Caterpillares vs Butterfly

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Sis_E (Cissy) San Jose, CA(Zone 9b) Jul 05, 2008

I hope this question is in the right place. I am a novice gardener. I know that caterpillars turn into beautiful butterflies that are attracted to one's garden. I know that caterpillers can destroy leaves, petals, etc.

When one sees a caterpillar on a flower head, is it best to leave it alone so one day it's a beautiful butterfly that will not harm your garden, or dispose of the caterpiller so it won't eat your flowers? Seems to me it's a catch-22 :(

What do you all do?

Cissy

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jul 05, 2008

I think different people have different approaches. If you're growing veggies and they're destroying them, I think most people would pick them off. On the other hand, if you've purposely planted a butterfly garden trying to attract them, then it's not very nice to go and kill the cats after you encouraged them to be there! Assuming your garden is somewhere between those two extremes, I'd probably look at how much destruction they're doing--most plants can do just fine with a few holes in the leaves so in that case I'd probably leave them alone, they won't kill the plant and the "good" of having it become a beautiful butterfly someday outweighs having the leaves look a little less than perfect. On the other hand, if they're munching on little tiny plants or completely defoliating things, then it's probably time to pick off at least some of them.

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Sis_E (Cissy) San Jose, CA(Zone 9b) Jul 05, 2008

Thank you, ecrane! your answers have always been most helpful. I let it alone. I found him on my sunflower head just taking a snooze and a suntan :D

Cissy

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