Caterpillars

Caterpillars are the larval stage of moths and butterflies such as cabbage moth, cabbage white butterfly, potato moth and tomato moth. The butterflies and moths usually lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves of plants that their young will feed on when they hatch.

Armyworm or cutworm are the caterpillars of a moth. These caterpillars eat through the stems of seedlings and lawns. The armyworm's diet comprises mainly of grasses and some small grain crops. When Army worms feed on the foliage and shoots of grass they leave bare patches. An infestation can be hard to detect as the caterpillars migrate to new feeding areas in the cool of the night. When the caterpillars near pupation, they can devastate an entire crop in a few days. The parent moth rarely does any damage and is not often seen as they mainly fly at night. These 45mm-long, greeny-brown grubs hide in the lawn thatch during the day. Look for small moths over your lawn at dusk. These are the adult army worms mating and laying eggs. Cutworms such as greasy cutworms chew the stems of young plants at night and hide in the soil around the base of the attacked plant during the day. They climb up stems and chew large holes in leaves of a wide variety of garden plants.

How to control caterpillars and other plant eating insect larvae.

1. Organic NO Caterpillars is a bio-control product that can be used to protect vegetables, other crops, fruit trees, ornamentals and susceptible plants from damage by all sorts of caterpillars incliuding looper, leafroller, cutworm and webworm. Beneficial insects such as ladybirds and bees are not harmed. There is no withholding period when Organic NO Caterpillars is used.
2. Systemic insecticides such as NO Insects Spectrum Powder and Liquid can protect non crop plants from damage.
3. Contact insecticides such as NO Insects Maldison and Carbaryl will control infestations on non crop and crop plants, but there is a withholding period for these insecticides where the crops cannot be eaten for a period following treatment.
4. Lawns can be protected from attack by armyworm using NO Insects Lawngard Prills. Check out the Lawn Care page.

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