The Tomato Worm, also known as the Tomato Hornworm or Horn Worm, isn’t really a worm at all. Tomato Worms are actually caterpillars, with stripes and a “horn” on one end.

“We live in the east San Francisco Bay Area and while on a walk, my daughter and I caught sight of these little guys crawling in a gutter area with about 1-2”of runoff water in front of our neighborhood houses”, writes Chrissy in her submission regarding the segmented, brown, worm-like critter pictured below. “There are trees above a few spots, and upstream, no trees. They are about an inch in length and seemed to resemble caterpillars, but we’re a bit flatter. They’d walk around underwater and when resting, typically had one end up floating at the surface of the water. I’m attaching two photos as we are curious about what they are! We’re hoping they’re not leeches. Thanks so much!” Of the two photos, we included the clearest one, but unfortunately, it is still difficult to discern the smaller details of the critter’s physical characteristics from this photo. Not only is the resolution not the best, but it blends in so well with the environment that it is difficult to tell which parts belong to the worm and which parts do not.

“Can you tell me if Green Tomato worms can be found around Oklahoma?” asks this reader in her submission. She does not attach any photos, though she notes that she lives in Washington County. “I would like to know if they do, so when I start my garden I can be prepared for them.” First off, we assume that by ‘green tomato worm’, our reader is referring to the tomato hornworm. If that is the case, it might be ample to provide some context. The tomato hornworm is a moth caterpillar which is indeed green in color, and which does feed on tomatoes, among other plants.

A little while back a reader sent us a photo of a green caterpillar in his garden. He’s found several of the green caterpillars as of late, and he was seeking more information about them. The reader has already done some research and indicated that he thought he found “tomato worms” (based on other information, we can confidently assume he meant “tomato hornworms”, which are actually caterpillars), in large part because the creatures were on his tomato plant. He was most puzzled about the webs they seemed to be spinning for themselves, and he also wondered if the “worms,” once enmeshed in a web, had died. What are these green caterpillars, if they even are caterpillars, and what’s the deal with the webs they are creating?