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Butterfly Garden

The problem of 'eggs of unknown origin'

14 years ago

Last week we found on the OUTSIDE of the screen of our screen porch a "smear" of hundreds of eggs. In subsequent days they progressed from a translucent yellow to a dusky gray, and this morning that patch is swarming with hundreds of first instars (definitely cats - not beetle larvae).

The obvious problem is that we have no idea who the parents were and thus what lep we're dealing with. Not knowing what they might eat, I've transferred several dozen instars to a container and have sprinkled in bits of leaves from various trees, shrubs, vegetables, flowers, and weeds.

First instars are notoriously difficult to identify, and I'm not even going to try. I suppose odds are that the eggs were laid by some common brown moth, and considering the number of them perhaps even a pest or some gregarious tent-maker.

Has anyone had experience with this? Any suggestions as to any species that might have a propensity to deposit eggs on metal porch screens?

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Comments (7)

MissSherry
14 years ago
I don't have a clue, but like you said, they're probably some little moth, in which case they probably eat a variety of tree leaves. Hopefully, you'll have plenty of whichever leaf they choose!
Sherry
bananasinohio
14 years ago
I have to second Miss Sherry. At our screen enclosure our large silk moths will, after a night of fluttering around, come to rest on the screen and lay eggs as they crawl around. Usually, they only lay eggs right where they land. It is possible that some early morning bird grabbed mom before you saw her.

Good luck and let us know how the "mystery" ends,
Elisabeth
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KC Clark - Zone 2012-6a OH
14 years ago
If you have access to oak, make sure to try it. According to butterflymomok, quoting from Tallamy's book, oak supports the most lepidoptera species. Willow comes in second but is tough to use because cuttings dry out fast.

KC

Here is a link that might be useful: Using Native plants in our gardens
bananasinohio
14 years ago
KC;
That is interesting. My husband and I were having a conversation coming back from camping at Shawnee state park this weekend. Of course we waited for the hottest weekend this summer to camp. After all the nice cool weekends. It had rained too. So, there were mushrooms of all kinds concentrated under the oaks. We were discussing how oaks seem to support so much life. I was saying that I suspect it would be because they need to concentrate such high amounts of carbohydrates in their seeds. But who knows. Wish I could post some of the mushroom pictures I took. They were amazing. We camped under the oak trees and I realized that the brown spots covering our tent were frass! Yech....
joannpalmyra
14 years ago
I've found neat, tight rows of eggs on screens and even the laundry I hang outside. I've always thought they were milkweed bugs or some other beetle type.
I hope they weren't butterfly eggs. :(
~JoAnn
todancewithwolves
14 years ago
Pictures?
minnesotastan
Original Author
14 years ago
I do have pictures of the eggs and the first instars, but the two times I've tried posting pix to this forum I've quit in frustration - even though I manage a blog of my own with lots of pix. Can't figure out how this system works.

The first instars were of the "inchworm" type in terms of their motion, rather than wigglers like the monarchs and BSTs and sulphurs. I've had them in a container with a dozen different types of greenery (including minced tender young oak leaves), but I don't see any frass accumulating on the bottom...

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