leaftier caterpillar.
squish it.
sprays won't work because it's safe in its small shelter made of leaves.

This post was edited by jean001a on Fri, Apr 4, 14 at 0:25

Don't you just love 'auto correct '?

caterpillars are transitory ... evolving into something else.. rather quickly ... [though of course.. not fast enough for us .. lol]

though they may do a little superficial harm ... they will.. in no way ... short of the 8th plague of the bible... stop these things from flowering ... so lets not go all drama island ...

after dinner.. take a small knife.. one bug per tip ... work the knife thru the leaves.. opening it.. not cutting... dab out the bug... smoosh on ground or cut into a million pieces on a piece of mulch.. paybacks are heck ... lol ...

10 or 15 mins on a gentle evening.. no chems.. life is good ...

now.. you want real drama?? ... its 32 degrees here in MI ... and i have to read about your problems.. lol.. i still have banked snow in the garden.. not much.. we are making progress .. but i would kill to spend some personal time slaughtering some caterpillars .. whoa is me.. alas poor yorick ... lol ... now thats drama ...

and i agree with you .. i dont mind killing them ... but i never could do it in my bare fingers ...

i just dont like to think of you going out.. spending 10 or 15 bucks on some remedy .. and sprinkling it all over the garden ... to kill some migratory bug ... you will kill more good bugs.. than bad ones ... so keep some perspective

ken

Penstemon is host plant for Baltimore checkerspot butterfly caterpillars, and this Anicia checkerspot. IDK if either of these are the caterpillars eating your plants, but you should be able to compare to pics and decide if they are butterfly caterpillars, or something else, like an unknown moth.

That's helpful to know.
But when one checks their life cycle, it's easily determined that neither one binds the tip leaves as is shown in OP's post.

That's good info, Jean, I didn't investigate that far, but did notice that. Sounds like it's moths.

FWIW, when one finds an unknown caterpillar, search the plant, like this: Penstemon host plant. Or Lantana host plant. You should be able to find if any butterflies use it as a host plant, then easily determine if you've got moths or butterflies by comparing those on your plant to pics of caterpillars of the butterflies known to use the plant as host.

Everyone makes the rules for their own garden, do what you want, but I kill the moths and leave the butterflies. Unless it's a tiny new plant, or the number of caterpillars on it is so high that they eat the whole thing, plants should be able to bear being munched on. As well as possibly providing nectar to adult butterflies, that's part of some plants' 'job' in the big picture. To have butterflies, some leaves must be sacrificed.

Thank you, everyone! Sorry for that Michigan weather--I grew up in Cleveland, went to high school in Michigan, then spent 6 years in MA and RI. So trust me, I really do appreciate the weather here!!

I googled around and am almost 100 certain these are moths--they really look more like worms than caterpillars. I tried spraying with dish soap but they are undeterred, so I'm just going to smoosh them by hand!!

Leaftiers are moths.