Mystery Caterpillars
My five year old son has been studying caterpillars and butterflies in his preschool class. His interest has been insatiable! So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I came home from work yesterday and was introduced to his new pet…a one inch long brown furry caterpillar that he had found crawling across the playground after school!
We then realized that we had another problem…what do we feed this little guy? We had no idea what kind of caterpillar this was…let alone what he preferred to eat. We gave him some spinach but by today there was no sign that he had touched any of it. My son’s little pet would starve to death if I didn’t do something.
Google to the rescue! A search for “caterpillar pictures” brought me to this site about caterpillars:
Which has hundreds of pictures of every kind of caterpillar you can imagine. Clicking the link for “Hairy/Spiny” eventually led to his identity.
And here he is… the Eastern tent caterpillar
Another search for “eastern tent diet” led to this page:
Eastern Tent Caterpillar–Entomology Leaflet 142
which says “Hosts: Cherries and apple are the favored food plants. Plum, peach, hawthorn, pear, rose, and some of the deciduous forest and shade trees may be attacked, especially when favored foods run out. ”
So he likes fruit trees!
We happened to have an ornamental pear tree planted in front of our house. I wonder?
Yes. He began eating like a caterpillar possessed…probably his first good meal in days.
I hope this helps you keep alive that little creature that your child brings home tomorrow 
Just wanted to say thanks!!!! Ive just spent the best part of the evening trying to identify a caterpillar my daughter found this afternoon and was beginning to give up hope until i came across your site. Apparently its called Urgent, but I haven’t been able to find any other information on it. Fortunately though I know it eats sweetcorn leaves as it had already demolished the best part of one plant in the garden.
Thanks again
Comment by Gil — August 16, 2005 @ 2:13 pm
Hi, We have 2 dozen grapes vines going. Today we discovered a small 1 inch caterpillar that resembles a bark of wood, on our grape leaves. would you know what it is? & if it is beneficial or not? Thank you so much, TMC
Comment by Teresa Marta Costa — June 4, 2006 @ 5:25 pm
I suggest you go the link above titled “What is this Caterpillar?”
Comment by Administrator — June 22, 2006 @ 4:52 pm
I just found the most beautiful caterpiller this afternoon on our driveway. It is furry yellow with a black head & feet and then has 4 black strands of hair sticking out of his back in 4 different spots and then 1 on the end of his body. Any ideas as to what it is or what it will become?
I suggest you visit the link “What is this Caterpillar?” above and look thru the pictures. Sorry, but I don’t think there is an easy way to find the answer
Comment by Marlene — September 17, 2006 @ 6:47 pm
Your relationship with your son seems so special and it just makes me smile. My husband and our 39 month old son are sleeping in the back yard on the trampoline in sleeping bags and blankets for the first time. This really is a bittersweet moment for me. I am a photo junky and cannot seem to go to sleep. I keep sneaking out onto the balcony to take pics of them and just watch them. Tommorrow we will probably try to catch some bugs, identify, and study them just like you and your boy. It seems like such a great and sweet activity not to mention a memory maker…
Comment by Laura — September 20, 2006 @ 10:42 pm