Any entomologists out there? I found this guy this afternoon - I’d love to know what he is, so I can keep him inside and we can watch him change. I found him under the edge of a porch step, not on any plants, so I have no idea what to feed him to keep him healthy. Isn’t he gorgeous?! Anybody?
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Neat, right? It’s a tussock moth caterpillar. I have tons of them out here in the woods. Never was able to narrow down exactly which species, but the “tussocks” or clumps of bristles on the back are diagnostic.
A lot of them sting, so you don’t want to handle it without gloves. I mean, not like you were going to, but hey.
I am definitely not a entomologists but given we live in the same area, and I have a ton of these in my yard (4 in the house the kids caught, with one in a cocoon as of this morning) I would go with the identification of “Painted Lady” which was the best match I could find online. Here is my post on how I started to take care of mine.
As for food, we found they like clovers growing on our lawn the best. I would play it safe with the gloves or move them around with a stick, though my kids were handling them with out any injury.
I’m a big petter. I even got bit (hard!) by a goose once because I tried to pet it. I know better with caterpillars.
(Bumblebees are fair game, though.) What do your caterpillars eat out there in the woods?