A Calico Paint Caterpillar

Hard to miss this colorful brown hooded owlet caterpillar resting on a goldenrod stem -

I spied this dude on my walk the other afternoon. I mean how could I miss it?  It sticks out like a sore thumb.

They prefer to rest during the day and more active at night, when they like to feed. They're recognized as agricultural pests, particularly for lettuce and asparagus, as they can severely defoliate crops but the good news is that they're also an essential food source for birds.

I left this dude alone but had I known it was a bad dude I may have squashed it.  Hoping a bird spied it too and took care of it...

The Uglies

I came across this freaky thing while raking the other day, YIKES!

Seems appropriate with Halloween right around the corner!

Turns out this isn't some spooky Halloween prop but rather a female prepupal Polyphemus caterpillar.

Interesting, especially up close and personal, to say the least.

After the photo shoot, I took her back outside and placed her safely under a shrub and covered with leaves.

OH SO ITCHY!!

The day before flying down to Tennessee I had a Hickory Tussock caterpillar, see pic below of a similar critter, climb up my left pant leg at some point when I was cutting my lawn.

I knew something was off, as my left ankle area was bothering me and very itchy.  However, I ignored it and kept mowing.  Only when I was done mowing did I finally peel back my pant leg to find a BIG hickory tussock caterpillar nestled or tangled in there.

I don't recall ever having issues with these dudes and have handled them in the past.  However, I can't say I ever had one in my britches before...

Seems exposure to hickory tussock moth caterpillar hairs generally results in a localized rash and associated itching - Yes and check I can now confirm this!  Apparently, ingesting the hairs may additionally elicit associated drooling, irritability and anorexia.  Now that's odd, as I did NOT ingest any of this critters hairs but oddly enough I do drool, especially when sleeping, and well, I'm always irritable and wish I could stop eating so much!  Hmm, go figure.

Well, as stated I certainly got a localized rash all over my left ankle, which also spread up to my knee and was super itchy!

I fought the urge to scratch and applied rubbing alcohol to the areas and it seemed to keep things in check.

My trip went fine with no major itching of flare ups.  After returning home on Saturday, Sunday the lawn needed to be cut again, so I put on my yard slacks and off I went and spent several hours out in the yard mowing, trimming and getting things organized again after being away for a week.  However, what I failed to remember was that I had NOT washed my yard pants, YIKES!  So, can you guess what happened?  Yup, there was still hairs from the hickory tussock caterpillar in the left pant leg and OMG, it's like ground hogs days and I'm reliving the rash and incredible itching once again AND it's spread more, see pic below -

This gave me an excuse to fill up the jacuzzi hot tub and soak for a half hour, which has helped with the itching and swelling but need to do some research for a home remedy on how to stop crazy itching. 

I decided to toss those yard trousers in the trash, NOT going to risk it.  I was in need of a new pair of yard knickers anyway. 

What The "Frass"?!

Not only are my veggies doing well this summer but seems these darn hornworm caterpillars are also doing well, alas!  The pics below are a handful I've found on my tomato plants but I've also found several on my pepper plants too.

I typically know they're there when I see their frass, which I then notice the defoliation.  The problem with this is that by this time the caterpillars are BIG and have eaten quite a bit.  Even knowing they're there, it's sometime difficult to find them, as they blend in so well. 

This one below looks like a unicorn with the one white cocoon atop it's head!

The soft white growths are actually the cocoons of a parasitoid wasp – a species of braconid wasp. These tiny wasps are doing me a favor and killing the hornworm caterpillar by using the body as a hatching ground for their young - a ‘meals on wheels’ kinda thing!

These have all been dealt with and I will continue to keep an eye out for more.

It's always something with gardening.  Whether these dudes, other bad insects to rabbits and deer the fun never stops and keeps me on my toes.  Ah, the joys of gardening!

First Frye Monarch Caterpillar!

I spied my first Monarch caterpillar ever here at the ole homestead!

Oddly enough it wasn't on one of my milkweed plants, rather it was climbing on the wire fence.  Of course, thinking I was helping I moved it to one of the milkweeds but it was too fidgety and made it's way to the ground rather quickly - 

Here is a short video of the dude off and in search of something - 

My assumption is that this dude was searching for a suitable place where it could make it's chrysalis.  I'll poke around in that area again to see if I can spot the chrysalis.

Here are just some of the milkweed plants I have this year.  They've really done well and are taking over, which I luv! 

There are oodles of seed pods coming along too, so hopefully there will be even more plants that pop up!

I've searched the plants but yet to see any signs of spot any additional caterpillars but I'll keep looking  Hoping they are more out there and I'm just not spotting them.  Fingers crossed.

Asclepias, AKA Mikweed

My Milkweed plants have finally moved into a sunnier location and I have so many of them this year!  Most are doing fantastic with oodles of flowers too, which smell terrific!

