Comments for
Black and Red-Orange Striped Caterpillar (Salt Marsh Moth caterpillar)

Click here to add your own comments

Salt Marsh Moth caterpillar
by: Moni

Katie
I believe you have salt marsh caterpillars. They do turn into moths. These fuzzy caterpillars come in several color variations. Here are the photos of the moths and various caterpillars - http://bugguide.net/node/view/3242/bgimage
The other fuzzy caterpillar that comes in several colors is the Virginian Tiger Moth, but I do not think that it is that one...Does yours have a black face? Then it is the salt marsh.
We will know for sure if you rear them to the adult moth.
These caterpillars can move very fast and they do have white spiracles...the holes in their sides where they breathe.
These are found over all of North America except Alaska. They are found in open meadows, fields, weedy areas, prairies, salt marshes and grasslands.
The larvae feed on a wide variety of weedy plants including pigweed, anglepod, sicklepod, dog fennel, ground cherry, and mallow, besides crops like alfalfa, beans, cabbage, carrots ,celery, clover, corn, lettuce onion, peas, potato, soybean, tomato, and turnip to name a few. They have rarely been seen on fruit tree foliage also.
They are not considered a pest.
There are 3-4 generations of this insect in the south. The caterpillars are known to be active, wandering around to find food.
We love such great questions. So good to know someone else likes insects like we do :-)
Thanks Noelle for your help!

NOW INFO FOR REARING CATERPILLARS -
Here is what I have written for others wanting to try to rear caterpillars in case you want to try.

- The rearing of caterpillars is a challenge. Mother Nature does it best. And just so you know ahead of time, when you find a caterpillar in the 'wild', sometimes they have been parasitized....meaning another insect like a fly or wasp has laid eggs inside the caterpillar. So when you try to rear the caterpillar, it dies from the eggs inside it - not something you can predict.

Here is a good site for rearing caterpillars...click on Raising.... on the right hand side to read the various suggestions. You can also submit questions These are folks that raise them regularly.
http://www.buglifecycle.com

With all that said the basics of rearing any insect is to feed it what it wants to eat...fresh (never sprayed with insecticides) food continually. Then, when the caterpillar stops eating...they will typically go searching for a place to pupate. It is best to provide layers of barely damp paper towels for the caterpillar to pupate in between. Then this needs to be kept someplace where the temperatures are much like outside. Then you let it emerge with the normal weather. Putting a stick in for the moth to climb up on. This is a brief description and may not be enough for rearing but gives you an idea.


caterpillars
by: Noelle

I would think lettuce would be fine - the caterpillars out here LOVE parsley and butterflies always lay eggs on mine. If you have some, might try that. I don't recognize the type of caterpillar you have there, but I'd think most tender leaves would be ok.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Insect Identification

Return to Black and Red-Orange Striped Caterpillar (Salt Marsh Moth caterpillar)




All of Doug's Ebooks Can Be Found Here





Subscribe


Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner



Subscribe in a reader




Subscribe in a reader

E-Mail Updates


Enter Email Address Here:

Delivered by FeedBurner



Videos

Watch Videos


Loading...

.