Hello all, I'm a newbie at this so Here it goes. I live In Fl and love to be in the garden when the sun is not so hot lol. Recently I have adopted some caterpillers from the next door people because they had no leafs on the bush that they were trying to live on. Now I need some help keeping them alive. Theres no other bushes like that in the comunity. I gave them some lettuce from the store, and it is not working, can I put them on my rose bush? If not where can I? And we have frogs that eat them at night so that is also a problem! The caterpillers are saying " LET ME OUT OF THIS JAR!!!"
Gizmo the worms probably are not friendly if they stripped the bush next door .Just be thankful you don't have a bush like that . I have Catalpa trees at my moms old place and those Catalpa worms take all the leaves and then there is no shade fishermen love these worms but they are pests to me.It will probably make cacoons soon and make a butterfly of sorts .I wouldn't worry about them much as they will make it own their on.
Oh Gizmo was so instered in the worms I forgot to welcome you to Garden Stew glad to have you .We have lots of fun here.
Thanks Glendann, but i still have 1 question, if i leave them in the jar with the lettuce from the store, will they die? And if that is not what to feed them then what is? Th@nK Y0U G!Zm0
They will die if the bush you picked them off of is what they eat. I think its toni that was advising me on caterpillars and what plants they live on (not that I was interested! HAHA! jk) What type of bush was it on? Do you know? Can you take a pic and post it? Maybe someone can tell what else they will eat. Good luck on that and WELCOME!
Did you put lots of holes in the lid.Are they eatting the lettuce .If so they will probably live but more than likely they will start makeing cacoons .I just am not much help I'm sorry .I only saw one jarred and it started make the cacoon a little while after it was captured and it came to be the most beautful butterfly.My son let it out then.
thank you all for your help i will try and take a pic. and there r 6 in the jar with holes and from what I can see there not eating it just walking all around on them. also we dont know what the bush was it was a baby bush and they had nowhere eles to go.
http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk/america/index.htm Gizmo, Since you have seen the critter up close, check out this website and look thru their pages to see if you can identify it. You might be able to find the answer to what they eat also, but I really do not think it is lettuce from the grocery store since that is not what they find in the wild. Almost every kind has a specific plant they feed on and some only on that one plant like the Monarch. Toni
Thank you for fixing the pic Eileen. I'm computor stupied. :-? My 15 year old daughter had to do it for me. My hubby would have taken to long. I did let them go. They have made a new home in the oak tree out front. I do have a rose bush , lemon bush pic with ?'s and they will have to wait for my hubby to show me how to send the pic's.
Glad they have a home.Looks kinda like and Army worm .I do hope not.I really couldn't see if it has stripes and hairy .
They are really bad eats anything in sight .You don't have then for sure they are a forest green and have white stripes down the back .The hair on thim wave in the wind and there is so many it looks wierd.
Thanks for the site. Still haven't found it under caterpillers,moths,worms and other bugs. I'm not going to give up. G!zMo
