Usually while brushing his whites he roams. Wandering from front to back, tree to tree, bush to shrub he casts a meticulous eye over the greenery. And he does this almost every single morning. Me, on the other hand? I usually exit via the garage door in my black chariot and as I shift from reverse into first gear I cast a quick glance to make sure the garage door is closed before I pull away.
On one such morning, Phil was meandering in the back yard and turned his eye to the hopeful navel orange tree. I say hopeful because "someday" this young slip of a tree will produce succulent, juicy citrus, one of Phil's favorites. And hopefully we shall still be here to see that day. But probably not.
Wait! What is this? Something has been feasting on the glossy leaves! Shock & horror!
What the?!
"Heather!! Get out here!"
I, having just arisen from my cozy warm slumber, groggily slip on my glasses and slippers and join the panicked Phil to inspect this interesting specimen.
"Can it be a caterpillar?" we ask ourselves. We lean in for a closer look.
Whatever it is it's not pretty! AND it has eaten the leaves! That alone is grounds for immediate removal. But neither of us make a move to touch it.
Do you see it's eyes and gaping mouth?
Freaky is the consensus. Mildly disturbing. But it may turn out to be a beautiful butterfly and it's last meal was our glossy green citrus leaves. Whatever it is, it better be pretty.
24 comments:
That thing is gross looking! You are too nice! It would have been meeting my friend salt!
That is seriously so gross!! I would have freaked!!
We are having the same problem with our orange and grapefruit trees, let us know how you solve the problem. I am like you, i don't care too much but my husband is very concerned about his trees!
That thing is ugly!
I love that you grabbed your camera and took amazing photos. I've never seen one so up close before. I sure hope that he doesn't hurt your tree.
What is that thing?! That's like a grossly mutated super caterpillar! Seriously, you might want to send your pics somewhere to see if it's the first of its kind. Yuck!
That is the creepiest thing I have ever seen ! I thought you Photoshopped it on there for a second. But I guess weird things like that exist. It totally gives me the heebee - geebee's !
I didn't photoshop that little bugger in. I seriously thought he was starting to cacoon or something, he was so still and seriously creepy. We checked again this morning and he has moved! And proceeded to eat way too many leaves. And yet we left him. He scares us.
Ummmmm.... YUCK!! I think you need to call national geographic for this one... it has a face for crying out loud!
ok that is seriously disturbing....I am having a hard time with the size...how big would you say it is? Great photos though!
Oh.my.gosh. This looks like a monster. And I hope it does turn out to be something beautiful.
Flssgrl, I would say it is about 3-4" long and a good 3/4" thick.
okay, thats disgusting. you guys need to get rid of it. just pick it up with some chopsticks and voila! GROSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
your right that is the ugliest thing! Gross! i hate bugs! however you do take amazing photos!
that is the scariest,nastiest looking "thing" I have ever seen on a leaf!!! do you know what it is?? hope you did not have nightmares!!
omg that is SICK!! ew! it makes me wanna throw up in my mouth a little. yet i can't stop looking at it! if it was like a billion times its size, i would think it was one freakin creepy sea creature. GROSS!!!
and where are its eyes? i see five possible "sets."
That is so gross, it has such a huge mouth.
I tried and tried to figure out what that thing was. I kept googling for different images of citrus pests and could find anything. You should take that monster into the nursery and ask them what it is. I think someone could make a horror movie with that thing.
That is discusting.. you are better than I am. I would have immediatly removed it. Ugh!
Hmmm, maybe I have one in my Gerbera Daisy! I've noticed the leaves are getting eating by something. But THAT something never occured to me. I hope you see it again and introduce it to some salt!
What the crap is that disgusting nasty thing. Looks like some kind of wierd alien life form. send that in to national geographic. maybe you can have it named after you or something. Haha!
I have never seen anything like that, it looks like a caterpillar that would have been around when dinosaurs were roaming the earth!! How do you kill something like that, it is too big to step on.
My gardener friend recommends the following: email a picture of the critter to U of A and ask them to identify and what to do about it.
http://ag.arizona.edu/maricopa/garden/
Let me know what you discover.
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