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Are these eggs? What laid them?

michellekw_79michellekw_79 Posts: 10
edited June 2018 in Wildlife gardening
Does anyone know what these yellow egg things are? This little fella hung around them for a good few weeks untill this morning when I found it on the ground? Any ideas why?


Posts

  • MuddyForkMuddyFork North HampshirePosts: 435
    What plant did you see them on as the food source could give us a clue.  Too big for ladybird eggs.
  • michellekw_79michellekw_79 Posts: 10
    They just apeared on my backdoor! Which I thought was very odd!
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 13,560
    Stuck to a door with silk like that, I would say a spider.
    You don't stop doing new things because you get old, you get old because you stop doing new things. <3
  • Alan Clark2 in LiverpoolAlan Clark2 in Liverpool Posts: 1,096
    The white things look like the pupae of a parasitic wasp. The wasp laid its its eggs inside the caterpillar and the larvae have been living inside it and feeding on it, before eating their way out to pupate. 
  • wild edgeswild edges The north west of south east WalesPosts: 3,251
    What Alan said.

    It's a large white butterfly caterpillar and the wasps below are a main parasite for them.

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 13,560
    Having read that link, it sounds like something out of Alien.  10 days and they should hatch into new wasps. It would be interesting if you could photograph that.
    You don't stop doing new things because you get old, you get old because you stop doing new things. <3
  • Villaverde123Villaverde123 Posts: 189
    Made me shiver!  whatever they are...

  • michellekw_79michellekw_79 Posts: 10
    Thank you Alan. I did see what I thought were little black flies near the eggs but now I know it was the hatched wasps! Poor caterpillar 😏
  • FireFire LondonPosts: 5,368
    I remember Terry Pratchett commenting that people who get all mushy about the beautiful, caring and uplifting nature of nature, should meditate on the life cycle of the parasitic wasp.
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