Month: September 2025

Salt Marsh Moth Caterpillar

I had a new visitor to my yard today. I found a caterpillar on the screen to my sliding door. It had long yellowish hairs covering black spots along its body. How did it get there? Did it climb? Did it fly on the wind? I had to identify it. I’ve never seen this one before.

It turned out to be a salt marsh moth caterpillar. Now, I don’t know of any salt marshes nearby. We have ponds and creeks. I suppose there are marshy areas near the river, but my house is not near there. However, it makes sense then that it’s commonly found in any open area, not just marshes. Host plants for Estigmene acrea are said to be vegetables, weeds and hemp.

This caterpillar is a fast walker. It is seen in the fall and overwinters in cocoons in soil debris. Another reason not to rake up leaves and other yard debris.

Adults emerge in spring and lay eggs on host plants. The eggs hatch within only a week, and then the caterpillars eat, grow and molt several times before they are ready for the cocoon.

When its wings are closed, the moth appears black and white, with black spots on its abdomen. It can be variable, with spots or none. Males have a yellow-orange hind wing and females have white. This species is not really considered a pest, unless its population swells and plunders a valuable crop.

As with any hairy caterpillar, it’s best to avoid touching them, as the hairs are irritating.

I coaxed the caterpillar off my screen and onto a paper towel. I carried it to my front yard to find a more suitable place to find food or a wintering place than my house.

Only the caterpillar photos are mine. The moth images are from the web.

Esculus Hippocastanum

Horse Chestnut

It’s not a horse or a hippo, and the nut is inedible

It’s early autumn and I was out walking in the park, where I spotted the fallen seed pods. Chestnuts. These green spiked balls make me think of the Medieval maces used as weapons, with brutal spiked iron balls.

The pods I found were open and no doubt emptied by squirrels. I knew the trees were not native American chestnuts, but needed to look it up. I suspected horse chestnut but there are also Chinese chestnuts, which has larger hairy pods.

What I was finding were in fact horse chestnuts. I brought one home to offer to my marauding squirrels.

These trees are lovely large specimens, hard to miss, especially in spring with their large white upright flowers and large palmate leaves.

They are not native and have been planted widely as ornamentals. Its parts are toxic. Where I live in Washington, King County has listed this species as “a weed of concern.” They do not go out and destroy them, but discourage new plantings. I imagine the seeds sprout readily. They also can be a host for Sooty Bark Disease, which can infect native maples.

Somehow, the species arrived in North America a long time ago. It is native to Turkey and the Balkans.

Horse chestnuts are also known as conker trees and buckeyes. There is a theory that someone thought the seed looked like a deer eye – buck eye and that is where they name came from.

Ohio is famously called the Buckeye state and they do indeed have some. I got to see some when I visited a friend there.