Tomatoe Horn worms

[florida lee]

My chicks have been eating them (tomato worm) for as long as I've had them. No problems. Also my folks let their chickens roam the tomato garden with no problems, I do as well. I also have friends who give their chickens the tomato plants after tomatoes are picked, been doing it for over 10 years with no problems.

 

[Fldeb]

That is my revenge, throwing the hornworm to the chickens. Take that for eating my pepper plant!

 

[galanie]

I suppose if your chickens ate nothing but hornworms and tomato plants they might have ill effects from them. But to state that a worm is poisonous because it eats a plant that might be harmful is just silly.

 

[ivan3]

`Old school' how to -- worm your tobacco plants:

Cultivate the plants as you would a corn crop, being careful to keep the ground well stoned and clean from weeds. The greatest enemy to contend with is the tobacco worm, which must be often and well looked for and destroyed. These worms will sometimes devour a large plant in a few hours. Some planters keep large flocks of turkeys, and train them to the tobacco field, in order that they may devour the worms; this answers well, and saves a good deal of manual labor.

http://www.archive.org/details/Household_Cyclopedia (pg. 72-73)

Same Sphinx Moth juveniles as those infesting tomato plants. Can't find any info on `nicotinized' turks (large enough dose would definitely kill them).​