When he grows up...IO Moth

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/io_moth.htm

I wish I knew!!!! Most happens at night (it's not deer or bunnies) and I have even gone out with a flashlight to see if I could identify it. Takes out the terminal bud on every cane, then the top most leaves or leaves some of the leaves with a scalloped edge like a holly leaf. Several of my roses never grew or bloomed this entire year because of the damage. I was hoping it would end when we got the colder nights and frost but it started back up again with several warmer nights and 70F days. Just when my roses started to get new growth to help them store food for the winter now the leaves are all disappearing - and fast from major chomping!

This is the only guy I have found and one about half that size. I've looked under the leaves and in the dirt and mulch around the roses but can't locate anymore.

Wouldn’t he end up as a frog’s dinner in your garden?

Well SJN all that I can say is so much for waiting until spring to prune. My springtime Bambi made friends. In four days and nights they have reduced the roses by half their height and chomped down most of the phlox. Not a good photo but there are 4 in this pic.

‘Have a great winter everyone!

Wow Sultry, that's a beautiful looking caterpillar, what a bummer about the roses though. That's gracious of you to let him stick around to turn into that beautiful moth! I don't have pictures to share, but this year I had loads of grasshoppers that munched on all of my roses (and other garden plants)! They were ruthless!!!

This was definitely a buggy year for me. First time with chilli thrips, grasshoppers galore, horned tomato worms, and sow bugs that decimated all of my emerging seeds before I had a chance to stop them. I did get loads of good bugs too, praying mantis, lady bugs, and lace wings. We'll see what happens next year!

By the way that is a gorgeous moth.

I'm feeling you Patty! what you need is a nice tall invisible fence! : ) I have made many attempts and they STILL break through, but I'm determined with this next iteration! I hope their pruning doesn't affect your bushes too negatively. It does look very neat and tidy!. My worst chompers (besides deer and the early bunnies) were the horrid cucumber beetles. I try to catch them with soapy water, but sometimes I give up. : (

Oh Yikes Patti! That's what I had last year! Two does that grew up here and then brought both their twins last spring. Nothing would drive them out. I finally let the weeds grow but they dug through them to get to the goodies! Besides the roses they loved my Johnson Blue perennial geraniums, dianthus and every color phlox right down to the ground!

Ikayet, that's my problem too! They're twins that foaled and grew up in my yard and now as yearlings nothing will keep them out... they just smash through the tall metal fencing.

I have a ton of cucumber beetles =(

They are eating everything. Finally got a break from thrips and now these guys are out.

I didn't really like your post dianella but I just wanted to let you know I'm feeling for you!

Daniela, that beetle damage is brutal! Patty, when I opened your picture those deer had such surprised looks on their faces, my goodness! I know what you mean Vaporvac, it's hard to "like" any of these posts!

I'm going to stop complaining about the bunnies and squirrels after seeing what you are all dealing with. I'm fortunate that there is not enough food or water for the deer to survive here, because I have no idea how I'd handle that. Those cucumber beetles are yucky!

Hello Dianela

If you are not spray adverse, I have found that by far the best thing for Cucumber Beetles is this:

Ortho Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Insect Killer Concentrate, 32-Ounce (Garden Insecticide) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FN3HCQ4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_q3T3BbS28Z9ZA

They are atrocious here in the late fall too, last year they were turning all my buds to Swiss cheese until I sprayed this stuff. I can see their numbers start to build up this year too, but I’ve got Monarchs in the midst of migration. Once those butterflies leave, I’m spraying and those beetles will be history!

Patty,

Yikes those deer are so brazen! I used to welcome baby bunnies but then they ate several of my hard-to-obtain mail order rose bands....now they aren’t so cute anymore!

Your yard is a beautiful natural setting, I can see why any creature would want to visit.

I’ve notice much less deer damage since I put lights out. I bought solar lights for my arbor and windmill. The deer used to come only ar night, the dogs keep them out during the day. It might just be a coincidence it it’s worth a try! The lights were only about $10 and they’ve lasted for over a year.

Daniela and everyone isn’t it disheartening when the weather finally cools down. The roses and fall perennials load up for a final show. Then some measly litte Insect comes along to ruin it. Is it my imagination or are insect populations increasingly more damaging. Possibly over use of insecticides. I had some Minnesota mums for a while but the cucumber beetles ate every single flower on them.

I’m going to try the lights Julie. Thanks for the idea. May try the shopping bag thing and rotate between the too. So they don’t get use to one or the other. Can’t do a fence back there since the land belongs to the city. No permanent fixtures allowed. Really makes me feel bad running them off. It’s a gardeners life for sure.

Omg. I had like 10 of these on my teasing Georgia Rose last spring. I let them be too because they become moths and TG is such a vigorous rose that I knew she’d boun right back. But they got really big and then one day they were gone. i never say cocoons but im sure they turned into moths somewhere.

Heres a pic

wow SoFL those are very cute caterpillars. I wish all these cute looking things didn't eat mt roses. I will be planting some of those Milkweed so I can have Monarch caterpillars that I know wont eat roses. I feel terrible some times, but except for spiders and the usual known pollinators I go around killing every bug I see on my roses.

