What type of caterpillar is this?

It's an Oleander caterpillar

thank you!

And they chomp up on the oleanders like you wouldn't believe.

Yup... they will tear down the oleanders

Here are some helpful links:

Butterfly Gallery - Polka-dot Wasp Moths, Syntomeida epilais

Oleander Caterpillar

Jfunn!!! There they are!!! She was asking me when I was there what they were. Didn't have a clue, but saw tons of them. The ones she pointed out were...indeed..chomping on an oleander. :shock:

We have a bunch of them all over the back of our house (where there are oleander bushes) and I was wondering what the heck they were. So glad to know now! I love SoWal.com! So now the question is do we need to and if so, how, do we get rid of them?????? They sure are scary looking little boogers!

They are the reason I don't have any oleanders. I had to have the bugman come out and spray the bushes cuz I couldn't put enough sevin dust on them. 1 week later they were back. I finally let them finish the 2 surviving plants then dug up the stumps. No more oleanders for me.