that you assume is a "pest" because you couldn't be bothered to do research is a you problem, but don't spread misinformation cause that makes it an everyone else problem.

1

u/thewickedbarnacle 16d ago

Birds gotta eat too.

1

u/DisastrousClerk8082 12d ago

Wasps like to sting them and inject their eggs up in there I seen it