The ____________ is the most destructive and widespread pest of tomato.

• A. Grasshopper
• B. Tomato cutworm
• C. Garden webworm
• D. Tomato hornworm

Answer: (D)

Tomato hornworm is the most destructive and widespread pest on tomato plants because it’s a large, fast-feeding caterpillar that can defoliate a plant quickly and often appears across many tomato patches in warm weather. A single hornworm can chewing large chunks of leaves in a short time, and when populations rise, whole plants or sections of a plant can be stripped. Eggs laid on the leaves by hawk moths hatch into hungry larvae that feed for a while, then pupate, allowing populations to surge under warm conditions. That combination of big feeding damage and broad presence in tomato fields makes it the most destructive and widespread tomato pest.

You’ll recognize it by a green caterpillar with white diagonal stripes and a distinctive horn on the rear. Control options include hand-picking when you spot them, using biological controls like Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki when they’re young, and applying appropriate insecticides if populations are high, while trying to preserve natural enemies. Other tomato pests, like grasshoppers, tomato cutworms, or garden webworms, tend to cause less widespread, dramatic damage on tomatoes and don’t match the hornworm in both size of feeding and how commonly they occur across tomato crops.