Natural Insect Repellent Caterpillars

I found ‘munchers’ (caterpillars) on my various seedlings today… and I was delighted! Weird? Not at all, when you consider how lovely it would be to have a garden full of butterflies and moths floating with ease, sipping nectar and assisting to pollinate your fruit garden and vegie patch. And to achieve that you need to have butterfly ‘toddlers’… caterpillars.

But I must admit, I don’t really want them munching their way through our food supply.

So the way to have butterfly toddlers as well as an intact food garden is to identify the caterpillar and give it an alternative to munch on.

I decided not to enlist LTSH’s (Long Term Suffering Husband) help. I only wanted to search the internet for caterpillar id’s – not undertake a full scale investigation that involves downloading e-books from all over the world that include rare and exotic species (”because you just never know!”) of butterfly and moths, and then stalking entomologists and butterfly-oligists (???) to pick their brains and learn everything they know… until they almost consider taking out a restraining order against us!

Hmmmmm… I’m just lucky he spends most of his time inside!

The first muncher to be addressed was the little chappie taking chunks out of my Grape Vine. He is smooth and green with a black pointer coming up from his tail. Apon a little research (much to LTSH’s horror if he knew) I discovered this little muncher is going to grow into the ‘humming bird-like’ Hawk Moth.

I discovered that Hawk Moth Larvae feed on Grape Vines (tell me about it!) and other members of the Vitaceae Family, Impatiens, Sweet Potato, Rhubarb, Arum Lily and Frangipani.

The trick now is to get some pots of Rhubarb growing, as well as Impatiens. Now, I’m not keen on the idea of Impatiens, as they grow madly, popping their seed pods every which way (plus they’re classed as a weed in the shire where I live). But my mum has a bush at her place and keeps it under control by simply plucking out the new seedlings as they sprout. I have two native Frangipanis in a pot that I can plant in the area where the grape vines are going, and see what impact they have.

Now, the little fatty muncher who has been chomping on my Sweet Basil which I’ve planted with my Roma Tomatoes is one of the Cluster Caterpillars. He is dark brown with stripes and little triangles and spots. He curled up in a ball when I touched him, and consequently had a run-in with gravity as he fell off the plant onto the soft sugar cane mulch. I promptly picked him back up and put him back on the Basil.

Why?

Because the Basil is doing its job perfectly! Apparently these little munchers like to chomp on Strawberry, Tobacco, Tomato, Apple, Cotton, Cabbage, Cauliflower and broad leaves. So he’s left my tomatoes alone because the Basil enticed him away. That’s Companion Planting for you.

Apparently they don’t do a lot of harm to plants – often chomping just one side of a leaf and leaving the other side intact. I can handle that – and I’m sure my Basil can too.

Then there was another little muncher on my Silverbeet – green with black stripes down both sides of his body. He looks like he has a false head at the rear end, and also two small yellowy-silver stripes on either side of his body.

I’ve been having a challenge discovering this little guy’s identity. And I’m beginning to cast looks of helplessness in LTSH’s direction, and weighing up the pros and cons – do I chance becoming a butterfly-ologist stalker just to discover who’s munching my Silverbeet?

Chances are I may not need to, as apon closer inspection I see that another tray of Silverbeet that hasn’t been chomped on is sitting on a tray with Oregano, Marjoram and Thyme seedlings. Hmmmm… interesting… fluked Companion Planting. These herbs may not be the ‘lamb to slaughter’ alternative food supply for a chomper, they might actually be an effective repellent.

I’ll plant those herbs amongst my Silverbeet and see what happens.

Try Companion Planting among your fruit and vegetable garden – it’s a great alternative to pesticides and sprays. Without them you’ll also attract birds and lizards to your garden – great gardening assistants… and you can still achieve that most wonderful of sights… floating nectar sippers gliding overhead, and maybe even have the honour of one resting a moment on your sleeve.

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