I found this thing on my plum tree today. I haven’t seen one before & don’t know what it is…although I suspect it might be a Furry Red Caterpillar (well…obviously…but that’s also an official name for Amsacta albistriga). At any rate, it was munching on my plum & clearly wasn’t doing my tree any good so I soon got rid of it. The chooks were curious but wouldn’t go near it – furry red things don’t look too appealing, I suspect (unless they’re my strawberries – then they’re irresistible!).

Update:

After going through my What Pest or Disease is That? book (accompanied by many cries of “What’s that?” from my three year old every time I turned the page), I have discovered this is, in fact, a Painted Apple Moth larvae (Teia anartoides).

Native to Australia, it’s original food source was wattles but it adapted to feed on apples & other native & exotic plants (one of which being, obviously, plums!).

Fun little fact: the female is wingless, so the species can only spread from place to place if the larvae walk there. Given there didn’t appear to be any other larvae on the tree, I suspect this one had wandered over from the reserve across the road (lots of wattles) looking to set up a new home. Yeah, well…not if I can avoid it.