hostess with the "mostess"

caterpillars that is.  I'm not so sure that's a good title to have either although I think the caterpillars in question are more sphinx moths?  The hostess in this case is the Nicotiana 'sylvestris' plant seen below growing in front of the pond:
I didn't notice the caterpillars until last night when I decided to do a little deadheading.  There are many more bloom stalks than the one pictured above (photo taken earlier in the summer) and a couple of the stalks had gotten pretty ragged looking.  Since I'm not particularly interested in this plant seeding around (I have others I'll let do that job) I decided to trim them.  When I raised the pruners to snip, is when I saw caterpillars coming out or going in almost every spent flower head:

I couldn't tell which the caterpillar above was doing.  He never moved.  But every seed head had holes chewed into it.  I don't believe I've ever noticed that before although I don't think it's unusual?  A quick search on the Internet revealed Nicotiana to be a host plant to numerous moths and butterflies in the Lepidoptera order.  Three that I was familiar with are cabbage moths, horn worms and sphinx moths. 

Why, oh why can't I ever discover Swallowtail or Monarch caterpillars in numbers like these?  Then I would never have to ponder whether or not to deadhead.  The answer would be easy.  This one has me on the fence tho.  The spent stalks are still hanging and my pruners are "on-call."   I'm leaning heavily toward "deadhead."  Which way would you go?

Comments

[Connie]

One thing for sure....if you don't deadhead, you WILL have more plants as Nicotiana readily self sows.
I bet the caterpillers would find somewhere else to go.

[Gail]

Kathleen~~This is too funny a dilemma! Where are those wonderful caterpillasr! Although, I do like the sphinx moths! It does seed well! N sylvestris is coming up in the cracks in my driveway! Have a fun weekend. Btw, I chopped mine after I collected seed. gail

[Shady Gardener]

Did you identify him as a Sphinx Moth caterpillar? I was under the impression they had little upright tails on their hind ends. No matter, the little squirts! Hope you were able to save some seeds!

[Kathleen]

You're right Shady Gardener. I don't believe they are sphinx moth caterpillars now that you've brought that up. I think that makes my decision easier ~ it's getting deadheaded today!

[RainGardener]

I don't have a clue about any of this. LOL But I did want to stop by and say hi and the pictures you took of them are beautiful.
Sorry I'm late as usual but hope to be catching up soon. Oh ya right now that there will be no flowers and I don't have a clue what I'll post on. HELP!!!!!