About larvae, caterpillars and butterflies
Quite often there are posts asking about "bugs" or "pests" on few host plants like citrus varieties, curry leaf, etc. For every such post, there are always positive comments and negative comments. And most of the times, its the same set of comments. So, here is my effort to provide pretty much the same info in a blog post, with the hope that the same questions do not get the same answers over and over again.
This post applies to few varieties of larvae and caterpillars like
- Rain lily moth caterpillar
- Common mormon
- Oleander Hawk Butterfly/ Moth Caterpillar
These insect lifes, are nothing but the larvae/caterpillar of some commonly found insects in an average garden. They have different names, but then I am neither into entomology or lepidopterology.
They are voracious/heavy eaters and they do eat up a lot of leaves. But in turn they are doing us a favour by pruning the plant. This is how nature works and everything has its own place. The pruning of the leaves, helps the plant to grow back with more vigour.
In general its advised to prune citrus plants and curry leaf plant, so that the plant grows bushier. These caterpillars provide this service to you for free of cost, without any trouble and you are also nurturing life.
Later these butterflies help in pollination and add beauty to your garden. Gardening is not only about growing plants and harvesting. Its also about building a micro eco-system in and around the garden.
So my advice is to keep these "pests" around, which in turn are silent helpers.
The best work around, if you are really concerned about the larvae eating up the leaves is :
- in a fish bowl or a glass vase, take a few leaves and twigs of the plant.
- place the larvae/caterpillar in the bowl/vase.
- cover the lid with some breathable material, so that there is air circulation and the caterpillars don't come out of the bowl.
- keep monitoring the growth of the larvae. This will be an excellent live education session for yourself and your family/children.
- once you see that the butterfly is about to emerge, place the bowl in the garden and remove the covering breathable material.
- The butterfly will take its flight of freedom. At this stage the butterfly is not very strong and will struggle a bit to fly. It will not be able to travel long distances. This is a good opportunity to click some pictures.
You can refer this link for pics and some more details from Vani Murthy.
Following image is from wikipedia, that shows the lifecycle of this variety butterfly.
For general good growth of a curry leaf plant :
- take 50ml of curd and dilute with 1L of water
- mix vigorously to make it like buttermilk consistency
- use this to water the plant.
