Remember Godzilla?
The 1954 iconic film, Godzilla, featured what Wikipedia calls "an enormous, destructive prehistoric sea monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation."
I have a Godzilla.
I have it only because my neighbor served it its eviction notice from her garden and gave it to me--a three-inch long tobacco hornworm doing a Joey Chestnut on her tomato plants.
She knew I wanted one. Actually, the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, was looking for some hornworm frass (droppings) and had none.
I have plenty now.
If the stars align and Godzilla (Manduca sexta), continues to feel awakened, enlightened and empowered in my little habitat, she will become a Carolina sphinx moth, also known as a hawk moth or a tobacco hawkmoth.
See what an eviction notice can do?
Attached Images:
![This three-inch-long tobacco hornworm appears to be ready to eat more tomato leaves (or the photographer). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) This three-inch-long tobacco hornworm appears to be ready to eat more tomato leaves (or the photographer). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/86097.jpg)
This three-inch-long tobacco hornworm appears to be ready to eat more tomato leaves (or the photographer). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
![](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/86098.jpg)
"Godzilla" roaming around her habitat. Tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta) become Carolina sphinx moths, also known as hawkmoths or tobacco hawkmoths. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)