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Bugs

Dizzi_lizziDizzi_lizzi Posts: 1
in Problem solving
We came home from holiday to find the leaves on our potatoes had been stripped. We also saw a bug - could this be the culprit?

Posts

  • LynLyn Posts: 21,882
    Beautiful caterpillar, beautiful Moth.
    Death Head Hawkmoth.  
    The leaves may  have dried out in the dry weather we had a couple of weeks ago,  they may have been eaten, difficult to tell now. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,049
    wow, that's pretty psychedelic 
    Devon.
  • Alan Clark2 in LiverpoolAlan Clark2 in Liverpool Posts: 2,032
    They do feed on Potato so it is certainly the culprit. You are very lucky, Death's-Head Hawk-Moths are not very common in Britain.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 83,797
    If it’s on the soil it’s looking for somewhere to pupate ... it is a beautiful and rare insect in the UK ... it probably has eaten some potato leaves as they do eat the, but I doubt if one had eaten enough to cause a problem. Potato foliage is likely to be dying off about now.

    I would be excited and consider myself privileged to find one in my garden ... deep envy here 😊 

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





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