After months spent tending to your vegetable garden, it can be frustrating when pests destroy your hard work. One Redditor recently shared a photo of a troublesome garden pest that had enjoyed snacking on their pepper plant.
In a popular Reddit post, the user included a photo of the hornworm that has taken up residence in their garden.
Hornworms are large caterpillars with horn-like tails. They are the larval stage of the five-spotted hawk moth. Before their metamorphosis into adulthood, five-spotted hawk moths spend a few weeks as three- to four-inch-long green caterpillars.
Their favorite foods are typically tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and other plants in the nightshade family.
These pests are commonly found throughout North America, from northern Mexico to the southern regions of Canada. For this unlucky gardener, this was their first encounter with a hornworm.
“We don’t have the heart