Is this a braconid wasp? - Ask Extension
I've been having a hornworm invasion in my tomato plants this year. These pests have practically defoliated multiple tomato plants. They also recently...
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Is this a braconid wasp? #809461
Asked September 05, 2022, 7:06 AM EDT
I've been having a hornworm invasion in my tomato plants this year. These pests have practically defoliated multiple tomato plants. They also recently attacked the tomatillo plants. I put out plants to attract braconid wasps. Yesterday, i took a video of an insect fighting a hornworm in the garden. Don't know if you can view it here, but the file is too big to attach.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nzsl4d0avp235oz/20220904_171909.mp4?dl=0
At rest, the bug looked too wide to be a braconid wasp... is it? It had a red spit but it was moving too fast for me to ID it. What else would attack a hornworm like that?
Charles County Maryland
Expert Response
It's great that you are keeping a lookout for beneficial insects at work in your garden! What you have here is actually a type of fly in the family called Tachinidae. There are different species within this family, all generally referred to as "tachinid flies." They are beneficial in nature because similar to braconid wasps, they are parasitoids. They will lay their eggs on other insects, including caterpillars, and the developing young will kill the host insect. The behavior shown in your video does look like probing or ovipositing (egg-laying) behavior. Here is more information about tachinid flies. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/tachinid-fly
Christa
Christa
