Subject: Backyard bird and butterfly (and dragonfly too) watching
Today, I was tickled to see that the caterpillar was still feeding on the corn over my head: However, I was NOT so tickled to discover this smaller saddleback caterpillar a little while later. I had noticed some weeds underfoot and unthinkingly reached in and grabbed to pull a bunch with my bare hands... And felt a fiery pain at the base of my thumb. It was stinging so badly I could hardly hold the iPhone steadyapplestar wrote:I'm so excited
I was looking up for corn to harvest -- the Bloody Butcher corn all bore ears on their stalks higher than my head -- and saw this Saddleback Caterpillar.
It's the first one I've ever seen in my garden. It is clearly eating the corn leaf, but I had no idea corn was a larval host for them.
Looking at the photos of the adult moth in the above link, I think I've seen them around.
I had considered trying to catch it to bring inside, but it was a bit too high to reach, and now that I had the chance to research it more, I'm glad I didn't risk getting stung
...hopefully, that tiny shadow next to it is not a parasitic wasp...
Luckily, most of what I needed for field remedy was growing right near by: Plantain, Jewelweed, Creeping Charlie, Toothache Plant
At first I used the toothache plant for anesthetic but toothache plant smarts on open wound, and this one hurt, so I switched to Creeping Charlie. I normally would use peppermint, but don't have any growing in this area. Generally any mint will work so I used CC but think I will plant some spearmint.
I kneaded and worked the leaves and stems into a wet poultice and held the juicy wad against the base of the thumb where the saddleback stung me for about an hour while I continued to potter around in the garden.
This field remedy really works. Now, I can't even tell which hand it was let alone where. I highly recommend growing them somewhere in your garden. They are all considered invasive "weeds" but I find them invaluable and have patches growing near all the different areas of my yard so they are never far away and easily found in case of a bite or sting.