Garden/ great tiger moth caterpillar
Woollybear Caterpillars Common Right Now
Woollybear caterpillars of the Tiger moth have been a common sight lately in the Central Texas area. These insects are native to the United States and are sometimes called “woollybear caterpillars”. “Woollybear caterpillar” is a more general term that refers to various species of caterpillars that are densely covered in hairs, called setae, and tend to wander.
Common Color Variations
While these caterpillars can be highly variable for individual species, the common ones seen lately are woollybear (Isabella tiger moth), saltmarsh caterpillar (saltmarsh moth), and garden tiger moth caterpillar, also known as the great tiger moth caterpillar. Woollybear caterpillars are usually black on each end with brown in the middle. Saltmarsh caterpillars are variable and can be a creamy yellow to brown to black in color. Garden/ great tiger moth caterpillars tend to be black on the top part of the body and brown on the bottom.
Saltmarsh caterpillar
Are They Pests?
All three of these caterpillars feed on a wide variety of herbaceous and woody plants, but only sometimes considered to be pests when they feed on field crops.
Tiger moths have a complete life cycle with four life stages- egg, larva, pupa, adult. Eggs are laid in clusters on the leaves of host plants. Larvae go through several instars before they pupate in soil. Larvae tend to actively disperse and may be seen in groups moving over turf, roads, sidewalks, or other locations. Adults usually emerge in the spring to mate and begin the cycle again. Moths can be active year-round in South Texas, but for most parts of Texas, larvae overwinter in the last larval instar in protected locations.
For more information or help with identification, contact Wizzie Brown, Texas AgriLife Extension Service Program Specialist at 512.854.9600.
This work is supported in part by the Crop Protection and Pest Management, Extension Implementation Program [award no. 2021- 70006-35347/project accession no. 1027036] from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Additional Resources
About Wizzie
Wizzie Brown
County Extension Program Specialist – Integrated Pest Management
Email:EBrown@ag.tamu.edu
Wizzie has been with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service since 2002 and has been playing with insects since she was a toddler. She is an Extension Program Specialist with the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. Wizzie holds a B.S. in entomology from The Ohio State University and a M.S. in entomology from Texas A&M University. The integrated pest management program provides identification, biological and management information to whomever needs help. Wizzie’s research focuses on imported fire ants, including community wide fire ant management. Wizzie also is happy to provide programs to area groups on a variety of arthropod-related topics. You can find insect and other arthropod information on Wizzie’s blog.
