Caterpillar Farming

Updated: Mar 3, 2023

Adding native and pollinator-friendly plants will transform a sterile, lifeless patch of turfgrass into a local wildlife oasis. Are you willing to share your yard with birds, bees, and butterflies? Are you Ok with caterpillars on your plants? If your answer is yes - read on!

Caterpillar Farming

Caterpillars are a bird's preferred food for raising their young. The author of Blessing of the Toads, Sharon Lovejoy, refers to caterpillars as "self-stuffing sausages." Their soft tubular shape slides easily down a chick's throat, and the caterpillar's nutritional profile is unmatched for raising chicks to adulthood.

From my yard...

The black-capped chickadee requires up 10,000 caterpillars to rear a nest of 3 chicks to adulthood — Chickadees require 10,000 caterpillars to raise three chicks to adulthood.

Reframe your backyard wildlife campaign as " caterpillar farming " to make peace with the caterpillar munching on your plants. Add native and pollinator-friendly plants to your landscape to kickstart your caterpillar farm, and nature will reward you with the sights, sounds, smells, and colors that will animate your property.

The cycle begins

First, butterflies arrive to lay their eggs on their host plants. Soon, caterpillars emerge while native birds hatch their chicks. Once nature takes over, you become an observer. Surviving caterpillars become Monarchs, Swallowtails, and Luna Moths. The caterpillars birds capture become food for the next generation of cardinals, chickadees, bluebirds, and orioles.

Either outcome transforms your yard into a productive wildlife habitat!