Saddleback Catepillar
It's been many years since I was infested with the Saddleback Caterillars. The first time that I had come into contact with the Saddleback Caterpillar was when I passed by an Areca palm tree and received a sharp sting. It didn't hit me at first but the second sting got me to looking for what was a doing this terrible sting.
You can spot the leaves that the Saddleback Caterpoillar is on because you will spot the leaf damage because the caterpillar eats away at the leaves on the palm tree. It didn't take long to spot the little culprit and I did spot him later in the afternoon.
After that first encounter, I kept an eye out for these little stingers. I was a few days later that I got stung again and started to take a real look at the leaves to see if there were any more of these little stinging pests. I did find a group and fortunate for me, I was able to find the whole family. There was mom with a bunch of baby Saddleback Caterpillars riding on her back. I had to think quick as how to care of the situation and get rid of them so I didn't get stung again.
At the same time, I was having a problem with Fire Ants on a mound close to where I found the Saddleback Caterpillars. I decided to let the Fire Ants help me get rid of the Saddleback Caterpillars. I cut all the leaf ends that had the entire family of Saddleback Caterpillars and took them over to the large Fire Ants mound of dirt. I dropped the leafs with the Saddlebacks Caterpillars on the mound and took a stick and disturbed the mound. In a short period of time, there were thousands of Fire Ants looking after my Saddleback Caterpillar problem.
It was about a week later that I took a shovel to the Fire Ant mound and dug down deep to pick up a shovel full of the Fire Ant mound and ran several feet to the preserve and threw the mound of dirt, with the majority of the Fire Ants, into the middle of the pond. I immediately dropped the shovel, so that I wouldn't get stung by the Fire Ants.
This resolved my Saddleback Caterpillars and Fire Ant problem for several years until now. Now, back to what to look out for and my next plan of attack.
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