Attacked!

Posted on 23 Jan, 2009 20 comments

Attacked!

Sitting on the terrace enjoying a drink this afternoon I noticed my plant in the pond. It looked strange….it looked empty. It was EATEN. Something had eaten my plant. I was mad! I went over to investigate. 3 Large light brown caterpillars, fat and full, were sitting there against the stems of what was left over of my plant. The war was on!

I grabbed one, which was not easy. It felt velvety soft, but it had strong feet, quite a number of them, with what I felt, were suction capped. He wouldn’t let go. No wonder, life was so marvelous there for him. Some butterfly must have been laying her eggs on my plant, without asking permission. Now I was struggling getting these three off, but of course they had to let go, I was stronger. I put them next to each other on the veranda tiles and took their picture.

Then I asked hubby:”What now?” I didn’t want to squeeze them to death, or step on them, for they might be turning into the most beautiful butterfly later on. “Throw them in the neighbour’s garden”, was his wise answer. The neighbours are on holidays and they have a totally neglected garden anyway. They would have a feast there. OK. Good idea.

So I picked them up with a stick, onto which they nicely hung. One dangling here, the other there, and then onto each other. The quickest way was through the house, into the back garden. I just had one good look at them, but for fear of loosing them onto the lawn and not finding them back, I didn’t want to take another picture..
They fell off the stick anyway. I quickly got a little spade and managed to get them onto that. They were holding onto my fingers as I was transferring them from the lawn onto the spade, haha. But again, I won. They felt very strong in their feet, sucking tickling onto me. Lucky I didn’t feel their teeth! I bet you they have verocious teeth too. And you know what you can learn from the photo? They’ve got 4 eyes, really. Two on either side behind one another. Crazy….
So, the short airborne journey to the fence began. They musn’t have know what hit them, suddenly they were flying through the air, as I swung them over the fence. Hopefully they can’t make it back here, or it would take them weeks. By that time they probably have changed into butterflies.
So I came back to the pond. Inspecting every leaf which was left and the ones which were munched partly I still found 3 small ones. I treated the fish with those. They gobbled them up in one gulp. Gone is gone.
Now I am only left with this poor looking plant…...sad story.

Comments

Nariz

Ugh! Horrid! Although they do look fascinating - not your common-or-garden munchers - but then you are in quite a tropical area. Do you know what they will morph into? The four "eyes" are obviously to scare off predators, with their real eyes being almost invisible amongst the rolls of fat they've gained munching on your plants

23 Jan, 2009

Gilli

Never mind Marguerite. It will grow new leaves and look as good as new soon.
Those caterpillers have 4 eyes???....All the better to see you with. How big were the caterpillers? They look like they would be from some kind of moth but who knows?
I found a huge green one last year that was about 5" long. It turned out to be a giant green tomato hornworm. These turn into big sphinx moths with a 5" wingspan. These moths are often called hummingbird moths and can be mistaken for hummingbirds when they hover iin front of flowers to feed.

23 Jan, 2009

Wagger

It looks very similar to an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar that we have in Europe - only smoother bodied, so I would be inclined to agree on moth. Huge appetites and a real pain in the posterior - love fuchsias which drives me nuts. Hope your neighbour doesn't find out!

23 Jan, 2009

Majeekahead

oh-er, rather funny looking things arn't they, must say you are brave picking them up with your fingers ooowwww, i think i would sent them packing next door too, after all if their garden is over grown sounds like you will be doing them a favour.

23 Jan, 2009

Grenville

What horrors. We hope the aquatic plants recover soon.

23 Jan, 2009

Shirleypoppy

I'm with Wagger here - Hawk Moth of some sort. My fuchsia was stripped to its bones. Next time you see a moth hovering in front of one of your tropical trumpet shaped flowers, Marguerite, don't forget to say "Hi"!

23 Jan, 2009

Marguerite

Ohh that is lovely, all your nice comments. Thank you so much.Grenville, the thing is, they were horrors, but I thought they were so sweet. Those googely eyes ( should put them on google, LOL ) and those little feet with clenching fists, then their absolutely soft body. With hindsight of course, hubby said:"You should have put them in a container, fed them with leaves and water and see what they turned out to be like"......so much for you should. I would have loved to have done that, but at that moment all I wanted to do was get rid of them, outof my garden. Shirleypoppy, you had me in stitches, I will say "Hi", but tell them to get lost too.
Of course I now have to look out for flying creatures. We do have a huge moth, which I call butterfly. Here is his picture which I took last year. Maybe these were her eggs hatched into caterpillars.
http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/26647-butterfly-on-grevillea/member/Marguerite

23 Jan, 2009

Arlene

~keep an eye out to see if you get more on any of your other plants Marguerite? you could always try Plan B then~at least you know what they like to eat!

23 Jan, 2009

Gee19

They certainly had a feast before they were air-lifted to the next door property. I did a similar thing with some I found years ago (later discovered they were death head hawk caterpillers). I carried them across the lane on a stick and put them through the school fence - thought they would make an interesting nature lesson for the children! :)

23 Jan, 2009

Lincslass

LOL.Marguerite that was naughty!! however I do admit I have been known to throw snails and slugs onto a garage roof that is over fence at bottom of garden the birds get a feast,..

23 Jan, 2009

Spritzhenry

I think you did exactly the right thing, M. Very eco, as well!

23 Jan, 2009

Michaella

makes me laugh!

23 Jan, 2009

Marguerite

Thank you all again for your nice comments, some so witty, it brightens my day.

24 Jan, 2009

Gilli

The link you gave, Marguerite is definitely a butterfly not a moth. In fact it is a Cairns Birdwing Butterfly, apparently a protected species.

24 Jan, 2009

Gilli

Marguerite, I THINK your caterpillar may be the larva of the Hawk Moth..Theretra tryoni. I don't know what it's common name would be.
Have a look at this link and at the second caterpillar photo...
http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/sphi/tryoni.html
See what you think.

24 Jan, 2009

Paulthegard..

Lovely story, made me laugh. I'm glad you can't throw as far as my garden in Essex, Uk though. I get enough caterpillars on my cabbages/Brussels sprouts in our summer from the cabbage white butterflies.Your story made me smile on a cold winter's day here.

24 Jan, 2009

Donnah

Lovely blog it is very funny

25 Jan, 2009

Marguerite

Yes Gilli, that's him! Now such a beautiful name for such a common moth, haha. Thanks Paulthegardener and Donnah for reading my blog and your nice comments. Paul I couldn't possibly, even if I tried and besides....I think this caterpillar would have frozen to death there. Next time I shall resolve to different measures I think.

26 Jan, 2009