Question
Caterpillars
Hello, Jack. I live in Epping, New Hampshire, and you recently helped me with a problem concerning European paper wasps nesting in the frame of our gazebo. I hope you'll help with a whole new problem involving caterpillars. We have 3 window boxes full of Wave petunias on the front of our house, and a large pot of Dusty Rose petunias on the front step. They have been blooming profusely all summer. Last week my husband noticed that each day there were fewer and fewer blooms. We looked but didn't see anything. We looked again today and noticed caterpillars eating the blossoms. LOTS of caterpillars! We don't know what they are, and don't know what to do about it. We took this photo, and when we got it up on the computer screen, we also noticed lots of little white bugs, which we did not see when actually looking at the plants. What in the world are they? Anyway, we would really appreciate it if you could identify these caterpillars and let us know what to do about them. Thank you so much!
Fran
AnswerFran,
The caterpillars are large enough that if you don't have a big area I'd just pick them off by hand and drop them into soapy water, or toss them onto the lawn (birds will eat them). Otherwise you could treat with spinosad if you want to spray something (see http://www.livingwithbugs.com/spinosad.html for details about spinosad insecticide).
The white bugs are the cast skins of aphids. See http://www.livingwithbugs.com/aphids.html for info about these garden pests and follow the links to controlling aphids with insecticidal soap.
Jack DeAngelis
http://www.livingwithbugs.com
Also visit my blog at http://livingwithbugs.blogspot.com/index.html for updated home and garden pest news.
