Pupating With Impunity

Part of my daily routine is to head out back after work and check on my tortoise and my vegetable garden. I have to do this in the bright afternoon sun, otherwise I'll end up walking through accursed orb weaver webs in the evening gloom. During summer season, when the orb weavers are everywhere, I dare not go outside at night without a broom leading the way.

But I've never had to contend with silk-spinning caterpillars as seen in the photos below. From what I've read, these tiny monsters swarm a bush or a tree, taking a couple of weeks to enclose it in silk, giving the caterpillars protection enough to devour the leaves and then pupate with impunity. It seems they aren't worth the calories, given all the effort it would take to work one's way through the sticky mess.

It's at times like these that I'll just take it easy and count my blessings that it's only orb weavers that I have to contend with. And black widows. And brown widows. And vampires.

Photo source: Kat