caterpillar ID?

rainbowgardener · Sat Sep 13, 2014 8:55 am

Found this caterpillar on my anise hyssop yesterday:

In real life, it didn't look so greenish, much closer to white, with the two lines of dark spots, and fuzzy, slender and maybe just over an inch long. I've been looking for it online and can't find it.

applestar · Sat Sep 13, 2014 2:07 pm

I've seen it in my garden before. It turned into a pure white triangular moth, but sometimes they are shown with black spots.... Let me see...um... Found it!
-- Fall Webworm Moth (Hyphantria cunea)

rainbowgardener · Sat Sep 13, 2014 2:40 pm

I had actually looked at that one and the pictures I saw didn't seem quite right. But now that you said it, I looked some more and found some that nailed it.

https://bqekeeper.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/hatch2.jpg

So not great news. That means I should watch out for big tent/webs, right?

https://www.dec.ny.gov/images/lands_fore ... mtent1.jpg

similar to bag worms and tent caterpillars.

Oh well. I put him back on the plant after I took his picture and today I couldn't find him, so maybe he became bird food.

applestar · Sat Sep 13, 2014 6:22 pm

Yeah. I've already removed a couple of small infestations (just hatched and started on a couple of leaves kind of thing) from my fruit trees.

There's a big one on top of the mulberry tree, but it's right next to the big willow oak that has little acorns now and blue jays and other nut eating birds as well as the squirrels are all over it, so hopefully they will notice the tent and take care of those.

JC's Garden · Sun Sep 14, 2014 4:20 am

We normally get webworms (Hyphantria cunea) in our pecan trees. Over the past several years the numbers have been very low. Low to the point I was concerned about what chemicals the major pecan growers might be using. I guess it was just some sort of cycle they go through cause they're back. The infestation is one of the heaviest I've seen. They're falling out of the trees and crawling all over the place.