caterpillars/butterflies

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dun1kirk Berkeley, CA(Zone 9a) Jul 29, 2006

Looked carefully at many of my plants and had lots of different kinds of caterpillars. Some on bud ends of seed producing columbine, some on asparagus some on another flower. Took them into a garden nursery. Some were swallowtails. Beautiful butterflies but eating my garden alive. What to do, what to do?!

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NY2CA Pasadena, CA(Zone 9b) Jul 29, 2006

howdy neighbor - have no answer for you, but happy to see someone local here!

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Night_Bloom Griffin, GA(Zone 8a) Jul 29, 2006

dun1kirk - I wish you could send some our way. I have many host plants this year that are caterpillarless. Because of the drought we are having here, the caterpillars and butterflies are in very short supply.

When caterpillars eat my plants - even some that I didn't plant on purpose for them, like my Rudbeckia (those caterpillars are so cute though: little inchworms that use the leaves to make a petal "boa") - I generally just let them and plant more next year so they won't get them all. This year, I don't have to do that, and I think probably my passionflowers are going to grow all over other stuff in the garden without caterpillars to keep them in check.

If you really want to get rid of some, but maybe not all, you could use Bt. This will affect small/younger caterpillars the most - and only caterpillars, not grown butterflies or bees - but your larger caterpillars might still live and become butterflies. Rain or irrigation will wash the Bt away, so that later if your plants have recovered enough, then you might be able to let more caterpillars return.

That might be a good compromise if you are really worried about your plants.

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