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A dilemma

Valerie 7Valerie 7 Posts: 59
in Problem solving
Don't know what should be the priority here, the caterpillars or the rose bush.
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Posts

  • ForTheBeesForTheBees Posts: 168
    I've been relocating mine from the rose bush by my patio to a sacreficial dog rose that I'm probably going to remove anyway.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,212
    Ditch the roses (I hate roses)keep the caterpillars.
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,475
    Aren't they those sawfly things?
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ForTheBeesForTheBees Posts: 168
    While inspecting my plants this evening, I spotted a tiny catapillar on my heather*. I was going to leave it be anyway but a few seconds later a parasitic wasp turned up and I believe laid it's egg in it. Problem solved!

    * Calluna vulgaris /Ling heather /Firefly.
  • Big Bang InflationBig Bang Inflation Posts: 50
    edited August 2018
    As @B3 said, they're Rose Sawfly larva, not caterpillars.

    I get them on my roses.
  • Valerie 7Valerie 7 Posts: 59
    In that case I will clear them off.
    I like my old fashioned 'blousy' rose and would rather not see it suffer, but might have been persuaded to put up with it for the sake of butterflies.
    Thanks for the advice.
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,299
    It's all part of nature, we shouldn't just be preserving the pretty ones.


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 22,300
    If you really have to kill them off, put them on the bird table at least.
    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,475
    I pick the host leaves off complete with sawflies and chuck them in the back of the flower bed.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,078
    I leave them be ... they don't do a lot of damage to healthy plants and the bluetits eat most of them anyway.  What's a few leaf skeletons between friends?  :)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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