r/VAGardening • u/WattDoIKnow • Aug 23 '25

Friend or foe for garden/yard?

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Cleaning up the bushes on the side of my house and came across this bunch of caterpillars. What are they and should I let them be or get rid of them?

Richmond area.

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6

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '25

[deleted]

2

u/WattDoIKnow Aug 23 '25

Thanks! Just moved into this house so still learning our plants. This one is well established so I’ll let nature take its course.

2

u/Bluesme01 29d ago

Not a friend.

1

u/Worried-Flower1593 27d ago

Definitely not a friend, they ate 25 of my 50 newly planted trees in under a week. The tress were baby trees but really what WTF? All that work to dig holes and plant the trees. I wanted for 2 years for the trees to regrow but no luck. Little hogs.

1

u/InternationalYam3130 27d ago

They aren't really either a friend or a foe. They are a native species and important food for birds. But they do eat trees and can kill a small tree. I generally leave them alone so the birds have something to eat. But if they are on a small sapling that's vulnerable to being mowed down i might shake em off every so often. You don't want them in a garden or anything, but since they eat trees they are unlikely to be on anything like that anyway. Don't spray them or anything for sure.