“What is this?” asks this reader in her submission regarding the brown, segmented, worm-like creature pictured below. “We found some small doughnut shaped eggs in our sandbox and we watched one of them hatch into an inch-long caterpillar! Here is a photo of the egg and one of the hatched larva!” Based on the excellent photo of the critter itself, we would say these are tomato pinworms, a type of moth caterpillar that, as their name suggests, eat tomatoes. They also eat potatoes and eggplants, as well as different types of weeds. With that said, tomato pinworm eggs do not look like the ones our reader found. The doughnut shape reminds us more of gall wasp eggs. However, gall wasp larvae do not look like the creature our reader found: they are white in color.

If it were not for the fact that our reader specifically states that she watched the egg hatch, then we would suggest they could be two different creatures. Now, if we look closely at the eggs and think about what they really resemble, it looks like a circular clump of sand. And given that these were found in a sandbox, we do not think it would be unreasonable to suggest that this is a clump of eggs covered in sand, and that the eggs do not usually look like this. Given that theory, we would suggest that these could still be tomato pinworms. Typically, tomato pinworm moths lay their eggs in small groups on leaves, and perhaps this was still the case, but the eggs fell from an overhanging tree into the sandbox. If there is not a tree over the sandbox, the eggs could also have blown with the wind and ended up in the sandbox that way.

We recommend that our reader move the caterpillar and any other eggs she finds near a tree, or on some leaves. Because, as soon as the caterpillar hatches, its natural instinct is to protect itself by spinning silk and bore into a leaf. If they are born in the sandbox, they will not have this capability and will be without food and protection from predators. So, our reader would be doing these caterpillars a significant favor by moving them somewhere more ideal. Here is the interesting part: tomato pinworms, when ready to pupate, (pupation: the next stage of the caterpillar’s life cycle during which it spins a cocoon in which it metamorphoses into an adult moth) will go to the soil and create the shell of its chrysalis from sand! So again, if it were not for our reader seeing the caterpillar hatch from these sandy clusters of eggs, we would have been more inclined to suggest that these were pupae covered in sand, not eggs.

To conclude, we think our reader found tomato pinworms eggs and a tomato pinworm caterpillar in the sandbox. They do not belong there, but they will not harm the children playing in it. With that in mind, the best think our reader can do for the caterpillar (and the caterpillars to be) is to move it to a more suitable location. We hope this helps, and we wish our reader the very best!

Summary

Article Name

Brown Caterpillar in Sandbox Looks Like a Tomato Pinworm

Description

"What is this?" asks this reader in her submission regarding the brown, segmented, worm-like creature pictured below. "We found some small doughnut shaped eggs in our sandbox and we watched one of them hatch into an inch-long caterpillar! Here is a photo of the egg and one of the hatched larva!" Based on the excellent photo of the critter itself, we would say these are tomato pinworms, a type of moth caterpillar that, as their name suggests, eat tomatoes. They also eat potatoes and eggplants, as well as different types of weeds. With that said, tomato pinworm eggs do not look like the ones our reader found. The doughnut shape reminds us more of gall wasp eggs. However, gall wasp larvae do not look like the creature our reader found: they are white in color.

Author

Worm Researcher Anton