{"id":1151,"date":"2013-07-12T17:50:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T17:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ranchodelicioso.com\/?p=1151"},"modified":"2015-01-10T18:32:18","modified_gmt":"2015-01-10T18:32:18","slug":"caterpillar-that-eats-passion-fruit-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ranchodelicioso.com\/?p=1151","title":{"rendered":"Caterpillar That Eats Passion Fruit Leaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Butterfly<\/a><\/p>\n

This beautiful orange and black butterfly looks sweet, but it lays hundreds of eggs on our passion fruit vine leaves.<\/p>\n

At first, the eggs are bright yellow, but after a time, they turn a browner shade before hatching.<\/p>\n

The tiny caterpillar babies favor these passion fruit vines leaves (maracuya) and will quickly grow much larger. We’re not sure if they eat anything else on the farm, and we haven’t seen a lot of these butterflies, but have discovered dozens of egg groupings.<\/p>\n

Our solution has been to just tear off the leaves when we find the eggs and then step on them, simply squishing them, or we toss the leaf into our tilapia fish pond.<\/p>\n

It may actually be best to leave some of them to eat your passionfruit vines. The passionfruit tends to produce more fruits when it’s stressed out, so having a small infestation may produce a more plentiful bounty and dutifully eliminating all of these caterpillars. Turn your enemy into a friend by hiring him!<\/p>\n\n\t\t