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The eggs are those little yellow things on the bottoms of the leaves. I scraped them off with an old sharp knife I don’t intend on using for food any more.

The adults are easy to knock off into the soapy water.

One thing I found worked well for hornworms on my tomato plants was a 1:1 mixture of cayanne pepper and diatomaceous earth. I sprinkled it on the leaves but it does need to be reapplied after a rain. I was really surprised, however, that it didn’t burn the leaves.

I expect some hornworms from last year escaped my attention as I did not look for them until I was trying to figure out why the leaves on my potatoes were being chowed down on. I got every one I could and killed it.

So there may not be a lot left but I will be more vigilant this year. But so far no trace of them.

One thing I discovered that worked well for finding them was a UV flashlight which can be gotten at Wal-Mart.

Some critters glow in the UV, hornworms are one but scorpions are another. Anyways, I’d go out after dusk when it was dark enough for the flashlight to work but just light enough yet to see where I was stepping.

Their racing stripes would show up in the light so they were far easier to see. Those suckers blend in so well with the tomato plants that they are really hard to find visually.