Was away from home a couple of days and came back to find these orange caterpillars with black spikes had eaten all of the leaves off of my passifloras - grrrrrr! Anyone know what they are? I tried to look them up in the bug files but couldn't find them. Don't have a picture yet, will try to get one tomorrow.
Orange caterpillars with black spikes
gulf frittilarys ? orange /black butterfly similiar to monarch.... eats up mine
That's them! little buggers!! Now I don't know what to do! This is my first year growing passis and I have been waiting to see some blooms. I really really want my plants but I hate to kill the caterpillars, I love the butterflies too. Man oh man!!
I'd probably leave them alone--Passiflora is a host plant for that particular species of butterfly. If the plant is really small and is in danger of being completely defoliated, then I'd probably remove them but otherwise every time you look at the munched on leaves just remind yourself of the pretty butterfly that you're helping!
they do seem to destroy very small starts but they always come back....never lost a plant to them
Well we will see what happens. Have decided to leave them alone. Hopefully the passis will recover. Thanks for the info!
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