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Wicked looking catapillar!!


Coytee

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So, yesterday, I was outside getting a field cut, working on some things....  you know the drill.

 

Was talking to my brother in law when all the sudden, on the ground, I see this armor plated murderous catapillar.  Realizing that "pretty" things in nature can many times be dangerous, my brother in law took a small twig to touch the spines on it to see if they were hair or....  indeed spines.

 

As he touched it, this thing literally swung its head around to attack him and try to stab him with the spines on its head.

 

It was fascenating.  This thing was 100% attitude.  We took the hint and let him scoot along the way.  Looked it up this morning and turns out its bark is worse than its bite.

 

Here it is.  Those are either VERY stiff hairs or indeed, little spikes.  Interesting to me how this one is just sitting there (maybe it's dead?) and the one we saw was full of attitude.  

 

https://www.kidsdiscover.com/quick-reads/meet-the-hickory-horned-devil-a-fierce-but-harmless-caterpillar/

 

 

 

Hickory_Horned_Devil_Caterpillar.jpg

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Never seen one that looked like that. 

 

We get the ones that fall out of Oak trees and also eat Azaleas. Kind of black, white and red.

 

Many years ago our middle daughter ran across the yard not knowing a bunch of caterpillars fell out of an Oak tree and were all over the grass. She had no shoes on and they stung the bottom of both feet. She was in the hospital for 3 days, but was ok in the end.

 

I just sprayed the azaleas las week because I seen them starting to eat the leaves.

 

This kind, much smaller that the one you seen, these are about 2". 

animals_(47).jpg

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Those can eat a big section in a day, you will see maby 50 of them in an area and they just move down the row eating. Now these are Formosa azaleas between 6' tall and 8' tall, mostly what we have here except for one row around where the garden meets the driveway. 

 

The good part is they only eat the leaves and they grow right back, it doesn't really hurt the plant much, maby on a smaller plant if they eat every leaf ? Spraying worked very quickly to kill them, I was spraying some fungicide when I noticed them so I sprayed to get rid of the caterpillars the next evening.

9 hours ago, Coytee said:

Are those bagworms?

 

9 hours ago, oldtimer said:

Those are not bagworms, nor webworms. 

I looked them up, what a surprise they called an Azalea caterpillar.

 

 

http://gardeninginms.blogspot.com/2010/09/pest-alertattack-of-azalea-caterpillar.html

 

Pest Alert:Attack of the Azalea Caterpillar

 
AzaleaCat.JPG
Azalea Caterpillar
Azalea caterpillars are showing up on azaleas this time of year. You might have seen moths about 2 inches long with orangish-brown banded wings flying around your azaleas. The moths are sort of pretty until the lay their 100s of eggs on your favorite azalea and the caterpillars start eating.


Azalea caterpillars primarily attack azaleas, especially the “indica” varieties. They will however feed on blueberry, viburnums, and apples. This large (2 inches at maturity), strikingly marked caterpillar is an occasional pest of azaleas throughout the South. Newly-hatched azalea caterpillars are yellow with longitudinal reddish stripes, but their appearance changes markedly as they grow. Older caterpillars are black, checkered with yellow or white, and have a reddish-orange head and legs. If you disturb the caterpillars they will raise their heads and tails raised, creating a broad u-shape.


Newly-hatched larvae feed together on the undersides of leaves, causing leaf skeletonization. As larvae grow they spread out and feed individually, causing progressively greater amounts of defoliation. Heavy infestations can cause total defoliation of entire plantings of azaleas. As with most caterpillars, 80 to 90 percent of the total leaf area that a single caterpillar will eat during its life is eaten during the last 3 to 4 days before pupation. This is why severe defoliation can seem so sudden. Plants that appear perfectly fine on Sunday afternoon can be totally defoliated by Wednesday afternoon.


Be alert for signs of leaf skeletonization caused by the young caterpillars. Infestations are most common in late summer and early fall. Early detection and control of young larvae can prevent serious defoliation injury. If you find only small numbers of caterpillars, remove them by hand. If you choose chemical controls, select products that contain active ingredients: permethrin, bifenthrin, carbaryl, acephate, cyfluthrin, cyhalothrin, Bts, or spinosad.

 

 

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