The Caterpillar in my pot

[vfem]

Well... about 4 nights ago I found an oddly colored caterpillar on my deck. I was thinking, my it is early.... I picked it up and tossed it in a flower pot half full of dirt.

Night before last it was still there... started to feel bad for it. So I tossed it some leaves and a piece of lettuce it went to town on.

It's still there.. alive and walking in circles!

I can't bring myself to kill it so I looked it up:

Ok, cute and fuzzy got me. BUT then I saw what it turned into:

My gosh that thing is cute for a moth!!! I wanna let it go back and be a moth... but at the same time.... is this thing going to ravage my garden of not.

It says its a leopard moth, but I've NEVER seen one before?!

(A lot of weird things out in the country, saw my first hummingbird moth last year. OH WOW!)

 

[vfem]

Ok, I'm just seeing it said online that they are not considered pests... they mostly feast on weed leaves. However, all the stuff I see about them being common are from Texas to California. Don't see much mention of them on the east coast?

 

[smom1976]

That is a really cool looking moth!! and if it east pest weeds .. you could let it have babies.. and never have to weed your garden again.

 

[momofdrew]

I let it pupae [sp]and see what it does..Weed eaters are good and they are someones dinner so good for the enviroment...