CLOSED: half inch very thin striped caterpillar on baptisia

what caterpillar infests baptisia? i have never had them before this year of the monsoons here in tx. thanks for any help.

mama, can you get a picture of it?

i don't have a camara. this bug is leaving some webby type stuff on the leaves. the plant almost looks burned in spots this cat has been. the cat isn't striped like i said though. it is a very thin cat with hairs on his back. is it a tent cat?

You could go to Bug Files and look through the butterflies and moths and see if it's there.

Here's the Tent caterpillar:

http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/319/

it's not that. i know those cats are destructive but as a child i sure did like playing with them. i don't know how much bigger these will get but they are very tiny. and i don't know how to use the bug files i guess. is the only way to do it just to go and look at every picture? is there any kind of search engine? if so, can you search by the type of plant the bug is found on?

Right, you would have to go through each one, there's no way to type in a plant or markings on the cat. But, you could Google Images the description of the cat and maybe you will see one like it, for example..... hairy yellow caterpillar.

Or, you could try describing him on here and maybe someone will recognize him.


This site has a lot of images of cats, but it's time consuming to look through them.
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/

thank you. i think for now i am going to snip off all the branches and throw them all in the compost and hope they die of starvation. that sounds so cruel.

I think I may be able to add something here. I have the EXACT situation with my baptisia as Mamajack -- caterpillars, webs, burned and eaten leaves. I was actually searching for this caterpillar when I came across this thread! I do have a picture and would appreciate any help!

Bridget, yours does look like the Fall Webworm.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://woodypests.cas.psu.edu/Insects/FallWebworm/FWWCrabapple2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://woodypests.cas.psu.edu/FactSheets/InsectFactSheets/html/Fall_Webworm.html&h=480&w=640&sz=68&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=GvwiLOCLqSJyeM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfall%2Bwebworm%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DDNUS,DNUS:2006-36,DNUS:en%26sa%3DN

that might be what i have as well. thanks for the picture. i have already decided that i am just going to mechanically remove the ones i have. they don't sound too bad for the plants but i had just as soon not have them next year.

I'll be "removing" mine as well. This was my first year for blooms on my baptisia -- I don't need anything messing up a good thing. Thanks for the ID fly girl!

You're welcome! If you can relocate them, supposedly the birds like them.

bridget............how long have you had the baptisia? mine are in the ground going on 3 yrs. no bloom yet.

I got mine from Bluestone in the fall of 2004, so it's been a few years for me as well. They bloomed toward the end of May here. I was so excited you would've thought I'd won the lottery when they finally opened! I have had to stake them though -- they're a little floppy.

in texas they grow wild............these blue ones as well as a bright yellow one. it is TRULY beautiful to see a hillside of these blooming, esp. the blue. the plants that i have had in the ground here for years have never bloomed. i dug some of the wild ones up this year. the roots on them seemed to interconnect to the others and they are tortuous and extremely difficult to dig. so maybe it's a root thing that they have to develop.

Those look like an earlier instar of the Genista caterpillar:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://hortipm.tamu.edu/pestprofiles/chewing/genista/genista2a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hortipm.tamu.edu/pestprofiles/chewing/genista/genista.html&h=441&w=300&sz=60&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=2MbTmgWRT1NCnM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=86&prev=/images?q=genista+caterpillar&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&rls=HPIA,HPIA:2005-37,HPIA:en&sa=N

thanks to everyone. i am fairly certain that that is what i have. i cut away all of the infested foliage and there has been no re-infestation for over a week and the plants appear to be recuperating.