mrs.m Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 I'm not the outdoorsy type, so pardon the ignorance. Today while doing yardwork, we found 1 HUGE green caterpillar and 2 fuzzy brown ones. I'm pretty certain the fuzzy ones are Pyrrharctia isabella larva. The green one looks like it is literally layered in leaves and is maybe a cabbage looper, but it doesn't look much like the pictures on the net, so I'm not positive. Is it even worth keeping? Anyway, we also found some snails. The boys quickly decided that we needed more pets. I got some gladware and poked holes in the top. Scraped up some ground with moss in it and put some leaves in the entire thing. I'm not sure if they will live happily together or not. Do I need to give them their own homes? (gladware is temporary, I hope to find some bug keepers asap or maybe a butterfly house!) I do need these for units in RSO and can skip around to make this work out. Even though I already planned the first 6 weeks, It really is the better time of year to work on this unit. Is there a website that tells me how to keep these caterpillars happy and alive? We didn't find them on a plant. I moved a flower box and they were crawling around on our house having a party with the local snails and slugs. (I drew the line at keeping the slugs!) The flowerbox is actually just full of weeds. Should I keep them in the garage rather than inside in the AC? Any help is appreciated. I'm so excited about this!!! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 I would not keep the caterpillar. My friend is a naturalist, thought she knew which plant the caterpillar was eating and it still died. It wasn't a common one either. I'd take some pictures and put it back near where you found it. If it's very large and green, could it be a Tomato caterpillar. I'm not sure if that's the name but they eat plants in the tomato plant family. I think a subgroup or else different name is Tobacco caterpillar. To keep a caterpillar, you have to know THE one plant it eats. Many only have 1 or 2 host plants. They don't just eat any leaf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.m Posted July 31, 2010 Author Share Posted July 31, 2010 (edited) I would not keep the caterpillar. My friend is a naturalist, thought she knew which plant the caterpillar was eating and it still died. It wasn't a common one either. I'd take some pictures and put it back near where you found it. If it's very large and green, could it be a Tomato caterpillar. I'm not sure if that's the name but they eat plants in the tomato plant family. I think a subgroup or else different name is Tobacco caterpillar. To keep a caterpillar, you have to know THE one plant it eats. Many only have 1 or 2 host plants. They don't just eat any leaf. OK, we found it in the middle of the yard. Poor thing. But I can put it back and it can find its way to food. I still don't know about the other caterpillars though. I think they eat from our trees in the front yard because I often can find them on those leaves. Edited July 31, 2010 by jannylynn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Is it one of these? http://www.google.com/search?q=tomato+caterpillar&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.yahoo:en-US:official&client=firefox'>http://www.google.com/search?q=tomato+caterpillar&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.yahoo:en-US:official&client=firefox'>http://www.google.com/search?q=tomato+caterpillar&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.yahoo:en-US:official&client=firefox'>http://www.google.com/search?q=tomato+caterpillar&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.yahoo:en-US:official&client=firefox I should add that I hate to kill anything and I do my best to relocate an insect if it's in the house. Well, I dry the line at flies and ants....those get swatted and sprayed. Does it look like this? http://www.google.com/search?q=tomato+caterpillar&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.yahoo:en-US:official&client=firefox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.m Posted July 31, 2010 Author Share Posted July 31, 2010 No, it doesn't have any red on it. It is all green (turned grey in the box!!) and literally looks like it has been wrapped in leaves. It has four tiny stubby horns on the top. My neighbors have a garden but I don't think they would be too happy if I put this in their garden. :( I'll just put it back where I found it. It would have been mowed over if we hadn't picked it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 my naturalist friend may know what it is. She's napping with a headache but I'll ask her tonight and post back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmarango Posted August 1, 2010 Share Posted August 1, 2010 There are some caterpillars that do literally adhere small twigs and leaves to themselves for camouflage. If the caterpillar was quite large and was on the ground that it may have been looking for a place to pupate. Caterpillars will regularly travel long distances from the host plants before finding a suitable place. I have found that it is easiest to find a chrysalis that has been attached to a twig or in some other location where you can easily remove the chrysalis and what it has attached to. You can then tape it up to the lid of a terrarium and put a few twigs inside. Then, you just check on your chrysalis until the butterfly emerges. This is a temperature dependent process, so if you keep your house really cold then you may want to keep it in a warmer spot. However, if your house is 75 degrees + then it should be fine. Where are you located? That will be helpful in identifying your caterpillar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrs.m Posted August 1, 2010 Author Share Posted August 1, 2010 We're in MO. I have searched the internet and can't find anything that is just like it. I already set it free. I know they need a lot of food and I didn't want it to starve. And it freaked me out that it turned grey. I'm going to relocate the fuzzy ones to the garage where it is warmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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