My husband discovered one September day that the flower stalks of the astilbe that he had recently bought were covered with some sort of eggs. The eggs had just started to hatch, in fact. From a distance they just looked like a weird, purplish encrustation. But thanks to my digital camera, you can look more closely and see the larvae. Yuck!
My husband cut one of the flower stalks and put it on the walkway. Then it was easier to see the eggs.
And then the larvae started to flee.
Larva Up-Close
Fleeing Larvae
My husband and I feel as though we are custodians of the land to some degree. We thought that if this were an interesting moth or butterfly species then we should let it be. We would certainly never wish to harm an endangered butterfly species! But we also thought that if it were something bad then perhaps we should do away with it.
After researching on the Web, I came to the conclusion that the larvae were cutworms. And cutworms are not good, so we decided not to let them be. It was a sad end to an interesting, if somewhat gross, investigation.