Recently, one of the bushes in my garden has been gradually getting smaller and smaller. Until I went right up close to it, I couldn't see that it was infested with tiny caterpillars, chewing on all its leaves!

Does anyone have a caterpillar-friendly suggestion to get rid of them or discourage them from eating it?

The best method is to watch for the caterpillars and pick them off individually. It takes them a long time and a lot of them to do any real damage usually, so just make sure you get most of them and I'm sure it will be fine.

You could always embrace the caterpillars as we have with our nasturtiums.
I would be interested to know sort of bush it is.

[]

We presume these eggs to be small whites.

This post was last modified: 27-08-2007 04:52 PM by tibbar.

If you really want to get rid of them, then I think the only way to do it without harming them is to do it manually and pick them off. It seems you have quite a few though, so this might be quite a tedious task! There are plenty of products you could use but that would harm the caterpillars, or you could learn to leave them as tibbar has done, although if the bush is disappearing like you say it is that might not be the best idea.

A few photos would be great, do you know what type they are?

Why don't you plant annuals or flowers that Butterflies like feed on or lay eggs on away from treasured plants. Anythings better than killing them.

Here is a progress report. Picture taken today.

[]

I suppose we can sacrifice our nasturtiums as we are only growing them for fun sunshine, I hope your bush is faring better.

Nasturtiums are good for drawing away little nasties. If they weren't being nibbled by caterpillers, they would probably be full of black-fly.

And if the nasturtiums are lucky enough to not be troubled by pests, then they offer beautiful, colourful flowers. Oh, and they can be used in salads, too.

Kingfisher

And the bees loves nasturtians and the grow well even in poor dry soil - and produce lts of seed for next year.