Ruined Leaves
Almost about gardening
It is almost winter — or what passes for winter in this part of the world. There is a nip in the air in the evenings, some mornings, it is foggy, and the days are bright, sunny and as hot as ever.
My garden balcony faces south. This is therefore the sunniest time of the year for my garden. The morning sun streams in from between the buildings to make everything look magical early in the mornings and late in the evenings. In between, the sun beats down hard and the plants wilt quite easy if I miss watering them even for a day.
About a week ago, a sudden movement among the leaves caught my attention. A large, dark, hairless caterpillar was waltzing about on a leaf. It glistened every time its glabrous body caught the morning sun. I stepped closer to see why it was behaving so erratically. Turns out, a spider was trying to get it.
It was amazing to watch them fight. The caterpillar, thrashing about, possibly trying to fall off the leaf, while the spider, deftly moved about trying to bite it and tie it down. I received a call about this time so I don’t know how it ended for them. A juicy meal for the spider I hope … this year there are too many caterpillars in the garden.
I am not particularly unkind to any of the denizens of my small garden with the exception of mealybugs — I have running feud with them. Neem oil mixed with shampoo in water is the current ammo of choice … but more about that some other time.
Contemplating the ruined leaves in my garden, it’s easy to forget that caterpillars grow up to be butterflies.
Hence my gladness at the spider seemingly getting the upper hand in the fight. This got me thinking, good thing butterflies are interested in the flowers rather than the leaves because it would be ironic if they were left starving by an earlier-stage of their own life cycle.
Though caterpillars don’t eat flowers, the definitely damage the plant they are on, which will adversely affect the flowers as well. I wondered whether butterflies lay their eggs on the same plants whose flowers they feed on (does this line need apostrophes?) Could it be that the caterpillars damage the plant but then the butterflies help them procreate?
I googled to check whether butterflies help pollinate the plants that their caterpillar eat… guess what… the answer is no. For the most part, the “host plants” are not the same as the “food plants”. So the caterpillar is just a bloody pest, no matter what it grown into … and the butterflies that laid those eggs are not going to come around to pollinate the flowers of that plant.
Interesting. I am wondering whether to go to war with the caterpillars or let them be. For now though, I’ll just let them be.
Humming “Gardeners, do let your caterpillars grow up to be butterflies …” (to the tune of Mama’s don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys)
