Not my favorite creatures; they get way too big—at least four inches or so—and they are way too squishy looking. I minored in entomology when I was in college because I was so afraid of bugs. I figured knowing more should help. It did. This caterpillar would have scared me silly as a teenager; now they’re just rather gross and ridiculously hard to spot.
They are very well disguised. The first hint of trouble is a tomato leaf reduced to its central petiole—a leafless leaf poking out of the plant. It takes quite a bit of looking because the caterpillar looks like a somewhat rolled-up tomato leaflet, like the one right below the caterpillar’s head in the photograph. The white diagonal lines on its sides register to the human eye as the veins on the back of the tomato leaf.
According to the University of Minnesota’s Extension, the best way to get rid of them is to pluck them off the plant and drop them in soapy water. I pluck the leaf with the caterpillar and bury them deep in the weeds in the [covered] compost bin that can go out weekly. It’s going out this week.
Happily, I only see one or two a year, only some years, and very little damage. I wish I could say that about asparagus beetles.