I found this caterpillar inside the carport this morning. With the assistance of a few websites, I determined it is a type of "cutworm". Cutworms are considered a garden pest due to their manner of feeding: they tend to cut off young plants at soil line, essentially killing the plant as they eat through the stem. Because most of the plant is not eaten, cutworms can do a lot of damage, attacking and felling new plants nightly.Once the cutworm caterpillar goes trough metamorphosis, it becomes a moth. They are night-flying moths which feed on nectar and do no damage to garden plants.
To see some really cool pictures of caterpillars, check out this site:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/caterpillar_2.html
If you have a picture of an insect you need help identifying, see this site:
http://bugguide.net
