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I had the same, except in my case, it was wasps and birds.


It's just as well, many of the native birds we care about (whose population is generally also declining along with many of the native insects) need a diet that is an overwhelming majority of insects (Often over 90%, ending up numbering multiple thousand caterpillar larva consumed) in order to successfully raise young. Bird seed doesn't cut it, it's high fat and nowhere near enough protein. Protein as a percentage of dry weight in many insects can exceed that of beef.

In fact birdseed can become a sort of "trap", (much like milkweed being available at the wrong times of year for monarchs) where it tricks their biology into thinking it's a food rich area that's good for breeding, but what they need actually isn't there resulting in high mortality rate of the young they were trying to raise.

So having a bunch of garden plants getting shredded by native caterpillars is a good thing, one way or another.




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