Help with Caterpillar Identify.. Brown Tail Moth Catterpillar?

Callawish

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone can help us identify the Caterpillar we found in the garden yesterday?

Our small dog was quite unwell for 2 weeks prior to finding this and we found what we think was a digested caterpillar in her stool at the start of her being unwell.

To me it looks like a Brown Tail Moth Caterpillar? I know these are quite toxic to dogs too...

If it is, I'm concerned where they might be. It's only a small garden with a few potted plants/trees.




Many thanks.

Farway

Could be Knot Grass moth, does say often confused with BT moth

https://www.nhbs.com/blog/the-nhbs-guide-to-uk-caterpillar-identification

Keep_pedalling

100% Knotgrass. 

Callawish

Legends! Thank you. Not sure why that one didn't come up when I was trying to identify. Makes more sense, we do have some heather planted... maybe they are living in there....

Any suggestions on how to deal with as our dog was very poorly?

Silvertabby

Not something I've come across before, but looks like knotgrass caterpillars are poisonous to dogs because they carry the toxins from their primary food source, being knotweed plants.  Including the dreaded Japanese knotweed.

Advice is to keep dogs away from any knotweed plants - which begs the awful question, do you have Japanese knotweed in or near your garden?

Keep_pedalling

Silvertabby said:

Not something I've come across before, but looks like knotgrass caterpillars are poisonous to dogs because they carry the toxins from their primary food source, being knotweed plants.  Including the dreaded Japanese knotweed.

Advise is to keep dogs away from any knotweed plants - which begs the awful question, do you have Japanese knotweed in or near your garden?

They actually feed on a wide variety of woody and herbaceous plants, including broad-leaved dock, plantains, bramble, hawthorn, common sorrel, heather, and purple loosestrife. I don’t think any native species of insect eats Japanese Knotweed, which is one of the reasons it gets so out of control out of its native counties. It is also not toxic, goats and sheep will certainly keep it well cropped. 

A dog that eats hairy caterpillars will hopefully learn its lesson not to touch them in future, even if the species is not toxic the hairs are like.y to irritate the digestive system. 

Callawish

Keep_pedalling said:

Silvertabby said:

Not something I've come across before, but looks like knotgrass caterpillars are poisonous to dogs because they carry the toxins from their primary food source, being knotweed plants.  Including the dreaded Japanese knotweed.

Advise is to keep dogs away from any knotweed plants - which begs the awful question, do you have Japanese knotweed in or near your garden?

They actually feed on a wide variety of woody and herbaceous plants, including broad-leaved dock, plantains, bramble, hawthorn, common sorrel, heather, and purple loosestrife. I don’t think any native species of insect eats Japanese Knotweed, which is one of the reasons it gets so out of control out of its native counties. It is also not toxic, goats and sheep will certainly keep it well cropped. 

A dog that eats hairy caterpillars will hopefully learn its lesson not to touch them in future, even if the species is not toxic the hairs are like.y to irritate the digestive system. 

Thanks for this.
Our 10 year old small dog (3kg) definitely had digestive issues. You could hear her belly from about 5 meters away. She had breathing issues, rash, lethargic etc.
 

RAS

It's easy enough to either get the caterpillar to walk onto a stem or piece of paper, "chased" by a straight edge, then pop in a cup or jar and relocate outside the area your dog roams.

JK by the way is edible for humans, albeit uninteresting. There was a spell of suggesting using the young shoots like rhubarb or asparagus but it is almost tasteless.

subjecttocontract

Does it's colour act as a warning for predators (eg birds) to keep away ? 

-taff

I found a couple of these on my persicaria this week, I was impressed, they're very cute and fuzzy...luckily I don't have a dog.