Although, I've had Milkweed for many years now, there have been no Monarch caterpillars that have called them, alas

Fingers crossed this could be the year since they're doing to well!

If the Red Milkweed Beetle, sometimes called "four eyes", is any indication, my hopes for Monarch's have grown since there are scads of them all over!  

Red milkweed beetles, herbivores that eat only milkweed, are not harmful to monarchs or harm monarch eggs or larvae, so you do not need to remove them from your milkweed plants. The two species can and do coexist peacefully.

Here are just a couple pics of cuddling and dining beetles -

Fingers crossed!

Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the below photo?!

I spotted this dude on my afternoon walk yesterday.  Yup, as well as it blended in, I noticed the crawling, otherwise I very well might have stepped on it.

Not that I am a caterpillar aficionado but this is the first caterpillar I've seen where it's stripes run from head to tail.

 

This well camouflaged caterpillar is called, Turbulent Phosphila, and is a species of cutworm. It turns into a rather blah, typical brown month, nothing too exciting and one we've prolly all seen flutter around lights at night.  You'd think with it's unique colors as a caterpillar it would turn into something with a bit more wow factor.

Woolly Bear & Old Man Winter

Folklore, which goes back to Colonial times, says the upcoming winter can be predicted by the stripes on the Woolly Bear caterpillar.  

According to the legend, the longer the woolly bear’s black bands, the more severe the winter will be–longer, colder and snowier. On the flip side, the wider the middle brown band is, the milder the upcoming winter will be. 

In addition, the position of the longest dark band is said to indicate which part of winter will be coldest and hardest. So, if the head end is dark, then the beginning of winter will be worse. If the opposite end is dark, the end of winter will be colder.

According to the folklore, the 13 segments of the caterpillar’s body correspond to the 13 weeks of winter. And the "woolier" the coat, the colder the winter.

The caterpillar’s coloring is thought to be based on its age, how long it’s been feeding and its species. In North America, there are over 200 species.

I took the below pics the other day on my walk.  Seems, based on these dudes anyway, that we're in for a milder winter around here, if you believe in the folklore.  We'll have to wait and see what Old Man Winter delivers...

Munching Machines

During our motorcycle ride this past Sunday, we stopped at a Rhode Island gas station for a snack and a stretch.

I may or may not have snuck off into the wooded area for a quick potty break 😉 before getting back on the bike.  TMI I know but when you gotta go, you gotta go!

In the wooded area I noticed a small oak tree that was almost bare of it's leaves, odd for this time of the season.  Upon closer inspection I saw the reason why, it had dozens of these caterpillars all over it and as you can see these are the culprits as to why the leaves were missing.

Turns out these are Orange-striped oakworm caterpillars and they're known to feed on the leaves of oak trees in late summer early autumn.  Seems they're native to North American and the good news is that these defoliators rarely affect tree health and since they're a native species, they have many natural predators to help keep them in check.

And away we rode...

Parsley As A Host Plant

There is only one reason why I plant parsley in my gardens and it's not to eat or to be used as a garnish.

I plant parsley, as a host plant, to attract the Black Swallowtail caterpillars.

I bought a 4-pack of parsley this spring and planted them in different locations in my gardens.  I check them over every couple of days and yesterday I noticed this beauty hidden nicely and chomping away!

Seems to work every year!

Ugly Yet Unique

I found these Redhumped Caterpillars all over one of our blueberry bushes.

Fall is not upon us yet but I noticed the bush was loosing a lot of leaves.  Well, here was the cause!

I took the handful of them and introduced them to our chickens (Apologies for the blurry pic. I didn't realize how bad it was.).  They didn't last very long at all in the coop!

The circle of life.

A Welcomed Caterpillar

A Black Swallowtail caterpillar enjoying and dining on a Queen Anne's Lace, a.k.a. and "Uncle Tommy", plant.

Always a treat to come across one of these jewels.

Hoping it finds a safe, protected place to make it's chrysalis, as it's one that will not hatch until next spring.  

Fall Bears

This is the time of year that you come across the Wooly Bear and Yellow Bear caterpillars when out and about.

This dude was trying to hide.

WHAT Do We Have Here?!

I spy with my little eye...

Fresh dropping.  Turds.  Poop. Fecal matter. Waste.

These, although kinda gross, are a dead giveaway that an unwanted critter is hiding in my tomatoes.

These dung dropping are produced by the dreaded Tomato Hornworm!  These dudes can ruin tomato crops in record time, if not found in time.  They have a fierce, seemingly never ending appetite.

Since they're so hard to find on the tomato plants themselves, I rely on scanning the ground around each plant and once the excrement is found the search begins.

Here's another tell-tale sign of dining Tomato Hornworms -

AH HA, there you are -

A chubby one too - 

After spending thirty minutes or so I was able to locate these four dudes.  I'm fairly certain there are more out there, so the hunting continues.  

