Budworms and Fuzzy Caterpillars on Dahlia Foliage - September 2024
One of my Dahlias - a Melina Fleur variety - that is planted in a protected spot (against the house) on the southside in (mostly) full sun has been pretty busy producing blooms the past few weeks. But, I started to notice that some of the foliage was starting to get eaten up. Not lace-like, but holes at the tips and in the middle of a number of leaves. And, those holes kept getting greater in numbers. A week ago, I sprayed the plant with Neem Oil, thinking that I might get whomever/whatever was eating the leaves. But, that didn't seem to slow it down. So, I went in for a closer look. And...sure enough...I found a couple of different pests on the plant. The first were these fuzzy caterpillars. There were like 30 (that I could find) that I picked off and stomped on. I also clipped off a number of the partially-eaten leaves. See below for the backside of the leaf with two (large) and one (tiny) caterpillars below: The other ...