Identify Common Garden Caterpillars

Posted by Jamie McIntosh Jul 28, 2009

One of my stops on vacation this summer was the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina. My boys were fascinated by the trout hatchery, and when the rain drove us indoors, we appreciated the smaller aquariums too. The gift shop included the usual assortment of wildlife puppets, t-shirts, and postcards, but my favorite souvenir from my 3-week vacation also came from this gift shop: a caterpillar field guide.

I don’t know how I’ve managed this long without this useful guide. I always knew how to identify my worst caterpillar pest (the tomato hornworm) and my most welcome larva (the black swallowtail caterpillar), but there are so many more caterpillars that I wasn’t sure whether to accommodate or drop in a bucket of soapy water. Gardeners interested in attracting butterflies to the garden must know how to identify their larvae, or else risk decimating the next generation of butterflies with a round of Bt.

My purchase was from the Peterson First Guides series, which isn’t comprehensive for North America but certainly expands my knowledge beyond the three or four caterpillars I could identify previously. The illustrations of 120 caterpillars include the adult form, and the text includes information about habitat, host plants, and defense mechanisms. It isn’t too early to start thinking about Christmas gifts for gardeners, and I would place a field guide to caterpillars high on the wish list.