What kind of baby cats are these? all over my syriaca milkweed. I was hoping for flowers on these this year, as they didn't bloom last year. Doesn't look like i'll have anything left now but sticks.
I also have these same cats on my silky gold milkweed, probably 50 of them or so.
hairy little things. Will they all turn to butterflies? the monarch?
that's just one leaf, there are many more under the other leaves.
They aren't Monarch or Queen caterpillars. It doesn't look like they are eating the leaf are they? I couldn't enlarge the picture, can you take another closer? If you can you may want to put it on the Insect Identification forum.
I forgot to mention...if they are hairy, look at the Tussock Moths. They eat anything. If it is them, move them to a wild vine or tree in a park and they will be fine; saving your milkweed for the bfs.
This message was edited Sep 4, 2008 12:58 AM
oh gosh, they are hairy, and their all over my silky gold too
guess I'll move them today, I thought monarchs are green stripey cats
I get a different kind of tussock moth here (they fall out of the oak trees and then eat anything they land on). They can do a lot of damage and then they build their cocoons all over the house, shed, trailer, etc. I'm pretty merciless with mine, but Sheila offers a kinder, gentler approach, lol! And yes, Monarchs have little stripey bodies. And they don't tend to cluster like that either. Glad you're providing milkweed for our butterfly friends!
Melanie
I cleared the moth cats out of there so My butterfly weeds will flower, took them off the silky gold ones too.
Guess you looked them up and that is what they were? I have only had one of the tussock, if I had them falling like the web worms from a year or so ago, I wouldn't be so kind!
they looked exactly like the ones on critter's post where the big cat was as big as the coke can, Exact same ones.
Yep, they are tussock moth cats. I get them on the vining milkweed back at the ranch. They start off in clusters then migrate away to their own leaves as they get bigger.
~ Cat
glad their gone then LOL
I've just seen a couple of them out in my garden... cute little things when they aren't appearing in great hordes, so they got the "honored guest" treatment (eg, I left them alone LOL). I think it's like with the tomato hornworms... if you've got just a few, it's easy enough to move them away from your prize tomatoes and let them grow up to be hummingbird moths, but if you're truly overrun you may have to take measures. :-)
