The Only Good Hornworm ...

... is a dead hornworm.
Tomatoes have been slow this year in this area of Maine. I noticed some hornworm damage today, and then spotted a couple of dessicated carcasses -- see one at top center of the picture. I have never seen these before. Any idea what killed them? (And how I can get more of it? )

rberq wrote: Any idea what killed them?

I wish I knew, I saw a couple like that on my plants too.

I told my one neighbor that they got like that after I whizzed on the plants......
Soon after that my tomatoes stopped disappearing.

Hmmmmm maybe the groundhog didn't deserve to die after all??!!

One natural predator of the hornworm is a small solitary wasp.
It inserts/layes its eggs into the entire upper side of the hornworm's long body.

If you ever come across a hornworm w/ white rice looking spikes all over it...leave it be, those will become adults and will consume the hornworm and morph into more of them egg laying wasp and the cycle repeats.

Tomato-Hornworm-with-Predator

tomato+hornworms+and+parasitoid+wasps