the cats are on my baptisia. and i can't find anything on the moth. is it native? does is do good things? they won't hurt my big plant and will let them stay if somebody can convince me it's the right thing to do. they make it look bad is all.

We had an unprecedented number of genista moth caterpillars on many Texas Mountain Laurels this spring. They are gone now. Don't know about the baptisia, They only made some parts of the TML'S look bad. But the plants are fine (they're pretty tough). I'm cutting them back a bit. The moths go through their life cylce every spring and then are gone until the next spring here. I just don't have any experience with baptisias, so not sure if they could survive the caterpillars or not.

linda what i really want to know is does the moth give us anything of value? i'd just as soon not have them but if they are good for something i want to keep them. i couldn't find one thing they were good for is why i am asking.

Bird food???

Good question and I don't really know all that much about the moths. I struggle with this all the time as far as a lot of species of insects. Humans often get to make decisions about whether to kill insects that are eating their plants...or those eating other insects or larval forms of insects. Live or die? Just because we have the power to kill them. Personally I try to stay organic and to kill as few insects as possible, but feel I have to kill some from time to time. When certain beetles and their larva were killing and severely threatening my milkweed plants last year, I had no problem with picking off every single one I could find and killing them. I lost too many milkweed plants last year and the milkweed are food for the Queen and Monarch caterpillars, so I made that decision...because I love those butterflies. I also kill aphids if there are too many of them. Mosquitos, fleas, ticks...I have no problem with killing them on occasion. But I left the Genista moths alone, even though there were LOTS of them and the damage was more than I'd ever seen before. I knew they'd be gone after a while and the Texas Mountain Laurels would be okay, so I made that decision. Also, I didn't kill the 8-Spotted Forrester Moth, even though they stripped foliage of both wild grapevines and Virginia Creepers. Good point, Sandy...at least some things are able to eat those excessive amounts of Genista caterpillars!

I wish I has something that would eat the Virginia Creeper around here

some things do just grow too well.

thanks for your honest opinion linda. it's good advice. i guess i'll let the danged things stay. dadgum it. come on birds. lol

BTW, I read somewhere that the legume foliage that the Genista caterpillars eat are said to be toxic. If so, the birds may spits the caterpillars out or avoid them. Oh, lordy!

i had some seedlings from twilite prairieblue seeds. they even got on those but i think even those will recover. baptisia doesn't live in texas for nothing. lol.

Texas tough! Now you know something is tough when it's Texas tough!

lol. i got some new penstemon this year. supposed to be good in the heat. well i'm gone find that out for sure.

I have lost 4 out of 6 baptisias in the last few years, and just recently I discovered that one of the remaining 2 was completely defoliated. I discovered an army of caterpillars on the now bare branches, and starting to take over my remaining hybrid baptisia. I googled and found this caterpillar. I don't know if the defoliated one will come back or not; it is my oldest one. Right now I am drowning the ones I can pick off in a bucket of water and dawn dish liquid. They are BAD BUGS in my books!

So to fast forward:
2022: The nearly defoliated baptisia eventually recovered but I am quick to spot any of those caterpillars. It seems to have been a one time event and if this moth has any good qualities I say let them find another place to live!