Wild geranium badly attacked - Ask Extension
Good afternoon,
My wild geranium planted in a pot has been decimated by the Angle shades caterpillar. I used iNaturalist to ID the caterpillar, so ...
Knowledgebase
Wild geranium badly attacked #869308
Asked May 20, 2024, 3:45 PM EDT
Good afternoon,
My wild geranium planted in a pot has been decimated by the Angle shades caterpillar. I used iNaturalist to ID the caterpillar, so I found around 5 of them in what is left of the plant. Now I noticed they started with the Jacob's ladder because they are planted in the same pot.
Please let me know what to do, I don't want to kill the caterpillars but I don't want my two plants gone, and then probably the rest of my native garden balcony.
Thank you,
Rose Johnson
Baltimore County Maryland
Expert Response
Hi,
Congratulations on attracting a native caterpillar to your native plants! They are doing their purpose. Do you have a bird feeder area? Maybe you could clip a stem and leaf and put some out for the birds to eat.
The plants should have enough root storage to put out more growth once the caterpillars move on or get eaten by a predator/predatory insect.
It looks like the eat about anything, ferns are on their list of food sources so that means they could eat most leaves off of anything. If they are abundant you could move some to a natural area where you see some ferns.
Emily
Hi Emily,
Thank you very much for the information.
Rose
You are welcome!
