pest alert from the southeast!

The polka dot wasp moth looks pretty, but its orange, long-haired, caterpillars have managed to eat almost all the leaves of my oleander!

If you have any oleanders, be on the lookout for these ravenous Caribbean natives.

I had first seen this creature the last week of August. 

I thought it was a wasp. 

As it was trapped between the screen and the window, I left it alone.

Tuesday, I saw another one outside by the mailbox and killed it.
 

These are rows and rows of eggs on the back of an oleander leaf.

I took that Tuesday afternoon. 

I had noticed the oleander was ailing when I took out the trash, so I went in search of a cause and found these.
 

These are the beasts inside the egg cases. 

Ravenous, ravenous. 

I do hope the oleander will recover.

It had so many fragrant pink blossoms this year!

I have managed to save the leaves on one branch of the oleander. 

The moth caterpillars come out in the late afternoon, when the sun is not directly shining on the plant. 

I would go at that time of day and pick off the leaves with the caterpillars or eggs, then deposit them on the fire ant bed.

I have not seen anymore of the pests, either adult or larval form, since this evening. 

Hooray!

John Denion, Deatre Nicole Boyles Denion, please pass this along to the city gardeners.

I would hate for all of Savannah's lovely oleanders to be denuded like mine has been.