Sides of abdomen have 5 orangeyellow spots. Handling, identification and basic diagnostic tests cost $11 per sample for Indiana residents and $22 for those outside the state.Adult: Grayish-brown in color with a wing span of 4 to 5 inches (10 to 13 cm). If homeowners find unknown pests in the garden, they can send in samples and digital pictures to the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory. Pyrethroid sprays or a dusting of carbaryl insecticides such as Sevin on the silks are the main options, he said.įoster recommended that gardeners who do canning or freezing plant an earlier variety of sweet corn next year.

There are few non-chemical controls for corn earworm. 'But with some sweet corn planted late this year and on schedule to be harvested as late as August and September, we will probably see corn ear worm damage.' 'It's not a problem for sweet corn harvested in July,' Foster said. Pesticides may be the only solution to deal with another garden pest, the corn earworm, which emerges in late summer. 'One of the joys of being a home gardener is being able to pick the produce from the plant and eat it without worrying about pesticide residues.' 'Pesticides should be the last resort in a gardener's arsenal,' Foster said. Besides handpicking, he said safe biological controls such as Bacillus thuringiensis, or BT, also are effective, particularly for smaller larva. Once removed from the plant, gardeners can squish them, snip them with scissors or drop them into a bucket of water.

'Oftentimes people are nervous because they think the horn is a stinger, but it's just a diversion for predators.' 'Most of the time there aren't that many of them and they move very slow, so they are easy to pick up,' Foster said.

Removing them by hand is the best solution for most home gardeners, he said. Easily identified by their protruding 'horn,' hornworms grow to four inches long and can destroy foliage and eat on the green fruit, Rick Foster said.īoth species of hornworms also feed on peppers, eggplants and potatoes. Tomato and tobacco hornworms are the caterpillars of two large moths that fly in June. Now that the weather is getting warmer, gardeners should be on the lookout for hornworms and other garden pests, says a Purdue Extension insect specialist. Hornworms, a common garden pest, can defoliate tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and other vegetables.

Download tobacco hornworm