Recently I’ve been seeing some white caterpillars in my backyard.
They’re really fuzzy with longer white hackles and tiny black spots. Having heard that they’re poisonous, I step on them to make sure one of my great-grandsons doesn’t decide to have one for a new pet.
They are rather cute. I know they have picked up and played with woolly bears before, but we all know that kids are curious. The woolly bears aren’t too reliable when it comes to the weather but are harmless creatures, but the white ones can give you an itchy rash similar to nettles or poison ivy.
If any of the tiny hair-like spines become imbedded in your skin, the result could be a painful, burning sensation. Some people are highly allergic to these worm-like creatures and suffer from headaches and nausea, but none of that is fatal.
These white caterpillars are actually hickory tussock moth caterpillars. They are native to New York and the northeast and are normally seen from July to September.
I don’t know why I see them in my yard since they normally live on hickory, ash and other hardwood trees. I wonder, though, since there are a couple red maple trees in my front yard. Other than those there are just white pines. What draws them here? There has to be a host tree nearby.
The adult moths are light brown with cream-colored spots lined up in rows. The underside of the wings is a light creamy color.
The adults swarm around lights at night like other moths between May and June. They lay up to a hundred eggs in clusters on the underside of leaves and soon die off. During July and September, the caterpillars hatch and start to feed on their host tree.
There’s another white caterpillar that is commonly found in the northeast. It’s not colored the same way as their distant cousin. They’re mostly white with black and a bit of red on their heads. These are the white-marked tussock caterpillar.
They aren’t poisonous unless you bite into one, but they have venom in their hair-like spines that will cause similar skin reactions as the other caterpillar.
These moths lay their eggs on milkweeds and the leaves of hardwood trees. They have mottled brown wings with a white dot on each wing. I guess they are in competition with the monarch butterfly which also favors milkweed
I’ve been giving this entire subject some thought. Why are these caterpillars around here now? I don’t think I’ve ever seen them until the last couple of years. What’s changed? Then it came to me.
A couple of years ago we had our old dairy barn removed. Many bats called that old structure home. In the evening, I would watch numerous bats fly out of the upper windows as it started to get dark. Those bats fed on the insects and moths that were attracted to our yard light.
So, the barn is gone as well as the bats. With nothing to control the moths, they have found a new place to live.
As I get to the end of this article, I wonder, “Does anyone really care?” We may see these creatures, but they don’t really matter as long as they aren’t destroying our gardens, trees or bushes. They are just part of nature.