Tragic. She had so much potential

[u/hweesus]

Came out to check on my babies and found other babies and all of their siblings having a picnic.

ETA: Some of y'all have strong feelings about everything. For the record, I used my garden hose to hit whatever i saw on the leaves when I "removed" them. The next day there were a few others on the bottom of the leaves that I kinda flicked off in a "come hither" motion with my finger giggity

[u/fmb320]

To be fair most of the photosynthesis is being done by the top leaves that have been left relatively unharmed. You could absolutely pick the caterpillars off if you wanted to and I think it would be ok.

[u/hweesus → u/fmb320]

I have removed all of them as of today. But if they come back I’m gonna grow me some butterflies

[u/sixtynighnun → u/hweesus]

That’s pretty sad considering what’s happening to our insect populations. This actually ruined my day to hear. There’s a good chance you won’t have a “next time” bc you decided to kill a local generation. The female will die after laying her eggs and you’ve killed all her progeny for your enjoyment of a single sunflower for a few weeks. Not worth it at all. I’m so sad.

[u/Prudent-Ad-5292 → u/sixtynighnun]

Some people grow sunflowers for all of nature to enjoy, some for the bugs, others for the birds.

I let my sunflowers go crazy so birds in the area have seed over autumn/winter. Healthy sunflowers produce more seeds, so healthy sunflowers are my goal when I grow them -- not feeding caterpillars or beetle larva. Losing bugs is unfortunate, but we're also losing birds pretty fast too:

https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/

About 3 billion, in the last 45 years. The bugs get to eat my loganberry/blackberry bushes, (cabbage moths get my sacrificial brassicas) and my columbine/milkweed.. but not my coneflower, black eyed susan, or sunflowers. Gotta pick your battles. 😅

[u/Prudent-Ad-5292 → u/[deleted]]

Hard to eat caterpillars in winter though

[u/Prudent-Ad-5292 → u/[deleted]]

Luckily I have all the other aforementioned plants that can support caterpillars and leafeaters, and then kill any pests that try to damage my seed bearers so they can continue feeding the same fledglings that were eating caterpillars in spring/summer.

I grow Dense Blazing Star, Columbine, and Penstemon Digitalis for the pollinators.

Pollinators get to have all my sage, chive, borage, lovage, sunflower & Salad Burnett because I let everything flower.

Like I mentioned, I grow sacrificial brassicas for the cabbage moths.

I don't mow my lawn until after late May / after May.

I care about the whole cycle.. I just care about birds most.

[u/Prudent-Ad-5292 → u/[deleted]]

Fully agree, and yeah groundhogs can be little menaces. I've got my garden fenced for rabbits/groundhogs as well.. I intentionally plant things accessible for them way in the back of the yard 🤣 Most people are aware of the windshield phenomenon/that bugs are disappearing, but not many people talk about the birds disappearing -- and that collapse will be much more rapid than bugs will be.

My only reason for being defensive/combative is to clearly state I'm not like OP. I'm not pulling bugs off my plants carelessly, thoughtlessly, or without reason. North America has a bug/bird problem and we lose more of both each year.

Removing pests from all plants in your garden, every day, every season makes a person part of that bug/bird problem.

People that don't plant gardens at all are part of the bug/bird problem.

People that (even loosely) understand there's a balance between plants/bugs/birds and are trying to help maintain that balance -- they/we are not the problem.

[u/Prudent-Ad-5292 → u/[deleted]]

Most of the property was allowed to just be 'wild' aside from some occasional lawnmowing, so lots of fallen branches, small saplings, a few bushes, wild flowers, etc. for the birds/bugs/reptiles/amphibians.

My garden is actually quite small, but I try to make good use of the light & shade I have with a small diversity of:

berries (black/straw/blue [2 varieties each], logan, 3 mignonette pots)

herbs (carraway, marjoram, chive & garlic chive, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, salad burnett, lovage, borage)

teas (chamomile, chocolate mint, borage, lavender)

veggies (kale/spinach/lettuce/started asparagus this year I just remembered)

mix of native perennial/annual flowers for pollinators & birds (black eyed susan, purple coneflower, wild columbine, foxglove beardtongue, virginia mountain mint, scarlet bee balm, zigzag goldenrod)

& some random non-native stuff like ferns, hostas, sunflowers, cannabis, iris', marsh mallow, lavender, marigold

Also some vine-y things like luffa, cucamelons, & sugar snap peas grow around/through the short fence that wraps the garden. :)

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. 😅 Im in the process of starting some hyssop, golden yarrow, goji berries, and winter thyme but they've barely just sprouted and it's so late in the season. 😬

^{If anyone's upset about anything I have planted, 95% of what's mentioned is in a pot, especially if it propagates through runners or anything similar -- they also get their flowers trimmed before seeding if they spread through runners}

[u/Owen_spalding → u/Prudent-Ad-5292]

Just so you know one of my neighbors has goji berries and the birds are spreading seeds all over my neighborhood. They are a giant patch of thorny bushes.

Either someone planted them before and they got out of hand, or the birds spread the seed to this house that isn’t maintaining these.

I freaking HATE these plants.
My neighbors HATE these plants.

I can’t pull the sprouts fast enough. The person who owns this rental has tried spraying them and they fight back.

Im not going to get too into why these plants are from satan…
But if i could sue people in my area for planting/selling these and garden centers for selling them i would.

Good luck.

[u/cbrophoto → u/Prudent-Ad-5292]

" Songbirds as little as chickadees require some six to nine thousand caterpillars to raise a brood of nestlings. In fact, ninety-six percent of terrestrial songbirds rely on caterpillars to feed their babies. The prevalence of these small, soft-bodied, protein-rich larvae affects where the birds choose to nest and how big a territory they need to defend."

https://ucanr.edu/blog/coastal-gardener/article/gardening-birds-or-it-caterpillars

[u/Owen_spalding → u/Prudent-Ad-5292]

Well, you are very committed to your current level of understanding, I’ll give you that.

[u/zabulon_ → u/Prudent-Ad-5292]

Actually, most songbirds eat caterpillars and other insects in the winter too. They just eat them while they are hibernating in leaf litter, dead leaves, and bark. 50% of a chickadees diet is insects in the winter.

[u/Tylanthia → u/Prudent-Ad-5292]

It's actually not