WHAT is hanging in this Caterpillar??

Question

so I looked up Caterpillar Eggs and these are not them!    So WHAT are these?   Last week I saw about HUNDREDS of these tiny little white things (looks like mini-rice!) on a tomato branch stem and started wiping them off, then just stopped.   next day all gone.  Today, saw them again and realized these were on a CATERPILLAR!!

Bonnie Bassett · Answer

I can't believe it ...I found 4 of these little guys on my tomato plant today they are so weird looking ! I was just thinking how I didn't have a pic to post and here it is ty Jim!

Marty Perry · Answer

i have them on my grape vines

Frankie Laney · Answer

Here you go...they are the cocoon of the Braconid Wasp which are good for the garden. The big green worm is basically their food source. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcBgBKv8818

360 Sod (Donna Dixson) · Answer

Wasp eggs

Sensible Gardening and Living · Answer

This is nature at her best. There is a type of wasp that lays it's cocoons on the tomato horn worm, which in itself kills the horn worm. Then the hatching baby wasps, become parasites on the horn worms eggs and kills them too. Pretty amazing isn't it!

Frankie Laney · Answer

Here's another weird time-lapse video of the event. Icky but intriguing

Bonnie Bassett · Answer

does the tomato
 horn worm harm the tomato plant?

Bonnie Bassett · Answer

it is amazing and creepy I don't like wasps I didn't want to kill the hornworms so I put them where I was hoping birds would find them and have a good meal!

Linda Russell · Answer

they'll eat your tomato plant to the stalk

Larose LoganOakes · Answer

Thanks for the information! I haven't seen any of these guys here in Northern Va but now at least if I do I will know what they are and which one to get rid of. Say will birds eat dead catepillars or do they have to be alive (like cats, will only eat something that they have killed, no road kill for them.)?

Linda Russell · Answer

start early, cover, from frost, then shade in the heat, water a lot!! Lol

Linda Russell · Answer

you could use old white sheets or gauze material, over stakes. Just cut to fit.

Mary-Jo Westbrook · Answer

COOL! :)

Eyesdebo · Answer

I think this caterpillar is what becomes a Spinx moth (hummingbiird moth)..... I'm not sure. Anybody know?

Robin Berteau · Answer

@Jim G you do have some interesting insects hanging around your garden this year. Great learning experience for us all. I have never seen the hornworms with the eggs on them. WOW. I must not have any wasps around here, I seen to be over run with hornworms.

Lauren · Answer

@Jim G Once the tomato horn worm has these predatory wasp eggs on its body, it will NO LONGER feed on your tomato plant. Please leave the tomato horn worm in your garden, as you will now have predatory wasps feeding on other tomato horn worms which may find themselves in your garden. You don't have to use any chemicals now, as these predatory wasps will take care of them for you. Congratulations on having such a wonderful helper of mother nature!

Teri Randall · Answer

Wow..Lauren..I didn't know that. I had 1 tomato worm about 3 weeks ago. I cut the stalk part it was on and drowned it in a bucket. So far, none are on there that I can see anyway. But I am sure glad to learn from you what to do if I get another one. Thanks for the tip!!

Brenda Davidson Burch · Answer

why not just kill them first?

Gwen · Answer

I heard before that these were monarch butterfly larva on the caterpillar after I killed several of them.

Karin Graham · Answer

strange got to look outdoors if i have anything like that ,thank you for sharing

Bonnie Bassett · Answer

After I watched the video about these caterpillars and wasps I tried to rescue the half dead caterpillars to save the wasp cocoons but all the cocoons had dropped off the caterpillars.......and today when watering I noticed a lot of little wasps flying on and around my black-eyed susans! could they have hatched overnight?

Taryn · Answer

Yikes - hornworms! Nasty buggers. We have them on the Papaya tree. Let the vicious little wasps kill them - and save your tomatoes. These are not monarch or any other kind of butterfly. Monarchs host is milkweed. These are moths - and destructive as heck.

Pam · Answer

Loren is right ,I had these on my tomatoes before and looked it up ,I knew it was a horn worm ,it's some kind of wasp eggs ,they do kill the worm eventually,and these worms will eat your plant like nobody's business.

Estelle Whiddon · Answer

this is a tomato hornworm covered in trichogamma wasp eggs! lucky you! this is an extremely helpful ally in pest control and you have a population that is breeding!

Stella Love · Answer

What Estelle Said!

Wendy Leib Ehlers · Answer

We had one in our garden and I took the top of the tomato palnt, caterpiller and all and placed it in a large jar covered with an old nylon, to take it to our 'Bug Box' and before we got to town with it a couple days later the jar was full of tiny flying ants. Or at least appeared to be ants. A couple days in the jar and the 'little fliers' were dead

Tlo1435142 · Answer

This is a tomato worm and they will kill your tomato plant very quickly by eating it.

WHAT is hanging in this Caterpillar??

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WHAT is hanging in this Caterpillar??

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