so, this is the sight I saw from my window this morning. Do you remember my beautiful passion vine?
it looked full and beautiful on fri. we were gone all day Sat. and usually don't go outside on Sundays so I did not see the vine for 2 days. I could not believe my eyes when i looked out and saw this sad looking thing. I immediately went out and saw who the culprit was:
so I pack sam a snack, change clothes, pull my hair back in a pony tail and off we go to callaways nursery. I can not waste any time as these horrible looking spiky worms are EVERYWHERE in my flowerbed (and grass) (if you click on picture you can see 3 of them)
I collected 2 of them in a jar to share with the garden guy to see what I can do to get rid of these and to see if they are poisonous or harmful. (I can just see Samuel trying to play with one) The guy at the counter had never seen anything like them and gave me some worm killer of some sort and was showing the directions to me when another guy who works there passed by and said, "oh those are the passion vine bugs, that stuff will get rid of them for you." ok good!! no, they are not poisonous and apparently they will only eat the passion vine and no other plants. (good to know) so on our way home I call my mom (she also had the vine) and ask if hers were eaten or not. She shared with me a fact that the guy who she bought them from told her. He said that the caterpillars will eat all of the vine down but it will come back and these will turn into beautiful butterflies. hmmm, now that you mention it I did see about 3 funny looking cocoon like things on the fence this morning:
upon arrival back from the nursery I investigate a little further in my backyard. I now find 23 cocoon like things hanging under my fence posts and a lot of caterpillars walking along the fence. then I notice these:
about 3-4 butterflies fluttering about... how pretty! ok, guess I can't kill off these worms now can I? now I need to investigate these things so off to the internet I go and found this interesting article: http://www.sasionline.org/fritillary/fritillary.htmlThen I decide to check out my yard a few hours later and found 46 cocoons! WOW. Now I am so totally fascinated with these funny looking things and I want to watch one "hatch" into a butterfly. I keep watching but no such luck yet. I will keep an eye on them and hopefully I won't miss it (I do have 46 opportunities now don't I?!) 
4 comments:
This is too cool, Kelly! I do notice some of these butterflies but I have not found any worms or cacoons. With all the birds we have...they may have been a meal instead of a beautiful butterfly.
So glad you called before you started killing.haha
I hope you can see a butterfly emerge from the cacoon..that would be awesome.
Wonder how long it took God to come up with this neat and unusual idea. So glad He did.
Love ya!!
Mom
might as well give the little orange monsters a stay of execution!!! i had a similar problem with greenish monsters earlier this year that munched all of my petunias...humph....funny how I've never noticed them other years! So glad the passion will return! :)
Ok - I have no cocoons and am losing my vine, also. I would like to know what I could sprinkle on them to get rid of them. I have hundreds taking over my vine. I would love butterflies, but I am trying to grow a blooming wall and they are winning. Would you please share with me the stuff the nursery person told you that would get rid of the little orange worms? Thanks - Joyce
My passion vine was loaded with these yellow worms-I sprayed with insect soap-did not realize these would turn into butterflies. Never had these worms on any of my plants prior.
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