Is this the doing of a caterpiller? Complete novice needs some help

[rdlr]

Here's what I use to spray garden pests:

Capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers, repels mites, aphids, whiteflies, and many other insects. Mix a few tablespoons of hot pepper sauce in 1 gallon of water, add a tablespoon of liquid soap to help it stick to foliage, and spray. Keep it away from plants that chipmunks and squirrels might visit because it can injure them.

[syracusa]

Originally Posted by paperhouse

Go out at night with a flashlight and see what's eating them.

I just wanted to say that I took your advice and I just returned from the outside with a picture. I found the creatures that eat my plants but I have no idea what these are. If anyone could help me with identifying the bug as well as with advice to eliminate them, I would be really grateful.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...bugonplant.jpg

I also did what rdlr suggested and this afternoon I sprayed all my plants with the hot pepper and liquid soap solution - but at night, I still found the bug on the plant eating away, and it seemed not in the least bothered by the hot pepper solution I had sprayed on the plant just a few hours earlier.

I think I need some serious insecticide.

Any suggestion would be highly appreciated.

[jimboburnsy]

I think that's a field cricket nymph. They can be quite destructive. The black dots are probably cricket poop.

My grandmother used to bury a wine bottle with an inch of sugar water (or CapriSun, she kept a lot of that stuff for her grandkids) in the bottom next to a plant that was being harrassed by crickets. She would bury it so that the mouth of the bottle was flush or slightly above grade in the bed. In the morning she would dig up the bottle and count the drowned crickets in the sugar water.

[syracusa]

I found out. They are earwigs.