Caterpillar

[eek]

Call me naive, but ive never "looked after" a caterpillar.

Bf found this one on the side of the road, and gave it to me, as im curious to know what it emerges as (please dont tell me though!).

Just wondered if anyone knows that kind of plant it may prefer, as would like to provide it with the right food.

Have info on how to make it a good home, just that i read different species have different preferences.

So any thoughts would be great. Thanks!

[tutsiwarrior]

I have an affection for caterpillars and usually put them out of the way of harm...and then one time a friend said: 'anyone that removes a caterpillar from the sidewalk to remove them from harm needs no other qualification...' and she was deadly serious...but we disagreed about other things and she is no longer a friend...

I'd say just give him/her some leafy green vegetable and it should be OK...caterpillars benefit from the fact that they don't have luxuriosly long white legs and (ouch! look out! incoming missiles!)

PM me, babe as I am in town and I got sum whiskey and then we can discuss catepillar welfare in more comfortable surroundings...

[Tywais]

I'm hesitant to touch one now. Several times I pointed out a harry insect that looks like a caterpillar, such as above, and told not to pick it up as it will cause major itching.

[canuckamuck]

Yes. I have been told there are some nasty ones out there. My wife is quite fearless about bugs, but she has some fear for caterpillars, particularly green fuzzy ones. Apparently she came contact with one while picking tea, and it was extremely painful.

[Cuban]

Sorry I'm late to your thread but I thought I had some experience to offer.

I had a caterpillar brush across my face while out in the wilds, it really hurt and felt like the skin on my face was bubbling. Without anything with me all I could do was get a sample of the caterpillar in case it would aid in any treatment I might later need, I was about 20 minutes from home by motorbike and much of the pain was gone by the time I was able to consider first-aid. I now know that the best first-aid is to use sticky tape to pull away the urticating hairs, then hydro-cortisone cream if required.

I did later speak to an expert in Thai butterflies & moths: He suggested that many of the caterpillars that have urticating hairs (of the type that I encountered) develop into moths although he was unable to tell the exact type, he said that if I had kept it I might contribute to research in the subject as there are many types of caterpillars that still need to be connected to their resultant butterfly/moth. To that end the choice of leaf should be that of the bush where the caterpillar came from, often they require a particular type to feed correctly so plant type should not be random.

HTH.

[cmsally]

Oh man ! I have about 2 million of his relations in my garden, They lay their eggs on the "Malit Mai" tree - sorry don't know any other name for it.

Each tree has many thousand of the larvae crawling around in a huge kind of webbed sack around the tree. In this sack you can see the larvae turning into caterpillars. They seem to escape from the sack. They might be pupating at the top of the tree, but I can't see that far. I presume they eat the Malit Mai leaves, but each tree doesn't have many leaves , so a bit of a mystery. I'm presuming its a moth. I'm not quite sure.

[LennyW]

Yes. I have been told there are some nasty ones out there. My wife is quite fearless about bugs, but she has some fear for caterpillars, particularly green fuzzy ones. Apparently she came contact with one while picking tea, and it was extremely painful.

I accidentaly grabbed one of that green fuzzy ones when i was trimming trees in the garden, and i can assure you your wife is correct, man that hurt and the itch that followed........oooo!!!!

[villagefarang]

Catch one of these guys and you will be in for a BIG surprise.

[mauGR1]

I just read an article about caterpillars in Thailand.. Some of these guys apparently can kill a dog.

@ eek, what's next, tiger cubs in the garden and piranhas in the pond

@ villagefarang, great pics !