SoFl, they may have become bird food which is a great thing since caterpillars are birds main source of food and there are fewer host plants available for them to live on these days which means fewer birds can find enough food to feed their young.

I wonder if they did become bird food. These are stinging caterpillars and their bright colors make me think they might be poisonous, but hey, if they fed the birds thats good too.

Nothing so cute as what you guys have..... I get this ugly thing

Iguana - Hate them

He's adorable!!!

Lol...see I think this is funny because to me the iguana was adorable and not at all ugly, and the rabbit is creepy lol!!

Oh Notch Ear is precious! I'm sorry to hear that he's not around any more.

Today, this is who was peeking through my bedroom window with a mandevilla flower in his mouth. Who knew mandevillas were tasty?

This has been (and still is) a weird buggy THRIPPY summer, but the weirdest are these guys. Unicorn caterpillar is waaaay too cute of a name for them. They must have come though the mail because their main diet is apple trees and you’d have to drive a few states before you started seeing those. Sadly they figured out a rose is just as good as an apple and very nearly defoliated DdB before I even saw them.

It’s like the grossest magic eye thing ever.

So after I yanked and squished all those, I found baby ones clear across the yard and then even more on Angel’s Camp Tea. I mean I’d take these over chilli thrips if I could, but nope! It’s both.

I think roses and apple trees are in the same family so that must be why they like the roses. I like the idea of a sparkle trail lol!!

Tiffany, that squirrel is adorable. I've mentioned Sammie many times, a ground squirrel we found as an orphaned baby and raised for four months until she made it clear she needed to be outside. She lived a long life until this summer, and would sometimes live elsewhere for a year, and we thought she was surely gone forever, only to reappear with her children in tow. I'm forever grateful that she graced our lives for so long.

Pippa, they are related! Know how I learned that? From googling what the hell these little jerks were doing on my roses! :)

Tiff, I know, right? You can't just go around calling anything with something sticking out of its head a unicorn! That is an affront to actual unicorns.

Seriously though look how much those just look like curly brown edges of munched-on leaves. I have to do a very careful exam once a week, my roses are all chilli thrippy babies and they have no leaves to spare for things that are used to eating entire trees.

I am seeing a few cucumber beetles and these little fly like insects. Can anyone please identify?

Hello BenT,

I am terribly sorry. I just noticed my comment never posted. Thank you very much for your recommendation. I am buying the product you recommended. I do wish I could go no spray some day, but I am not ready yet. Most of my favorite Austin’s would look terrible without spraying.

Ohh I love the iguana, deer, the rabbit and the squirrel :). They are all freaking adorable. Ingrid what a beautiful person you are giving Sammie a family. She looks so sweet. I am glad nothing as cute of that is eating my roses or I would be tempted to let them. The unicorn caterpillars are very weird. I wonder what they turn into.

Deborah, I can’t id. your insect but it looks like a parasitic fly. Some are good guys. Others like the botfly I don’t wish to ever meet.

Dianela, good question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizura_unicornis

So...not much. Even the stinging caterpillars grow up into pretty things. This guy has no redeeming qualities.

Deborah, that's a lovely clear photo so I bet this would work: I recommend this app SO HARD: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app There's a full version where they track your sightings for science and whatnot, but this is like the kiddie version where you don't have to have an account or anything. It can't always tell, but it's very good with bugs, birds and weeds/native plants. So far it's known what all of my caterpillars are, including those gross weirdos up there.

Thank you. I will give it a shot.

Wow you guys all sure have a lot of naughty but mostly cute critters just making themselves at home eating up your gardens! We had some deer when we first moved here but they mostly stay out of the yard now. They didn't like our dog.

I remember when we lived in Wyoming and several large mule deer would make the rounds of all the houses in the neighborhood every evening like clockwork. They were not afraid of anyone. They would even climb up the stairs to one neighbor's two story deck to eat out of the planters they had up there lol.

PattyW, speaking of botflies, we had a baby squirrel rescue one time that our cat (yes, cat) was nursing and raising alongside her kittens. The squirrel turned out to have a botfly in its tummy. Apparently its quite common for squirrels around here to get them. I had to pull that thing out and it was soooo gross lol. I could show you some really yucky pictures....LOL!!

BenT, the frogs don't seem to eat the poisonous caterpillars or grasshoppers. I wish they would eat the grasshoppers they get huge here and eat up everything especially my hibiscus! Even the dumb chickens won't eat grasshoppers :/

~Sjn

This is the first year I've really noticed cucumber beetles in numbers. I have a lot of them right now, and they are eating holes my petals - very annoying. I squish them with my fingers, but I am skeptical that I'm having any impact at all.

Ingrid - do the bunnies eat your roses? I'm also noticing way more cottontails than ever before this year in my garden, but I don't notice any damage. Hmmm...although now that I think about it I do have a number of bushes that have bare canes...I wonder if that's from them?