Garden Caterpillars
JUNE 14, 2024
There's lots of creepy crawlies in our gardens this summer, lets take a look at some friends (leave them be!) and some foes (feel free to smush!)
01. Swallowtail caterpillar:
You'll typically find these on dill and parsley, and turn into big black and yellow or black and blue butterflies! Leave these friends alone, or move them to an enclosure to watch their lifecycle
2. Monarch caterpillar:
These caterpillars are so much fun to raise at home, you'll only find them on milkweed! If you're looking to buy monarch-safe milkweed at a nursery, look for aphids at the top of the plant (this means no insecticides have been sprayed and it's safe for monarchs to eat)
03. Lo moth:
If you've been around BB a long time, you may remember the time I got stung by one of these and posted about popping it in a glass of soapy water (there was a lot of outrage, understandably) lesson learned: if you're not sure, use google lens to ID the caterpillar!
4. Army worms:
Got holes in your zinnia leaves? petals? tunnels through your gladiolus blooms? half eaten sunflower plants? this is a common culprit. I walk the garden and smush every one I see, once a day! for small plants, you can pop a cloche overtop until they're more established
5. Webworms:
Okay, Finca Tres Robles has a great post on these (click the button!), and you technically don't need to do anything! But when they end up on my zinnias, I do smush them!
6. Cutworms:
Ever come out to your three day old seedlings, to find someone has munched right through the stem at the soil level? you can thank cutworms, a mostly nocturnal worm that blends SO well into soil - find these guys by disturbing the soil around where they've eaten and smush on sight, or protect tender seedlings with a barrier or a cloche.
Got some other caterpillar in your garden not listed here, my favorite tool is Google Lens - you can open the Google app on your phone, hit the camera icon and take a picture in real time! This is pretty quick and accurate.
For me, anything that turns into a pollinator is a keep, and anything that is widely accepted as a pest (a brief skim of a wikipedia article will tell you) is a smush.
Not sure? Send me a picture in next week's Wednesday question box!
Talk soon!
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