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Another caterpillar…

Janie BJanie B Posts: 963
in Problem solving


Found several of these in my border, but only one one type of geranium (Derrick Cook). Not so striking as the mullein one. The other 4 varieties of geranium weren’t touched. Couldn’t id it easily on Google… Assume it’s just a case of remove and dispose of…? 
Lincolnshire
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  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    I have no idea what it is or what it might become. I can understand that you wish to dispose of them but I wonder if @wild edges  has any thoughts please? 
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I wonder why people want to dispose of them,  it’s the food chain,  birds will eat caterpillars the ones that hatch will go on to be moths to feed bats or birds. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Janie BJanie B Posts: 963
    Yeah, I understand, @Lyn, and to be honest I'm normally very tolerant of wildlife (I don't spray anything, don't even squish the swarms of green / black fly, and have opted to forego having lupins, which I love, in the garden as they have always been beset by lupin aphids), it's just a bit galling to see new plants that you've spent money on be completely decimated by the critters. I opted to leave the caterpillars on some newly bought verbascum recently hoping the plants would be strong enough to withstand them, and they were completely destroyed! Maybe I should do more research on where to spend my money, but I've up till now not had to worry about geraniums...
    Lincolnshire
  • Simone_in_WiltshireSimone_in_Wiltshire Posts: 1,073
    @Janie B I have the same with my in particular one Verbascum, and there was no bird that was looking for truly visible Mullein caterpillars. Nevertheless, I left it, because those caterpillars should be soon ready and then the Verbascum will grow (I hope so). I had similar last year. In fact, the last year's Verbascum provided food for bees up to the end of November and was the only colour in the garden.

    I ♥ my garden.

  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    edited June 2023
    I no longer grow Verbascum as they were crawling in the caterpillars. Then I thought if we all take that attitude we risk losing them altogether. One suggestion is grow a couple if you have an allotment which I don't. Guess the same goes for sawfly lavae on Polygonatum luckily they only found one plant this year the others were ok
    I can also understand why we stop growing Lupins.
    The problem is the list is only going to get longer.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Janie B said:
    but I've up till now not had to worry about geraniums...
    Looking through the caterpillar guide book and the Natural History Museum Hosts list it seems that cranesbills have very few caterpillars associated with them. Yours doesn't seem to match any that they list either. Clostest I can find is the Bordered Straw moth caterpillar and that's quite a generalist feeder. I could be way off though. As with a lot of caterpillars though they might resort to other plants if their usual plant has been weeded out or killed off somehow.

    With the verbascum it's safe to transfer the caterpillars to buddleja especially if you know somewhere where there are wild plants growing and causing a nuisance.

    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Simone_in_WiltshireSimone_in_Wiltshire Posts: 1,073
    Exactly @GardenerSuze. This is what I thought this week. We hear that the mullein moth is under no threat, rob them what they need, news comes up “mullein moth on red list” and we start blaming everything (climate, chemicals) and everyone else (farmers). 

    I ♥ my garden.

  • Alan Clark2 in LiverpoolAlan Clark2 in Liverpool Posts: 2,190
    My field guide to caterpillars by Henwood lists a few species which feed on the  geranium family but none seems to match the photo.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Simone_in_Wiltshire said:
    Exactly @GardenerSuze. This is what I thought this week. We hear that the mullein moth is under no threat, rob them what they need, news comes up “mullein moth on red list” and we start blaming everything (climate, chemicals) and everyone else (farmers). 
    With buddleja being so common now I can't imagine that a lack of food plants is causing the problem. We seem to be on the range limit here as they don't do so well in Scotland and Wales. I'm not sure if that's to do with rain or cold though. I wonder what proportion of caterpillars are found on buddleja though? Maybe it's a last resort plant for laying eggs on and the verbascums are preferred. Another PHD project for someone. :#

    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Simone_in_WiltshireSimone_in_Wiltshire Posts: 1,073
    @Janie B How is your Verbascum? My two Verbascums are now bouncing back and have now the usual leaves. One is developing a flower stem, if I don’t misjudge it.  

    I ♥ my garden.

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