Big bug, big appetite

Today's Bug of Week is actually just a baby bug.

A very large baby bug.

Several readers have sent in pictures of large caterpillar-type worm things with a single horn on their head.

Based on one of the pictures a reader sent to Castanet, Steve Ball Sr., with Bug Master in Kelowna, identified it as a five spotted Hawk Moth caterpillar.

“Adults fly at dusk, and females deposit eggs singly on the upper surface of host plant leaves,” Ball said. “The caterpillars are called Tomato Hornworms and each has a black horn at the end of the abdomen.”

They are also hungry little critters and can grow to be 10 cm long.

“Caterpillars have huge appetites for leaves and fruits and can defoliate plants quickly. Fully-grown caterpillars pupate and overwinter in soil burrows,” Ball said.

According to the Farmer's Almanac website, there are two main garden pest species with horns: tomato hornworms and tobacco hornworms.

They can be found throughout the United States and Southern Canada, which includes the Okanagan, and both can tear through a tomato crop in no time.

They also feed on eggplants, peppers, tobacco and potatoes.

They blend in easily with the green foliage and feed non-stop.

In the spring, the tomato hornworm caterpillars emerge from the ground as a hawk moth, while the tobacco hornworm becomes a sphinx moth, two of the largest moths in the insect realm.

The moths then lay eggs and can have more than one generation per summer.

For more information on tomato and tobacco hornworms, click here.

One of the most effective ways to control their population is to till the soil in the fall and spring, killing the overwintering insects.