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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

something's eating my petunias and I know what it is!

Some of my petunia flowers were getting all ragged and when I looked carefully I found the culprit... a green inch worm type caterpillar, an inch or so long, paler green on front end and darker green on back end (sorry, camera is packed up for a trip).

My question is, is this likely to be something that will turn into a butterfly later, in which case I'm willing to sacrifice some petunias, or is this just a bad guy?

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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Decided to try to answer my own question and found this cool caterpillar guide:

https://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?guide=Caterpillars

Unfortunately my green caterpillar turns out likely to be just a cabbage worm, larva of the European cabbage butterfly. So he's composted!

I didn't know they ate petunias, but apparently so.

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applestar
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Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I'm seeing more caterpillars this year. I keep telling the birds they're not doing their job! :x
Cabbage Whites ALL OVER the lavender. Including the ones not picutered, there were about 18 in the same vicinity:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7366.jpg[/img]
Unprotected cabbage across the path from the lavender:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7373.jpg[/img]



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