Peyton was finger painting outside with me on the deck when he started playing with the leaves on our tree. "What is this ball thing?" he asked as he patted the head of the largest caterpillar I have ever seen. I told him to look at it closely and when he did, he realized what it was. Then became alarmed that he actually touched it! Ha! The big guy blended in so well with the leaves it was quite amazing that we found him. I touched on him for a while and realized that he was not the biting kind and convinced Peyton to touch him again, which he happily did once he saw that Mommy had no fear of him. After some research, I found out this big guy is called a Hornworm. They cocoon into huge moths. Moths lay eggs into the ground and that is how the cycle begins. They do no damage to trees and such, but it would be a different story if we actually had a vegetable garden. They LOVE tomato and tobacco plants and can do lots of damage to the plant as well as the tomatoes (and what I read other vegetable plants too). So we left the caterpillar alone since he really is not causing any problems to our tree since it sheds all of it's leaves in the fall anyway. This guy was a great find and it was fun talking to Peyton about what type of caterpillar it was, what it loved to eat and what he will eventually turn into.
No comments:
Post a Comment