I found some (rather cute) critters eating my beautiful fuchsia plant:
Two caterpillars and a slug. This was quite discouraging, and simultaneously relieving since now I know, at least, who is eating the pretty leaves. My roommate’s sage plant was attacked by caterpillars a few weeks ago…although our plants are several rooms away from each other, but both outdoors. I wonder if they just transferred their eggs to my fuchsia? Either way, boohoo! My roommate used a spray with Neem in it (chemical killer) which (surprise, surprise) worked. But I would prefer an organic approach. Furthermore, once I pried the critters off the plant, they really grew on me! The caterpillars were teeny tiny and bright green. The slug kept sticking out its cute antennae and gravitating towards the dirt (I think to eat it, yum). I took a lot of photos. I kind of wanted to keep them as pets. (But they were destroying my plant!) I had a very hard time deciding what to do with them, but in the end, I just couldn’t flush the down the toilet. My compromise was to throw them off the balcony into the bushes: if they survived, they can make a new home; if they didn’t, they sort of deserved it, but I’m happy not knowing. Here are the cute little buggers:
Subsequently, I’ve found two more green caterpillars, one tiny red one, and a big fat multi-colored one. I keep throwing them off the balcony, but I have decided to try an organic spray on the plant: BT Caterpillar Killer. This gooey stuff consists of bacteria, called Bacillus thuringiensis, that I’m afraid eat the poor bugs from the inside out. We’ll see how well it works. For the meantime, I’ll keep picking them off the plant and tossing them overboard.
