Caterpillars Eating My Grapevines

[do not spam]

I have several grapevines in backyard here in Las Vegas. In the last week or so I have noticed that the leaves on them are are being eating very voraciously by caterpillars. They are yellow with black bands. The link below has a photograph of one of them I took today. Any recommendations on what to stop them with?

[Dwayne]

Wal-Mart has a "Vegetable Spray" that I use on my garden. It says it is safe to use up to 48 hours before harvesting what you have grown. You might try that.

Dwayne

[omi]

dark blue moth which resembles a wasp with feather like antennas. The caterpillars are yellow, and blue striped that feed side by side eating the leaves leaving only the veins. After manually picking off and destroying the caterpillars and any eggs, the recommended control is a Bt spray. Do a web search - there is a lot of info on this.

Olin

[Penelope Periwinkle]

neat butterfly. I don't know enough about caterpillars in your area to venture a guess at what they are, but you might take one to your county extension agent and get it identified.

If you're set on stopping them, most any insecticide will do it. Bt (_ Bacillus thuringiensis_) is a bacteria that kills caterpillars.

sprays, made from _Saccharopolyspora spinosa_ are effective, too. Or, you could just hand pick 'em and drop them a jar of soapy water, but I'm guessing you wanted something less labor intensive.

Penelope

[do not spam]

Thanks Olin. Got a place to start my research now.