Tomato Horn Worm

 

This tomato horn worm was munching down a Dutura plant, one of the purple variety, when I discovered it. This is the larval form of the Sphinx Moth. These moths visit flowers in the evening (they are enjoying my evening primroses right now, but they also like white ginger lily flowers). The adults sip nectar from almost any flower, but they deposit their eggs on your tomato plants. They are out now, so better keep an eye out for those bare tomato limbs or spray with BT as a preventative measure. BT is a bacteria that causes the guts of the caterpillar to rupture, but it does not work as fast as picking them off and smushing them. It does affect every worm that eats an inoculated leaf though, no matter how small the worm is. BT is used by organic gardeners and is considered safe and not a pesticide.
I at first thought it was probably a deer that had eaten this plant and that the deer was lying somewhere dead as these plants are extremely poisonous if ingested. I should have known a deer would have more sense and it would not hurt these monster munchers. These Datura make spiny seed pods. They are first cousins to the Jimson Weed that used to grow in the corner of the cow lot. We never worried about cows eating them, because they just would not. They did have beautiful white flowers, but they did not smell very good when you even brushed by them.
Brugsmansia and Datura are both called angel trumpets, and both are very poisonous. They will both send you to the angels if you ingest them. However there is a difference in how the flowers are held on the plant. Datura hold their flowers erect and make spiny seed pods, while Brugsmansia flowers hand downward and they rarely set seed, at least in areas where there is frost. They are killed to the ground put reappear with gusto the next summer. They arre heavy feeders. The Datura is an annual and ensures it's survival by making multitudes of seed.