Help! Lemon tree has bugs eating leafs.

[Noah]

i think they're caterpillars but I'm not sure I knocked them off the tree because they are a lot of the foliage in my small lemon tree. What can I do? This is what they look like. The somewhat yellowish thing.

 

[Chuck]

Need a better picture of the pest.

 

[Noah]

Need a better picture of the pest.

Here's a closer look

 

[Noah]

I lied I found a macro lense in had lol. Now this should be easy to identify since you can't get any better than this sorry for so many pictures

 

[Noah]

Need a better picture of the pest.

 

[Chuck]

That is the caterpillar of the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly. If you must spray the tree with Bt.

 

[Noah]

That is the caterpillar of the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly. If you must spray the tree with Bt.

Yes my little tree can't handle it. They've taken out so many leaves already and it's just this size tree. What is by. Will they survive if I move them to a bush instead of my tree?

 

[Chuck]

Yes my little tree can't handle it. They've taken out so many leaves already and it's just this size tree. What is by. Will they survive if I move them to a bush instead of my tree?

It is very doubtful that they will survive but go ahead and try.
How are you going to keep your tree alive this winter? It will freeze at 28F.

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

Try to find their eggs(tiny green ball like mustard seed), bird poop caterpillar will eat young leaves they wouldn't kill the plant, they are very selective what they eat, mostly citrus plants.

They mould into large green caterpillar after well fed, later change into butterfly.


They remain on surface(for warm, sunlight) easy to detect, remove them if you want, sometimes roll up leaves to protect itself.