I have a lot of caterpillars in my garden. They are on natives and water
grasses. I have a pond close so am reluctant to use a poison.

Any suggestions?

In article ,
"gaap" wrote:

I have a lot of caterpillars in my garden. They are on natives and water
grasses. I have a pond close so am reluctant to use a poison.

Any suggestions?

Dipel. It's actually a naturally occurring bacteria that attacks caterpillars.

BUT -- do you really have a big problem? Are they eating everything in sight?
Or are you just worried that they *will*? Or are they spitfires? If you can
live without using Dipel, I would try -- wasps and dragonflies ilke eating
caterpillars, and you could get something interesting when the caterpillars
turn into butterflies.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue

On Feb 28, 7:23 pm, Chookie wrote:
Dipel. It's actually a naturally occurring bacteria that attacks caterpillars.

BUT -- do you really have a big problem? Are they eating everything in sight?
Or are you just worried that they *will*? Or are they spitfires? If you can
live without using Dipel, I would try -- wasps and dragonflies ilke eating
caterpillars, and you could get something interesting when the caterpillars
turn into butterflies.

.... or cabbage moths.

Each spring we get little green caterpillers that strip every
leaf off our bouganvilleas - and we have about 30m of bouganvillea
along our fence. Doesn't seem to do them any harm. Not sure what
the attraction is, bouganvillea leaf doesn't look particularly
tasty to me.

In article .com,
wrote:

On Feb 28, 7:23 pm, Chookie wrote:
Dipel. It's actually a naturally occurring bacteria that attacks
caterpillars.

BUT -- do you really have a big problem? Are they eating everything in
sight?
Or are you just worried that they *will*? Or are they spitfires? If you
can
live without using Dipel, I would try -- wasps and dragonflies ilke eating
caterpillars, and you could get something interesting when the caterpillars
turn into butterflies.

... or cabbage moths.

I'm all for killing cabbage moth caterpillars!

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue

Chookie wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

On Feb 28, 7:23 pm, Chookie wrote:
Dipel. It's actually a naturally occurring bacteria that attacks
caterpillars.

BUT -- do you really have a big problem? Are they eating everything in
sight?
Or are you just worried that they *will*? Or are they spitfires? If you
can
live without using Dipel, I would try -- wasps and dragonflies ilke eating
caterpillars, and you could get something interesting when the caterpillars
turn into butterflies.
... or cabbage moths.

I'm all for killing cabbage moth caterpillars!

Look you guys DIPEL is OK and naturally occurring, except if you apply
it.But its OK !!!

On Feb 28, 7:59 pm, "gaap" wrote:
I have a lot of caterpillars in my garden. They are on natives and water
grasses. I have a pond close so am reluctant to use a poison.

Any suggestions?

Dipel ranges from great to useless depending on what caterpillars you
are trying to control and how big they are. It generally works better
on smaller caterpillars so spray early and often. Haven't tried it but
mollasses is supposed to be a good deterrent against caterpillar leaf
damage (google mollasses and caterpillars and you should find recipes
for mollasses spray).