No need to worry about these four below, they became a special and welcomed treat for our chickens.

This is an exercise I find myself doing every year.

The Sphingidae Family Perhaps?

I came across this very interesting looking caterpillar last weekend residing on our Grapevines.

It's not very long, about 3/4".  Yellowish brown in color with a horn on it rear-end and what looks like an over sized (foreskin type) collar, which allowed it to retract it's head into.

It has since gone into it's chrysalis stage, so we'll see what type of butterfly emerges.

I'm guessing it's one of the following: Darapsa Myron, Achemon Sphinx or Pandorus Sphinx.  Hard to tell as there too many to choose from, yet I wasn't able to locate an exact match on the Google machine.

Interesting non-the-less!

A Before Roost Protein Snack

Also noticed one of the tomato plants was missing an awful lot of it's leaves.  This one plant was on the inside of the garden against the foundation of the house, so I knew it wasn't due to a deer nibbling.

Upon closer inspection it was very obvious who the culprit was.  Leaving his telltale droppings (poop) behind is a dead give away.

He had made his way up and under the plant and was hidden well but not well enough in the end.

With 8 chickens and only one Tomato Horned Worm Caterpillar there was a lot grabbing and running and stealing from one another.  In the end several chickens enjoyed a before bedtime snack.

Swallowtail and Parsley

I noticed that we have our first Black Swallowtail caterpillar of the season!  He's contently taken up residence in one of our Parsley plants.  Seems a tad early to me.  Also, the Parsley plants are still awfully small but he's growing like a weed and seems to be bigger each day I check on him.

Ironically, we still have several Black Swallowtail chrysalis that we wintered over inside and have yet to hatch.

Either way they're all welcome and hope more and more appear.

Caterpillars Galore!

So, I planted a number of Parsley plants around the yard with the end goal being to attract Black Swallowtail butterflies.  Well, once again it worked.  There are at least 8 caterpillars on said Parsley plants and these are the ones that we've been able to spot.  There very well could be others too.

 

A couple have fallen victim to some predator.  I suspect it was the Wrens, as they raised to clutches of eggs this Spring and Summer.  They seem very keen at spotting and finding insects for their young.

 

Black Swallowtails caterpillars have a four stage life cycle referred to as "Instar".

 



 

The picture above shows a caterpillar in the first instar stage -

 

 

The picture above here shows one in the third instar stage -

 

Once full grown the caterpillar disappears, or so it seems.  Rather, it moves on to find a safe, desirable place to spin into a chrysalis (the pupa stage) where it will remain throughout the Winter.  It will hatch and emerge come Spring.

 

Since we're on the subject and talking about caterpillars, here the sole Tomato Hornworm caterpillar of the year.  We found this dude on one of our Brandywine tomato plants.  He's been there a while based on it's size.  I had been checking our main tomato garden for these dudes whenever I was out there and I am happy to report that there are none.  I am pretty confident too that there are none.  In years past I've detected them by their droppings, which are dark pellet like and easy to spot.  If you try and look for them in the plants themselves, you'll be there a while and I'm betting with little success.

 

Anyway, this dude has been picked, like a tomato, and is now housed in one of Emilie's bug containers.  She wants to see if we can get it pupate and then hatch some Spring.  Stay tuned...

Plant It And They Will Come!!

 

Following last years lead and success, and in the hope of attracting more butterflies, I planted additional Parsley plants this year.  However, instead of planting them all in the same general area, as I've done in the past, I planted them in various gardens throughout the yard.

 

This particular Parsley plant was planted amongst the squash plants.  It's doing very well, close to 3' tall and about to flowering.

 

And WALLAH!  Low and behold what did my little eye spy the other day, well it's a handsome young Black Swallowtail caterpillar!!

 

This is EXACTLY what I was hoping to accomplish and very happy to see it worked.  Hopefully, there will be others too.  Rest assured that we'll be waiting and watching.

Black Swallowtail Instar - Hatch!

 

In a previous posting of mine titled, "Black Swallowtail Instars" from Wednesday, October 31, 2012, I talked about the Black Swallowtail caterpillars that we attracted to our parsley.

 

Anyway, I dug out a parsley plant in the fall before the frost killed it, potted it up and placed inside a 20-gallon fish tank.  I then pulled all the instars I could find and placed them on the parsley plants in the tank.  Added some branches for them to build there chrysalises on and store in the garage for the long cold winter.

 

Well, the dude pictured above was the first of the instar to hatch!  As you can see the parsley plant is long since dead but the chrysalises are still there.  A couple more to hatch then I can reclaim and clean my tank.

 

We let this dude go, who proceeded to fly off as though it's been flying for years.  Just hope he chooses to stick around and enjoy the flowers we have available now and the many, many to come.