Garden Pests and Diseases: Caterpillar inside meadow rue cane - eh what??, 0 by joanlc

joanlc wrote:
A week or two ago, a storm bent and broke the top of the largest cane/stem of my thalictrum, so I went and cut it off at the broken point. In the last week, still more of that particular cane appeared to be dying off, with all the leaves and flower buds drying up further down the cane. So I went out to cut away the dead material. I cut away only a little at a time, to prevent damage to other delicate leaves and so on. As I went down the stem, I noticed it was quite hollow, like a reed; no wonder it couldn't support foliage. I had been thinking it was environmental damage, perhaps something I harmed during the staking process. But about a couple feet from the ground, there were healthy new offshoots, growing well. I trimmed the cane closer and closer to this point, and noticed this little devil in there. Anyone ever get a caterpillar *inside* a cane like this? I theorize it got in through the original storm damage point, but -- not sure! Can it have arrived by any other means? Can anyone identify this? Should I consider some control method? Thalictrum is supposed to be pretty much pest-free, and I've never seen anything like this in any other plant around here.