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caterpillars

I have recently moved and made flower beds,  at the back of my house is a field of long grass and weeds, which used to be a meadow with cows.  Lots and lots of butterflies have visited my garden, and now I do not have a garden the caterpillars have eaten everything,  delphiniums, sunflowers, roses , lobelia, holyhocks, ,tomato leaves the only thing left is my mint and the foxgloves everything else has been eaten I have mainly found green caterpillars but also a few brown ones, I have never know butterflies to lay eggs on so many plants, there a plenty of weeds, nettles etc over the fence,  will I have to spray next year??

Posts

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114

    Did you see the Springwatch programme this evening?  Butterflies need 'weeds' and especially nettles.

  • SingySingy Posts: 206

    I have had a similar experience although not to this level, i am just letting them get on with it and if it helps the wldlife then so be it.

    I discovered what i believe to be Leek Moth caterpillars in abundance eating their way through the onions, garlic and some of the lettuce, the lupins and hollyhock have lots of holes but are still ok to look at.

     

  • Pennine PetalPennine Petal Posts: 1,540

    A contentious topic methinksimage I don't use pesticide, and I love seeing the insects and butterflies in the garden, it's njust ust my garden, we are custodians of nature as well.

  • dolgarrogdolgarrog Posts: 83

    waterbutts - if you'd like to send your interesting neighbour over to me he could go nuts with his weedkiller on my japanese knotweed problem!!!!

  • dolgarrogdolgarrog Posts: 83

    thanks waterbutts! We have been doing a systematic spraying/bruising/stem injecting with roundup since we moved in about 18 months ago & it is getting better but scary new clusters of it have been appearing this last few weeks unlike the single stems last summer & earlier this spring. We were not aware there was JK in the garden when we viewed& bought the house as it was winter time & the owners had chopped all the old stems down & hidden them under other old garden waste! Oh joy! never mind - the area of the garden that is affected has been left to nature while we eradicate & we've had the most lovely butterflies & insects as a result - I'm going to sow with wild flower meadow seeds this autumn as well so it will be even more beneficial!!

  • david 12david 12 Posts: 6

    My garden is designed for wild life and i get as much pleasure from learning about insect species and photographing them as i do from beautiful plants.

    I have never had a problem with insect damaged plants apart from the inevitable snails/slugs versus hosta problem.   I refuse to use slug pellets because the birds that nest in my hedging and ivy take care of a lot of them. 

    My eryngium had black aphids this year. They were being "cared for" by ants. Along came a couple of ladybirds and proceeded to munch through them, interrupted occasionally by the ants protecting the aphids. The large growth of eryngium doesnt appear to be suffering. That is natural gardening with added pleasure. Mentioning this to my Disney land style gardening neighbour (bedding plants and not an insect in site) I am offered some sprays, slug pellets and the added bonus of rat poison pellets. I have tried explaining but he is an elderly local who cant grasp it. In other ways he is very helpful so i dont push the point.

    I believe that sterile wildlife unfriendly garden plants are part of the problem with diminishing wildlife. Note i said "part of". QVC have a lot to answer for.

    If i had attracted more butterflies i would be so pleased.

    Its a funny old world with funny old people so we have to make the best of it,

     

     

     

     

     

     

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