Manly Living

I guess it is “that” time of year again - we have been in the garden a lot the past week and have noticed many caterpillars.

So as usual we grabbed our cameras as quickly as we could and snapped a few pictures. And we will post more as we get them. Today I got a few really good pictures of two beautiful North American caterpillars. One was eating my rose bushes, the other was on my gate in the backyard. Luckily, I wasn’t stung by either, and was able to get good images of each.

The first was an Io Moth Caterpillar - actually more than one, but they all looked the same. All bright green, with lime green spikes and thick red and white stripe down it’s side. Enjoys eating rose bush leaves.

The second is the famous Puss Moth Caterpillar. While this caterpillar looks soft and friendly it is exactly the opposite. Beneath those soft hairs are poison glands and if stung can leave a nasty sting. Fortunately, this species is easily identified, but because of it’s appearance many are often naive enough to “pet” it - not a good idea.

Didn’t have much luck last year, but this year I got my jalapenos in the ground early!

Here is a picture I took this morning of my Jalapeno pepper plants in the vegetable garden bed. Hopefully this year we will have some Jalapeno Peppers to make some hot salsa with!