Hi

I have 4 aubergine plants in my greenhouse. They are not doing badly,
although no fruit is forming yet, there are plenty of flowers. A couple
of leaves have been nibbled and indeed I found one of the culprits
yesterday munching away - a 1" green caterpillar.

However, the strange thing is that on top of many of the leaves are lots
of dry brown pellets. Yes, I can imagine what they could be(!), but some
of them are like 2-3mm in diameter and there are loads of them scattered
over most of the leaves, not just the nibbled ones.

Are they really all caterpillar droppings? The 2-3mm one must be a big
caterpillar and they must spend alot of time roaming over the plants!

Bigus

On Fri, 05 Sep 2014 10:06:23 +0100, Bigus wrote:


Are they really all caterpillar droppings? The 2-3mm one must be a big
caterpillar and they must spend alot of time roaming over the plants!

Bigus

Could they eggs? Soon to be more caterpillars?

On 05/09/2014 14:18, Derek Turner wrote:
On Fri, 05 Sep 2014 10:06:23 +0100, Bigus wrote:


Are they really all caterpillar droppings? The 2-3mm one must be a big
caterpillar and they must spend alot of time roaming over the plants!

Bigus

Could they eggs? Soon to be more caterpillars?


Crikey, I hope not. I originally thought they were seeds that had
somehow blown in but strange they only seem to be on the leaves

On 05/09/2014 19:59, Bigus wrote:
On 05/09/2014 14:18, Derek Turner wrote:
On Fri, 05 Sep 2014 10:06:23 +0100, Bigus wrote:


Are they really all caterpillar droppings? The 2-3mm one must be a big
caterpillar and they must spend alot of time roaming over the plants!

Bigus

Could they eggs? Soon to be more caterpillars?


Crikey, I hope not. I originally thought they were seeds that had
somehow blown in but strange they only seem to be on the leaves

If those are butterfly or moth eggs then the insect must be the size of
a blackbird, you just might have seen it around.
But seriously if they were eggs then they would be on the underside of
the leaves and attached.
Some large caterpillar do wander at night and then drop to the ground in
the day time.

On 05/09/2014 20:36, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Fri, 05 Sep 2014 19:59:20 +0100, Bigus
wrote:

On 05/09/2014 14:18, Derek Turner wrote:
On Fri, 05 Sep 2014 10:06:23 +0100, Bigus wrote:


Are they really all caterpillar droppings? The 2-3mm one must be a big
caterpillar and they must spend alot of time roaming over the plants!

Bigus

Could they eggs? Soon to be more caterpillars?


Crikey, I hope not. I originally thought they were seeds that had
somehow blown in but strange they only seem to be on the leaves

There have been a lot of occurrences of Elephant Hawk Moth
caterpillars this year. They can be up to four inches long, and other
Hawk Moth caterpillars can also be very large. See the thread on
Fuchsia foliage filchers on this ng, mid August.

Large caterpillars produce large droppings. Those of the Elephant Hawk
Moth caterpillars are pictured he http://tinyurl.com/pmrvst8


We did have an elephant hawk moth caterpillar in the garden recently but
I was too late to save it from being bitten by next door's cat.

The droppings aren't those though. I'll keep my eye open for the monsters!