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It's September, and the gardening word of the day is "eeew."  Eeew. Exhibit A: my pyracantha 'Mohave,' which I discovered in the process of being defoliated by voracious caterpillars clustered together and wiggling and generally grossing me out. The perps have yellow and black vertical stripes, black heads, and orange knobs along their body. I couldn't get a positive ID from my various bug sources - my best guess is Datana perspicua - but I can tell you that they grow really, really fast. I left them alone for a few days hoping the birds would eat them, and when I came back they seem to have quadrupled in size. More to the point, they were making short work of the pyracantha's foliage. They had to go.  Caterpillars, probably Datana perspicua, on my pyracantha 'Mohave.' Out came the step ladder and the clippers. Navigating my wild, unpruned pyracantha took a little doing, but I managed to park the ladder so that I could ever-so-gingerly snip off the caterpillar-filled branches and dispose of them. And then I saw this.  Woolly aphids on Pyracantha 'Mohave.' Eeew eeew eeew. This one sent me straight inside to my favorite bug book, where I identified these guys as woolly aphids, a fairly common pest of pyracantha but (happily) entirely new to me. I spritzed the infested branches with insecticidal soap, then, to make sure I had left no aphid or caterpillar behind, blasted the entire shrub with a strong jet of water from the hose. Mission accomplished. I walked away.  But wait - what's that crawling in my shirt? Eeeeew. Really, really eeeeew.
25 Comments
9/10/2013 02:02:07 pm
September really does seem to bring a bug explosion. I really hope I got them all too, since I do NOT want to go out there again. 9/10/2013 02:03:47 pm
I'm glad for you, but I'd keep an eye on that pyracantha of yours - since you are way north of me, they might be a bit later there! 9/10/2013 02:05:25 pm
Ah, the tomato horn worm with parasitic wasp eggs - my very first major garden "eeeew." They are completely gross, and yes, you are doing something right if you have them. 9/10/2013 02:56:40 pm
ICK! Those things are so gross. They just fall out of trees and onto passersby. GAG! 9/11/2013 02:14:52 am
I know! And let's not even talk about how many times you walk straight into spider webs at this time of year!
Anne Himmelfarb
9/11/2013 07:31:57 am
Spiderwebs are nothing compared to the creepy grossness of caterpillars. Have you seen the enormous hairy yellow ones crawling around? not sure what they are or what they're after--I know it's all part of God's plan and everything, but they still creep me out. How horribly icky, especially your last line. Where are your bird predators? Where are the ladybugs to eat the aphids? You need to pay your wildlife better to get them to show up for these infestations. I admire your approach -- check out the problem up close no matter how gross, look it up, diagnose it, then treat with insecticidal soap and water jets. You are a good steward of your garden, even when it is thoroughly disgusting to even look! 9/11/2013 08:27:18 am
Thanks for the encouragement. I have had so many bad bugs this year that I am at my wits' end. In fact, I am working on a theory that there are more bugs in the south because of climate conditions and that the birds simply can't keep up with them. Probably someone who knows about these things will tell me that's simply not true, but I prefer to think it is. Otherwise I will feel like a really, really crummy gardener. 9/11/2013 10:21:13 am
haha! Yes, the outside can be quite full of creepy crawlies. Seems we gardeners have to be prepared for anything. Good luck with the caterpillars. That seems like a lot of them! Unfortunately, I've had dealings with the wooly aphids. They really are nasty things. Ewww! 9/11/2013 12:00:14 pm
Oh no! Have the wooly aphids done a lot of damage? And how did you deal with them? I saw a few more when I was out inspecting the pyracantha today. I zapped them, but they do seem persistent. Your subject may be gross, but you sure had me laughing. I love the way you described the creepy crawlies are the "perps". I hate to be the potential bearer of bad news: I have tried flushing away aphids with the hose, but they always seem to come back. Hope your aphids are less persistent! 9/12/2013 02:45:32 am
That is not good news. ! I used some insecticidal soap too - do you think that changes anything? I have resigned myself to having to check the plant regularly for new incursions. Eeew. 9/12/2013 04:07:14 am
I have decided that the phrase I use most often in late summer is, "What's crawling on me?" I got the crawlies up my arms just reading about these creatures. So far the worst thing I've been encountering in the garden is big spider webs spun across walkways and openings-usually complete with a big resident spider sitting smack dab in the middle. It's gotten so bad I now stop and look up before walking under my arbor in the back garden. Euuuwwww! 9/13/2013 01:49:10 am
Hi Sue. I'm with you on those spider webs. For a while I couldn't go down into the yard from my back deck because the stairs were blocked by them. And they are all over my house, too. I leave them because they are catching bugs, but they are none too pretty. It's like we're decorated for Halloween a month early. 9/15/2013 08:43:54 am
These remind me of the tent caterpillars that attacked a plum tree some years ago. The caterpillars were very yucky. I saved the tree from the caterpillars, only to lose the tree to a storm. That's gardening! 9/15/2013 11:59:04 am
Ain't it the truth! Sometimes, a plant is just not meant to be, for whatever reason.
That is icky! After a rather traumatic episode involving a cabbage-white caterpillar, and a very sad would-be caterpillar owner (not me), we now have 2 of them munching away on broccoli leaves in a jar on the counter. Wait--why am I propagating garden pests, again? [sigh] If they survive to become butterflies, maybe we'll release them at the park...? 9/15/2013 12:01:22 pm
You're off the hook - these don't turn into pretty butterflies. I think they turn into awful moths, and while I am sure they have a place in the ecosystem, they have no business in my garden. But you make an interesting point - if a caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly, we cultivate them, but if they are merely ugly moths, we don't. 9/17/2013 02:28:35 pm
Tee hee. I know every creature has its place, but I have to admit sometimes I get grossed out, too. Especially when there are so many caterpillars or aphids (or any other creature) in one spot! 9/18/2013 02:20:11 am
You're right - it's all about seating capacity. I can tolerate a few intruders, but a full scale invasion must be repelled. Otherwise, I'll have no garden left for all the good guys. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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AuthorThe Galloping Horse Gardener is a native New Yorker who packed it in in 2005 to live under the radar in Cary, North Carolina. In 2014, she removed to a new secure location somewhere in Raleigh. Archives
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