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Can you help me id this larvae
(mander.xyz)
Found it on my tomato plant. I'd seen them before in sizes up to 4-5 cm. They eat the tomato leaves like crazy. And (naturally) poo a lot. Some black granade like aggregates. Once grown they molt into a moth that I saw a few days ago. And now my tomato plants are again riddled with these buggers.
This photo was done with the help of a stereoscope. The grid squares are 4mm inside, and 5mm outside the lines. So this juvenile has about 1cm.
I'd love to ID them. Any advise on how to control them without pesticides is also welcome.
Looks like a hawkmoth of some sort. I get tobacco hornworms occasionally on my tomatoes. They eat so much so fast, that I often only notice one is there after a whole branch has been consumed. Luckily, it seems like I have a thriving population of parasitic wasps cause for the past several years, I've found them covered with parasitic wasp cocoons. If you find one like that, don't remove it from your plant. By the time there are parasitic wasp cocoons on it, it doesn't eat any more, and you could easily have 50 wasps come from one worm.