I noticed something black on one of my Rose of Sharon bushes yesterday. The poor little guys are doing their best to leaf out for the 2nd time after the first leaves were killed during that 27° night.
The black thing was the ugliest caterpillar I have ever seen. Solid black, not fuzzy at all. You could see the ‘skin’ & it had what appeared to be spike formations on the body. It looked downright evil & like you would get majorly hurt (stung) if you touched it. I did not notice where it had been chomping on my little bush so I think I got it early. I used a stick to get it off the bush, then smushed it.
I tried looking up solid black caterpillars, but didn’t see anything like what I got rid of. I still almost get chills just thinking about it - creepy & evil looking.
I use an app called “Seek” to try to identify all sorts of things, trees, plants, bugs, etc. It won’t help you this time, but in the future, it might. I would try to get that ID first, then smush it.
I have a small culinary/medicinal herb garden. Herbs totally fascinate me (& deer don’t eat them for the most part). Dr. Ealy says God put everything we need on this earth to take care of our bodies & I generally subscribe to that thought. I ran across this interview with Dr. Patrick Jones (he’s a vet, not MD) discussing herbs for Spring allergies (which I am fighting right now & I have a histamine intolerance/chronic hives) so I was very interested. You might be as well:
https://homesteadliving.com/the-coop-ep-03-combat-spring-allergies-with-dr-patrick-jones/
Dr. Jones grows his own medicinal herbs & sells them here:
https://homegrownherbalist.net/
After looking at nettle leaf on Amazon, I would trust Dr. Jones’ products above the Amazon offerings, but do your own research.
Stinging nettle is very invasive so I’d rather not have it in my garden. When hiking in the mountains, we would come across huge patches of it in low areas & along creeks (woe unto you if you were wearing shorts!) & knowing what I now know, that would have been a good opportunity to harvest some of it. Some backpackers would pick & boil - good source of vitamin C.
A bucket of soapy water works wonders.
I also use Spinosad powder to dust my cabbage and Brussel Sprouts with for the cabbage loopers.
Spinosad kills caterpillars and is safe for everything else. Gums up their digestive tract from what I hear.