Can you find the critter in the first picture below -
This critter caught my eye when I was out the other afternoon picking a couple tomatoes for my BLTs. The white eggs hanging off it's back was what I noticed first. These dudes blend in so well that they're hard to spot. One of the best ways to find these dudes, for me anyway, is by their poop! Yup, they have a voracious appetite and grow quickly, so as they eat they poop and the bigger they grow the BIGGER the poop, which is so much easier to spot - green poop pellets on dried brown soil.
I've found a couple of these Hornworm caterpillars on my tomatoes this season and all have been small like the one pictured below and all were covered with braconid wasp eggs. As the larvae develop and grow, they feed off the innards of the caterpillar.
I just let it be. At this stage, the caterpillar isn't eating, rather slowing being eaten...
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