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I have a question. I found a large caterpillar on my tomato plant tonight. I have identified it as a tomato hornworm. It has eggs on it that "whatsthatbug" identified as the eggs of a parasitic Braconid wasp. What I can't figure out is if I want to keep this thing. It looks cool and I have it in a jar with holes right now. It's still alive but the site says the wasps will kill it from the inside out. (eww!) Will those things hatch and fly out of the holes? Is this a bad experiment to keep in the house?

 

Thank you. I'm very new at gardening so I'm using google a lot but know many on here are old hands at this sort of thing. And it seems appropriate to ask a Hive a bug question. :D

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Aren't you a better homeschooler than I? Ugh. I kill those pesky hornworms. Never watched the timely demise of a hornworm (only the untimely ones that I cause.) Could be cool. Guess I might put the jar outside in the shade, just in case.

LOL! I do lots of homeschooling around my gardening, but tomato hornworms still give me chills!

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You could send it to my house. :D My DS is obsessed with tomato hornworms, since he read about them. We only have the nice, tame cabbage white caterpillars to take care of here (and we have an entire 10 gallon fish tank dedicated to them). However, I think the reality of the wasp eggs would give me the heeby-jeebies too.

 

Would it be too much to ask you to take a picture so I could show DS?

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http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c279/Wyndie/Creepy%20bug/?action=view&current=100_8044.jpg&

 

http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c279/Wyndie/Creepy%20bug/?action=view&current=100_8045.jpg&

 

I can't get the pictures to attach but you can see them here. Creepy little (or not) thing. And if your son is like my son, he'll be thrilled to know that the things poop look like minature grenades. Isn't that wonderful. :glare:

 

Enjoy. :D

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