Lime Green Caterpillar in the tropics 

This lime green caterpillar and 10 of his friends were just about to eat my Anona (custard apple) tree until it looked like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I planted that Anona back in 2009 and have been waiting patiently for it to shower me with fruits. These caterpillars eat every single leaf and leave the tree to try and photosynthesize without them, which is impossible. Leaves are the life givers to the tree and these little, green, hippo faced, cute as heck caterpillars were out to eat every single one.

The tree is about 8 feet high and skinny. I couldn’t climb it and I was just making a mess of the tree using a stick to try and whack them off but I knew I couldn’t leave them on there overnight. This called for drastic action and thank God I had the afternoon free to deal with this. I ran and got our cacao puller-downer and the ladder so I could reach. Armed with these things I was getting them but I was sending them sailing across the yard and possibly on to other trees. I had to keep them close so I could put them in a bucket to see what they morphed into. Finally as the sun was setting, I ended up cutting off all of the leaves that they were on and scraping the remaining ones off the trunk. It was not pretty but the tree lived and the caterpillars are safe in my bucket. They are in cocoon stage now.

This caterpillar packs a powerful sting when touched. The moth it becomes is brown with darker brown spots. It doesn’t have one particular food source so any tree or plant could be at risk.

Get this little guy on a Coin Purse here