Pests! and other visitors

Late August 2014.  Found this very interesting blog post on the most common type of caterpillars in the balcony.  Apparently they like curry leaf and citrus plants - exactly the 2 plants that I keep finding them on!

Here is one which I didn't find early enough...

Unfortunately I think it didn't survive as it hasn't moved in several hours... yuck!


Dec 2012.  The lovely autumn weather brought a number of visitors to my balcony.  Some of them were not very welcome!  It seems that humans are not the only ones attracted to the fragrance of herbs.  Here are a few of the uninvited visitors:

Curry leaves were a favourite with the caterpillars

The CNY-orange tree also attracted some weird but wonderful creatures!

Some visitors obviously enjoyed their stay A LOT!

Some other visitors were very mysterious - what eats chillies?!

But could not be found...

They seemed to just have a taste of each...

I did ultimately find a slug on the floor near the chilli plants and concluded that that was probably what had been taking bites out of the chillies.  Sadly, forgot to take a photo!

Some visitors were much more welcome but sadly did not stay for very long!

No idea what this is but it has been nicknamed the tiramisu beetle!

Visiting hairy moth