Identify Caterpillar...If you can

[roadrunner]

I wasn't sure where to open this post, so I decided to do it here in the "Diseases/Invaders" forum; although I don't consider anything an invader...Found it crawling on my shirt this morning...

Can anyone ID this caterpillar?

 

[Chuck]

I wasn't sure where to open this post, so I decided to do it here in the "Diseases/Invaders" forum; although I don't consider anything an invader...Found it crawling on my shirt this morning...


View attachment 36409 View attachment 36410 View attachment 36411

Can anyone ID this caterpillar?

I don't know for sure but it really looks sort of like an immature army worm . What's leads me to this is the clear front portion and the brown/black portion of the back portion. I really hope is't not.

 

[CrazyConure]

I really hope is't not.

Why do you really hope it’s not?

 

[Chuck]

Why do you really hope it’s not?

I take it you are unfamiliar with army worms. They are called that for a reason. They will march across a cow pasture or a lawn and eat it to the bare ground, just like Shermans army marching through Georgia., destroying everything in sight.

 

[roadrunner]

I've been looking at a lot of "mugshots" and I think Chuck nailed it...It does look like an Army worm. And I do have a lot of those type moths flying around.

 

[Chuck]

I've been looking at a lot of "mugshots" and I think Chuck nailed it...It does look like an Army worm. And I do have a lot of those type moths flying around.

Better start spraying Bt on everything

 

[DirtMechanic]

As a veteran of army worm wars, I have learned the hard way that there are 3 kinds of army worms here, that they are the offspring of moths, and they are differentiated by the time of year. We get an early, mid season and late squadron of night flying, egg dropping moths. They tend to come back to the area the next season as well all though not in as many numbers as the first year.

 

[Chuck]

As a veteran of army worm wars, I have learned the hard way that there are 3 kinds of army worms here, that they are the offspring of moths, and they are differentiated by the time of year. We get an early, mid season and late squadron of night flying, egg dropping moths. They tend to come back to the area the next season as well all though not in as many numbers as the first year.

Here in Texas they seem to show up in tremendous numbers about every 7 years. Some years none at all but when they hit it is devastating. Overnight entire hayfields completely gone. Pasture land denuded. South of here around Hondo, the farmers must use crop dusting aircraft to control them.