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Caterpillars all around!
We are passionate about our local pollinators! We started this project to encourage our friends, neighbors, and the community at large to join us in our passion for these wonderfully beneficial yet vulnerable beings. We have spent countless hours working to offer advice on ways to create pollinator habitat through careful landscaping choices. Now we would like to offer some information about a few of the local pollinators we have been working so hard in our yards & gardens to plant for.
Butterflies & Moths are specialists, meaning they need specific plants to sustain their lifecycles. Those sustaining plants are referred to as host plants. For example, the Monarch Butterfly cannot survive without Milkweed. Monarchs lay their eggs exclusively on the underside of Milkweed leaves, they do this because the Milkweed leaf is the only food source for the Monarch's larva or caterpillar. Without Milkweed Monarch Caterpillars will not survive, Milkweed is the Monarch Caterpillars' only host plant.
Not all butterfly & moth species are as dependent on one specific host plant like the Monarch but most have only a handful or fewer host plants that will sustain reproduction.
Why caterpillars are not pests
Doug Tallamy the renowned ecologist has said "Life as we know it depends on insects. If insects were to disappear most flowering plants would go extinct." Doug points to a recent study that "caterpillars dominate the nestling diets in 16 out of 20 bird families." What makes caterpillars so appealing to mother birds is that they are highly nutritious and soft so they can stuff them down the throats of their babies. It takes between six and nine thousand caterpillars to feed a brood of chickadees. But to turn into butterflies, caterpillars need to complete their life cycle. Possibly on a tree, but more likely among flower beds or leaf litter, and for this reason, fallen leaves should be left undisturbed until the late fall.
Explore, Photograph, Identify, and Share!
We encourage you to get out in your own yard or garden to find, photograph, and ID your caterpillars and their host plants! Use the following link for some useful tips & tricks to aid you in your search http://www.raisingbutterflies.org/finding-immatures/
We recommend using iNaturalist either on your smartphone or desktop to help you identify the caterpillars you may find.
Please share your caterpillar and host plant photos with us, we'd love to see them! Send your photos to woodstocknypollinatorpathway@gmail.com
Let's take a closer look at a few of our local caterpillars and their host plants.
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