Voracious Consumers and Pests

• Caterpillars feed on flowering plants.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Caterpillars are voracious consumers of plant material. This is due to their fast growing nature. Some caterpillars increase their weight ten-thousandfold in just a few days. In order to accomplish this they have to eat more than their body weight in plant material each day. Because of this they are usually considered pests in the garden.
  
  

Flowering Plants Eaten by Caterpillars

• Caterpillars are attracted to gardens because of the large a mount of highly digestible plant materials found there. Some caterpillars feed exclusively on one type of plant. An example would be the monarch butterfly caterpillar's exclusive feeding on milkweed plants. Other caterpillars feed on many types of plants. Most garden plants and many landscaping plants are eaten by these insects. The most common families of plants consumed by caterpillars include legumes (beans and peas), solanaceous or nightshade plants (potato and tomato), cruciferous plants (cabbage and broccoli), cucurbits (cucumber and melons) and rose (apple and peaches). This list does not include all plant families eaten by caterpillars.
  
  

Special Feeding Characteristics of Some Caterpillars

• Certain caterpillars are identified by the type of feeding they do. Cutworms are a special type of caterpillar that feeds on the crown (lower part of the plant were the roots and stem meet). These caterpillars eat only the lower stem and leave the rest of the plant to decompose. Beans and corn are damaged in this way.
  
  Another type of caterpillar is the armyworm. These caterpillars move across the landscape in large numbers, consuming whole populations of plants. Hence the name "army" is included.
  
  

Contol of Caterpillars

• The first thing you can do to avoid damage from caterpillar feeding is to control any weeds you may have in your garden. Certain weeds attract caterpillars. These include lambsquarters, pigweed and the nightshades. Tillage can kill various cutworm species. You may also have to resort to using a pesticide to control them. Bacillus thuringiensis is a bacteria that can be sprayed for the control of these insects.