I'm nearly buried alive by this white caterpillars. They eat colocasias, brugmansias, cosmos, dead sticks, etc. Anyone know what they are? I know the picture isn't the best.
Whitish Caterpillers
I don't really know, but those little orangey looking dots to the right are the eggs of some kind of butterfly it looks like. You might look at the Laugher caterpillar on this site and see if that's it.
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/?s=white+fuzzy+caterpillar
You might also want to ask over on the Insect and Spider ID forum, http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/bugid/all/
You may want to post on the Butterfly forum.
could they be bag worms? one summer we had bag worms everywhere and they were little white catapillars i think
no not any bag worm I have seen.
I've never seen bag worms that were fuzzy. He's cute, but he looks a lot like one that gave me a bad sting when I brushed against it while pruning a wisteria.
Crow
This is what I'm worried about, Crow. They are ALL OVER!!
The one I know of that stings is called an Asp. You may Google that and let us know what you find.
We call them asps. I dont know if that is the proper name but they sting like heck and make some people really sick. They fall out of the trees in my yard. I try to avoid them.
Patty
bagworms are dark colored, kill them at nite when they crawl back to the nest. I always preferred burning them. Even the chickens wont touch the bagworms, or asps like you have either, luck.
It was the webworm that caused great concern a few years ago here. Some are seeing them again and encourage you to take care of them at first site. They appear to be more white as adults, but not as white as the one you are trying to id.
oh i remember that year! terrible! glad i haven't seen them lately
I have seen some, just before the rain and then forgot. My neighbor has one of those dreaded Mulberry trees they seem to start first on. Need to take care of it tomorrow.
These fellas will eat anything. They have eaten my colocasias down to the ribs on the leaves.
Peony....I am almost certain it is a moth caterpillar. Maybe from this family.....
http://bugguide.net/node/view/498 If you hit f5 to refresh your screen, you can see all the pictures.
I've been gone for a while. Thanks, Linda. I think it is a moth. They seem to have disappeared but now something is eating my cannas to the ground. I think grass hoppers. Not many tomato horn worms. That's too bad.
Cannas are a host plant for the Brazillian Skipper, but they usually don't do that much damage. I bet you do have hoppers.
If you want tomato horn worms, plant Datura wrighitii, it's night blooming habits draw the moths.
Datura was the first bloom I ever saw the moth drawn to... since I see them on the white blooming Crinums and Brugs also.
grasshoppers have turned the leaves on my brugs to a skeleton. In the process of repotting almost every pot I have. They are filled with ant colonies. Read somewhere to add mint to the plantings to deter the ants. Anyone know if that works? Opened the deck box and it was working alive with ants. Beginning to feel like the plagues of Egypt.
Yes, I have those little guys too.
They are eating my new brassicas transplants. AAHHHHH
I killed them !! Nobosy is going to eat my babies !!
I have tons of brugmansias and usually a lot of tomato horn worms, but not many this year. I have a lot of daturas too.
Ants galore here too. Opened the box down by the pond w/o glasses on and reached in to get the fish food while my hand rested on the edge. Ouch! Killed them good!
Then I was standing out front trimming back a butterfly bush and felt stings on my ankles. Ouch! again....killed them! If the ankle stings had happened in the backyard, I would have jumped in the pond....they were all over my feet. Haven't every figured out what good purpose ants serve.
The only thing I can think Fire Ants are good for is killing snail and slugs. I have noticed less Fire Ants the past few years but have a lot more snails and slugs, I've never had a problem with them the 18 years I've lived in TX so its kind of a surprise to have them now.
I'm told these are Argentine ants. They are small and black. Sting like the dickens. Early in the summer they were coming out of the drains in the master bath. First time in 10 years, we had the exterminator out.....4 times. He sprayed something on the yard that he said was specifically for ants. I think it just caused them to increase. This has been the worst year for a flower garden yet.
The sun's rays seared the leaves and the bugs of all kinds took over. Lost every single one of my fish.
The gardeners creed: There is always next year.
argentine ants are said to be terrible in california