Caterpillar Infestation

Every caterpillar problem starts with eggs. Moths and butterflies lay them on or near the food their young will eat. Outdoors, look for clusters on the undersides of leaves and along stems. Indoors, pantry moths lay eggs in or beside stored dry foods. Removing egg clusters before they hatch heads off a lot of damage.

Signs of a Caterpillar Problem

You’ll usually notice the damage before the caterpillar, since many feed at night or blend into the leaves.

Outdoors, look for:

• Leaves with ragged holes or chewed edges, or leaves eaten down to a lacy skeleton.
• Small dark pellets of droppings, called frass, on leaves, patios or the ground beneath a plant.
• Silk webbing or leaves rolled and tied together.
• Oleanders stripped bare, often with orange-and-black caterpillars bunched on the stems.
• Irregular brown or ragged patches in St. Augustinegrass with blades chewed short. Birds pecking at the lawn and small moths fluttering up as you walk across it at dusk point to sod webworms.

Indoors, look for: small whitish larvae and silky webbing in flour, cereal, rice, birdseed or pet food, often with small moths flitting around the kitchen in the evening. Irregular holes in wool or other animal-fiber clothing and blankets can point to clothes moth larvae.

What draws them: outdoors, the plants they’re built to eat, such as oleander, citrus, tomatoes and lawn grass. Indoors, stored dry foods and natural fibers.

When: caterpillars are around for much of the year in Florida and year-round in the southern part of the state. Lawn caterpillars like sod webworms and armyworms tend to do the most damage from midsummer into fall. Control steps are on how to get rid of caterpillars.