Tomato Hornworms & Wasp Larvae

[substratum]

Been growing tomatoes for decades, and often end up with tomato hornworms late in the season. They usually appear suddenly. Two pics below - one of a particularly fat one, and another that had wasp larvae laid into it, and they had emerged and made cocoons. In all my years, I’ve never seen nor heard of the latter. Had to google it. I picked about a dozen worms off five BIG plants, and all except the fat one were covered in these little white wasp cocoons. (I don’t know if it’s related, but a neighbor is pasturing her Arabian horses here, and she regularly releases some sort of wasps that she gets mail-order on my property, which lay eggs into fly larvae, and naturally cuts down on flies. I’ll ask her if this is a byproduct of those wasps.)

 

[Potawatomi13]

Kind of reminds of freeloaders feeding off working taxpayers. Eventually will cause death of Republic if not stopped. Hate parasites!

 

[Michael P]

Parasites they may be, but those wasps are protecting your tomato plants from the hornworms. They are probably a different species than the ones your neighbor releases. Parasites are usually very host-specific.

 

[JudyB]

yes the tomato hornworm gets parasitic wasps called braconid wasps. They are beneficial as they will take care of your hornworm problem.

 

[just.wing.it]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

[namnhi]

The reason I don't grow tomato!