a lot of people are complaining that there are a lot less butterfly
this year.
how sad you killed this one before thinking. how many leave could he have eaten until the tree would have died??

Oh boy...This is not a good place to admit you are an insect killer, especially if you are not sure if was a harmless insect you probably could of moved to another tree or have taken it and a branch along with it off and relocated it...

Oh well, too late, but I would definitely wait for a reply as to the name of this one...It looks like as if it was almost human, or well on it's way..:-)

Mike

Been watching him for two days, and I'm asking now because I don't think he's the only one on the plant. I tried to move him with gloves on but he kept licking me and I while I'm fairly confident he couldn't bite, I'm not super familiar with bugs and was scared he might sting or something. :( I felt bad as soon as I did it. I just had two tomato plants decimated by those big green caterpillars too. Two foot high plants and nearly ever leaf eaten off them.

Definitely in evolutionary stage to becoming a human if it tried to kick you, brought to an abrupt end:-(....

I probably would of cut off a branch with him on it and placed it in a safe place..Then of course, the question is, how exactly did you kill it? Did you step on it or leave it exposed to birds so then you could blame this is natural predators....?

If you left it for birds, then I wouldn't be so hard on myself...

I do wonder though what others would do to tomato horned ones that can eat an entire plant over night? Maybe these people will sympathize with you.:-)

Mike

This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Sun, Jul 7, 13 at 14:41

i think with all things, prevention is key. i have a lot of plants just for butterflies.
in my veggie garden i collect the tater beets or3 cabage caterpilar bugs and feed to the chicken. since we have our guineas patrol the yard we have a lot less bugs. well.... i guess they don't differentiate between pretty, ugly, beneficial or harmless.

This is the larva of the swallowtail butterfly. He is harmless
and will only eat a few leaves. He will run 2 soft horm=ns out when disturbed and emit a foul oder

Susanne,,, in your case the guinea is a beneficial.

Thanks Pecanman. If I see anymore I'll leave them be. I try really hard not to use any pesticides on my plants if i can help it.

I found some more, smaller ones on the plant. I'll be leaving these ones alone. Now I have to deal with his magpie eatting my tomatoes. I'm just having the worse luck this year.

I have found magpies to be very smart; you can talk to them and ask them to leave your plants alone... and they will go away and eat something else. Maybe it is just me; but that is what I believe.

Those are Orangedogs, the Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. But, I would disagree that they are "harmless". If you have a very young citrus tree, with few leaves, a handful of Orangedogs can strip your tree pretty quickly. If you find them in your yard, consider planting another host plant that you can sacrifice, and then pull them off your citrus, and onto the host plant. As with many caterpillars, their host plants contain certain chemicals that will make them toxic to birds (just like the Monarch caterpillars and their milkweed host plants), so most birds will leave them alone.

Patty S.

I think it is only the Giant Swallowtail that is a citrus eater; I have not seen them at my farms; but I know they do exist in Central America. I think the birds do a pretty good job of controlling the imagos.

I agree with Patty about these particular caterpillars! They are capable of stripping a citrus down to nothing. I keep a couple of seedling citrus around just for the giant swallowtails and can verify that fact.

Natural controls are numerous. Ladybugs and other small predatory insects feed on eggs and new borns. As the cats mature, other insects find them, but the predatory wasps are very good about seeking them out for their own egg chambers. Birds don't pay much attention to the adults and the caterpillars are pretty well disguised. But I have seen birds devour the chrysalis.

You should keep a very close watch on your tree. Closer than you have been. If you notice lots of eggs, smush some of them. If the damage begins to be severe, you'll need to get rid of them. One caterpillar can eat a lot of foliage.

That "tongue ", by the way is called an osmeterium. It's actually located just behind the head capsule and is used primarily for defense. Most swallowtail species are equipped with osmeteria.

Yes, John, only certain Swallowtail butterflies use the Rutaceae family as their host plant for their larvae. But, the photo is, indeed, that of the Giant Swallowtail caterpillar. So, just watch your citrus. If you find them on your smaller, younger trees, if you prefer to spare them, place them on your larger citrus trees that can stand losing a few leaves :-) Or, if you have a big white Sapote tree, plant them there. Syntria, that huge green worm on your tomato plant is the dreaded Tomato Hornworm. Yes, ONE can strip a small tomato plant overnight (and leave a pile of poop not to be believed). They turn into the incredible Sphinx Moth (Five-Spotted Hawkmoth) that is as large as a Hummingbird. The moth is cool. Their larvae, however, not so much. Talk about a scary worm. My mom used to make me go out to our huge tomato patch when I was in jr. high school and pick them off. I used to about faint doing that. I'm still scared of them, lol!!

Patty S.

My tree's are about 2 years old. I've had two or three new branch shoots stripped but I have prob ably 100-200 leaves on each tree and each one has only lost about 5-6 leaves. I've been trying to encourage butterflies and hummingbirds to my yard.

Earlier I said magpie, I actually meant mocking bird. Sorry. I'm from Alaska but living in texas which as far as I know doesn't even have magpies XD I agree that they are particularly intelligent.

Currently--I have my grapes/tomatoes wrapped in cheese cloth because the mocking bird keeps getting all the fruits.

Also had a spouting avocado seed get eatten by a squirl when it was outside.

And! I have a new cantaloupe coming in, and there are ants all over that plant. Haha, god the pests.

This is the guy who ate up my tomatoes, he's a hornworm I think they're called. I get them each year. My poor roma tomato plant (grown from heirloom seeds) only has around 3 branches with leaves on it.

I'm really wanting to learn more about both pests and beneficial insects, so I really appreciate all the feedback you guys have given me so far.

When I was a child, we had a toy fox terrier who hated tomato hornworms and would pull them off the plant and kill them... I miss that dog; but now I don't grow tomatos... I don't grow anything that I can buy every day at the market.

John, some would argue that you can't buy homegrown tomatoes at the market, let alone some of the delectable heirlooms most of us like to grow. :-)

Rhizo... I defer to your greater knowledge... and I don't know you, but I love you for what I have learned from you in the field of entomology..

Oh gosh, John. You need to add tomatoes up on that roof of yours. Once you grow a home-grown heirloom tomato, you'll never buy another one from the store. Tomatoes lose their sweetness once they've been refrigerated. Once you eat one fresh from the vine, you'll never go back! Rhizo is right. My youngest daughter when she was just little would pick fresh tomatoes off the vine and eat them like apples.

Patty S.

If you lived where I live, you would know I can buy home grown vine ripened tomatoes every day in the local market; they are just not grown by me.