Friday, July 15, 2011

Caterpillars, Caterpillars Everywhere

Remember to look up sometimes, it's amazing what you might see. I was in my backyard the other day, watering my little vegetable garden, and I noticed little black pellets the size of peppercorns all over the ground. What on earth could they be? They were caterpillar poop.

I had a similar run in with caterpillars when we first moved into this house. I didn't realize I had an infestation of caterpillars until they were crawling up the outside walls. Then I looked up to see that the creatures, cute as they are, had stripped the tree of every single leaf. The caterpillar poop was everywhere and the tree had to be sprayed and cut back. Amazingly it's been two years and the tree has grown back and is healthy. I guess the caterpillars don't remember what happened to their relatives last time they went to work on my tree. They all ended up dead.

I called my gardener today and he will be out to spray the the little suckers on Monday. It sounds cold hearted, but I'll be happy to see them dead. My backyard is a mess, and with beautiful weather for barbeques, I'd like to be able to sit outside without a pile of caterpillar poop. I hope they get the memo this time. Don't come into Susie's yard.

No comments:

Post a Comment