caterpillar
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Defending Corn From Caterpillars

When I first posted about the new spikes of corn growing in my Three Sisters Garden, someone asked whether I expected problems with them being nibbled on by squirrels. In the center of the housing development where I am, we have no mature trees and I don’t see squirrel visitors here yet. However, I did Continue reading
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Wildlife Visitors

I am not building a garden to have a collection of pretty plants, although that will hopefully be a pleasant side-effect. The real goal is to create a small pocket of nature that will be healthy for the land and welcoming to wildlife. Here’s an example of what is happening, which encourages me. As I Continue reading
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Genista Broom Moth Caterpillars Eat Bluebonnets, Too

I have twice had populations of Genista Moth (Uresiphita reversalis) caterpillars on my Texas Mountain Laurel tree (September 2023, November 2023) behind the house. On both of those occasions it was more important to me to protect my young and somewhat stressed tree and so I picked off caterpillars as I found them. I only Continue reading
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More Caterpillars On The Texas Mountain Laurel

A couple of months ago I had an infestation of Genista Broom Moths on my Texas Mountain Laurel tree. Last week I noticed a new crop of hungry caterpillars munching on the tender growing parts of the same tree. I wrote about this more in my earlier post, but the bottom line in choosing whether Continue reading
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Genista Broom Moth — A Choice Had To Be Made

Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora) trees are slow-growing and expensive. So I was dismayed to check one morning and see 30 or so caterpillars munching on the fresh new growth of my tiny tree. The second photo is a crop of the first. ID with the help of iNaturalist told me that these are caterpillars Continue reading
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We Need Caterpillars!
If you want your garden to be visited by birds or butterflies, then you need to be willing to accept caterpillars, and they will voraciously eat holes in the leaves of their host plants. Even before I’d had a chance to plant much of anything here, we were blessed with an abundance of volunteer sunflowers. Continue reading
About Me
Nature Lover.
Inquisitive Observer.
Student Gardener.
I invite you to join me on my journey to convert my sterile (from a nature point of view) new house lot to a healthy and diverse ecosystem, as I make discoveries, mistakes, and hopefully progress. I am not an expert or professional. The project started in February 2023 and the location is Seguin, Texas, USA.
