Why I Hate Caterpillars
 

Sounds like the title to a long essay, but suffice it to say that 3 days ago a pic of the following plant would have shown an almost 2" spike of fat buds getting ready to do their thing. That evening I picked a caterpillar from what was left of the spike, a single bud. Spiranthes sinensis:

Oh no! :evil:

:bua: It happens to the best of us. I had to pick a slug off what remained of my Ctsm. Sheriff Frank Drew. I still haven't gotten to see that thing bloom. I know your pain.

Sorry :(

Oh no, I'm re-thinking about wanting to grow outside.

Sorry to hear the bad news. You look forward to these things blooming for so long and then...yeah. I know. It happens to me, too.
For me, it is the little bush snails that came with one of my orchid orders.

What type of caterpillar?
I like some of them, the ones that just eat weeds or, yes, I will even share my herbs with the Black Swallowtail and plant wildflowers for others. However, I hate the clearwing borer moth lava that have killed THREE cherry trees, despite faithfully spraying! Grrrrr.

What a shame. Well, hopefully the one bud will do OK.

Yep, pests are a pest! I got up last night to turn on the fertiliser injector, wandered over to the chids only to find a couple of dendrobium beetles eating my vanda blooms. 1st of all, supposed to be 'dendrobium' beetles, so why ignore the dendrobiums and eat my vanda's and as for the vanda's...why my favourite ones only?

Ugggg I feel your pain. Been waiting 6 months for my brassavola to spike and something munched off all but 1 bud !!!! Well at least these pesky pests seem to have a smidgen of compassion .... They leave one bud :-)

Sorry!