Larval food plants

Hello, I'm Amanda McNulty of Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Entomologist Doug Tallamy's Homegrown National Park movement strives to put native plants that caterpillars eat back into suburban yards. All of us are horrified to hear that North America has lost 3 billion nesting birds in the last 30 years, mostly due to our planting non-native species in our yards. Boxwoods, azaleas, crepe myrtles…lovely to look at, but dead zones for caterpillars. Tallamy doesn't go, “nanny nanny boo boo” about using some of these but encourages us to have at least 60% of our plants being native species. If you look up “Doug Tallamy larval food plants,” you'll find listings of native plants and how many different caterpillars can eat each one's leaves. First place goes to oak, whose leaves nearly a thousand different caterpillars love to chow down on.