eeekkkkk!

So I started to pick my blueberries today...they are starting to ripen just a bit, and I notice these yellow caterpillars all clumped up and eating the leaves of the bush!  Eeekkk!  I almost picked them! 

Last year this same bush had web worm.  These were not web worm, so I had to go inside to consult with the field guide and find out exactly what they were.  A quick check identified them as the yellow necked caterpillar, and then I checked them out online.  Seems they like blueberries.

I have never had these before, and decided, that since they were doing a fast job of devouring the leaves on the bush, and that I did not want to chance having any of them morph into moths that would lay eggs...well....they had to go. 

I pruned off the branches that held the caterpillars, and first offered them to the chickens.  Trial by chicken.  The chickens did not want any of them.  So ...I wandered over to the fish pool and held the branches underwater for the fish.  A few little bubbles came up, and the caterpillars held on for dear life....but the fish did not want them either.

I wound up having to step on them to exterminate them.  If there were just a few, I would have let them be...but they were too destructive.  I work to hard to protect my berry  bushes from the bear and the birds, to let them go to a lowly caterpillar.