Tobacco Hornworm Life Cycle at Life

Tobacco Hornworm Life Cycle. As they do, time, they also deposit tiny eggs on the foliage of young, tender vegetable plants. The moths are magnificently large creatures, and are incredibly adept at flying.

In late spring, large adult moths lay eggs on the undersides of foliage, which will hatch within a week. Hornworms are often seen as a pest, as just one hornworm can decimate. The entire hornworm/sphinx moth life cycle can happen as quickly as 30 to 50 days and several cycles may occur in one season given proper conditions.

Tobacco Hornworm

The hornworms overwinter in the ground as pupae. Plants in the family solanaceae contain steroidal and triterpenoid glycosides, chemical compounds that play an important role in the biology of manduca sexta (haribal et al. Homworms overwinter as pupae in the soil. At 27° c (81° f), it will take about 30 days for a hornworm to mature from an egg into an adult.