DRIPPING GARDENS WITH BLOOM: TO SQUISH OR NOT TO SQUISH

Bloom is the colorful and charming nursery, owned by Elizabeth McIntosh and her landscaper husband John, located on the grounds of Rolling in Thyme & Dough. Thanks to Bloom, our own gardens did indeed do so, and now Elizabeth has graciously agreed to share her gardening thoughts with us. This Thursday Elizabeth is back with a blooming vengeance in her ongoing series of gardening tips relevant to Dripping Springs gardens.

By Elizabeth McIntosh

‘Tis the season for worms in the garden, but before you squish or spray, make sure you know what it is you’re killing.  Many a panicked customer has come in with tales of devoured passion vine, parsley, or senna trees, only to find out all the worms they just smooshed were future butterflies.  

What makes one worm more or less desirable than the other?  I think the answer may lie somewhere between what the worm is eating and what it will become. Sure a Sphinx moth is really cool, but when it’s eating my tomato plants in the form of a Hornworm I draw the line. However, when the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars are munching on my passion vine I smile and let them go about their business. On the other hand, I remember finding a veritable infestation of the same caterpillars on my high-dollar, florist-quality sunflowers back when my husband John and I grew cut-flowers for a living.  A difficult decision to say the least, ultimately we came to a compromise involving a section of sacrificed sunflowers. 
 
Whether it’s your landscape, your vegetable garden, or your livelihood getting eaten, taking the time to find out who the culprit is can make finding the solution a whole lot easier. The most common worms I deal with in my gardens are hornworms, cabbage loopers, cutworms, pickle worms, and then the butterfly caterpillars. It’s interesting to note, however that they are all “caterpillars” in their larval stage. None of them are actually worms, but somehow the undesirables have been branded “worms,” while the butterfly larvae are celebrated with the loftier term caterpillar.
 
Hornworms primarily feed on tomato plants, although I have recently found them to be a problem on Gaura, Pentas, and Coral Honeysuckle. They start out quite small and are well camouflaged against the stems of the plants. Just look for stems devoid of leaves and the offender will likely be close-by. Left unchecked, they can devour a tomato plant to the point you begin to wonder if deer have been in your garden. Beware, I have seen them as large as a hot dog! And, much to the disappointment of my son years ago, they do not honk.

Cabbage Loopers are problematic on most brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, kale), lettuces various herbs (including basil).  They tend to be in full force during late spring and early fall. Medium sized and lime green, when you have one cabbage looper, you have a hundred. Check your broccoli well; they love to eat the florets. 

Cutworms are fat, gray or dull brown with shiny heads and live mostly under dense foliage or under ground. They hide during the day and come out at night and feed on the stems of nearby plants. When you go out in your newly planted vegetable garden and encounter plants chewed off at the bottom you can bet it was a cutworm. Sometimes digging around the base of the plant will reveal the perpetrator. 

Pickleworms are tiny worms that attack the cucurbit family: squash, cucumbers, and melons. They can be found mostly around the ends of the fruit where they basically etch the surface as they eat, occasionally boring their way in. To help keep them in check it is best to destroy or till in all infested crops right after harvest.

Mountain Laurel Worms (I think their official name is Tussock Moth larvae) are found mostly on — guess what? — Mountain Laurel trees. They feed primarily on the fresh new growth, leaving behind a lacy skeleton of the original leaf.  Check your trees often for signs of damage. Mountain Laurels are slow growing enough without losing all the new leaves to pesky worms.
 
Butterfly caterpillars are a book unto themselves but the most common ones that tend to affect our local landscapes are listed below. Please keep in mind I am an amateur butterfly enthusiast and will undoubtedly make some errors.

Gulf Fritillary is a dusty orange butterfly that lays its eggs on, among other things, passion vine. The caterpillars are bright orange with black spikes and they feed on the passion vine as they mature.  As long as you’re not starting with a brand new vine there should be plenty for them to eat and not adversely affect the life of the plant.

Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies are great big with black and yellow markings. Their caterpillars have black and white stripes and yellow spots and are often mistaken for Monarch caterpillars. They feed on plants in the Apiaceae family, including parsley, fennel, dill, and rue. 

And of course there is the Monarch. Feeding primarily on milkweed plants such as tropical milkweed and the curious looking antelope horns, their caterpillars are black, white, and yellow striped with black “antennae” on both ends.

Sulphur butterflies come in many sizes and colors but most yellow, orange or white.  All of our native sennas, or cassias, are hosts to their caterpillars, including the common senna tree, the two-leafed senna, and Lindheimer’s senna.  The caterpillars I have encountered are bright yellow with black bands and small black spots.
 
What to do about them? Once you decide what they are and whether they stay or go, getting rid of worms is pretty simple. There’s always the tried and true pick-and-squish method, but if you have either a squeamish disposition or too many to take care of manually, luckily there exists a product called Thuricide, or BT. It’s a bacteria that attacks worms and only worms and is approved for organic use. It is sold as a liquid concentrate or a powder, the liquid being the most useful except for on brassicas where the powder seems to work better. BT needs to be both stored at mild temperatures and applied before the heat of the day. Unfortunately, the bacteria do not discriminate between desirable and undesirable worms and will take out the Butterfly caterpillars just as quickly as the Hornworms. Be selective where you use it.
 
Although I can’t help you with the morality of the issue, hopefully you can now make an informed decision as to squish or not to squish.  A good rule of thumb to adhere to is to plant enough for the bugs and birds too, worms and caterpillars included.

Photographs by and copyright Elizabeth McIntosh. From top: Albino Sulphur butterfly, Sulphur caterpillar, Giant Cloudless Sulphur butterfly, Swallowtail caterpillar, Monarch butterfly, Hornworm, Swallowtail butterfly, Monarch caterpillar, Gulf Fritillary butterfly, Gulf Fritillary caterpillar, Passion flower.

PAST DRIPPING GARDENS WTH BLOOM:
March 26, 2009: A PLEA FOR LATE BLOOMING PLANTS (THE LORAX SPEAKS!)
March 20, 2009: DRIPPING GARDENS WITH BLOOM: OF TOMATO DETERMINATION AND THE TRUTH ABOUT GREEN PEPPERS
March 12, 2009: DRIPPING GARDENS WITH BLOOM: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG! (OF "MR. MOM" MOMENTS AND THE COMMANDMENTS OF COMPOST AND MULCH)
February 26, 2009: OF ONE HIT WONDERS AND THE SINGING GARDEN
February 18, 2009: OF SLOWING DOWN AND THE CALL OF THE TOMATO
February 11, 2009: OF VEGETABLES AND OPTIMISM
February 4, 2009: OF WEEDS, WATER, AND WARM WINTER DAYS
January 29, 2009: OF CUTTING BACK PERENNIALS AND CRAPE MURDER            

 

Posted by DSBabble.com at Thursday, May 07, 2009 9:05 AM
Categories: dripping gardens with bloom
Tags: caterpillars bloom driping springs hill country gardens gardening
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