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Post by Rosefriend on May 21, 2011 5:50:00 GMT
We have been having a real problem with caterpillars this year - there are whole trees that have been munched....
My Eunonymous was covered a couple of years ago as in your first link Tig - the whole tree was literally alive with caterpillars within hours. As we couldn't get out of the back garden because of them I sprayed the whole tree....
Yesterday I had two of them on me whilst digging in the garden so I am now on the look out, just in case.
We also have loads of little green caterpillars that are swinging down from the trees - they land on your face - all over... must admit I will be glad when they are moths or whatever. However all my roses are holy as are nearly all the plants in the garden...horrible mess.
RF
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Post by Rosefriend on May 21, 2011 12:05:12 GMT
A bit of an update on these moth caterpillars. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1283749/Not-just-creepy--cemetery-gone-crawly-caterpillar-invasion.htmlOH called me to the back of the garden half an hour ago and the Eunonymous has got them again - possibly a quarter of the tree already and they weren't there yesterday.    I was going to video them crawling and writhing but my skin still itches just having taken the pics. I have sprayed the whole of the tree - just hoping that they don't decide to go onto my spuds which are all around the tree!! RF |
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Post by Missredhead on May 21, 2011 12:07:05 GMT
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Post by Barbara on May 21, 2011 12:57:41 GMT
I second that Missy.  |
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Post by isabella on May 21, 2011 13:27:29 GMT
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Post by Ladygardener on May 21, 2011 14:51:23 GMT
 How shocking and awful Rf. Will you spray again, they'll have all your garden eaten if you don't.
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Post by Chuckles on May 21, 2011 15:05:09 GMT
I'd be mortified RF, really feel for you. Pity the birds don't eat them.
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Post by Tig on May 21, 2011 15:17:15 GMT
Nightmare!!! Hope the spray does them in RF before they can get onto anything else - dunno why but the photos made me feel all itchy  x Tig |
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Post by Rosefriend on May 21, 2011 15:22:30 GMT
I am so thankful that OH spotted them LG - they can take over in a day... The last time the tree looked like the plants in the news article and I sprayed to kill them - however the tree was at least a metre smaller and I didn't have all my potato plants underneath.... Not sure if the birds will be affected by the stuff I used Chuckles but on the leaflet it only says that it isn't good for fish - none in the area - not even water. I am petrified that they will get into the big GH's on either side of the tree...this is a pic from the road at the back of our garden...the tree is directly in the middle as you can see..and the spud pots underneath...  I am sorry to have to use hard stuff but I am not prepared to lose everything...next door cherry trees are showing signs already and he is away.... RF |
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Post by Tig on May 21, 2011 15:32:05 GMT
The cherry tree will be their food of preference RF, but once they have stripped that they will go through anything else rather than starve  |
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Post by Auricula on May 21, 2011 17:35:51 GMT
Good luck with getting rid of them RF - what a nightmare!
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Post by Rosefriend on May 21, 2011 17:50:32 GMT
Update:
I have obviously killed the caterpillars that had "hatched" - now then will this stuff kill the eggs - somehow I doubt it??
I have enough stuff for another 5litres tomorrow, luckily, and hopefully I can get some more on Monday.
I have been through all the GH's and as far as I can see there aren't any there - fingers crossed!!
RF
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Post by Tig on May 22, 2011 9:16:17 GMT
Any sign of damage to the eggs you sprayed yesterday, or have more caterpillars appeared RF?
x Tig
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Post by Rosefriend on May 22, 2011 9:28:58 GMT
I didn't sleep well and was awake at 4am and up at 5am to see what had happened....not sure Tig.. I can't see anything wriggling (had visions of millions of them in the night eating all my garden -yuk) but I don't know whether the eggs are dead - they look the same as yesterday to me...  RF |
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Post by Missredhead on May 22, 2011 9:31:43 GMT
I dreamt of the beggars too...... |
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Post by Ladygardener on May 22, 2011 11:22:28 GMT
Oh Rf how horrible for you. I do hope they are dead and that's the end of them.
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Post by Tig on Jun 26, 2011 19:32:59 GMT
I wasn't sure when I saw these if they were friends or foe  but I wasn't happy that they decided to munch the hosta!!! Bruddy s & s brigade do enough of that   They are Darkling Beetles (lagria hirta), and there are quite a few of them about in my garden at the moment x Tig |
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Post by Jasmine on Jun 26, 2011 20:04:57 GMT
What is it Tig?
RF - I missed your pest troubles - what happened in the end?
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Post by Tig on Jun 26, 2011 22:35:23 GMT
Jas do keep up ....  They are (as posted) lagria hirta aka darkling beetles The thought of being twinless for a week has obviously dulled your reading skills ;D x Tig |
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Post by Ladygardener on Jun 27, 2011 4:35:34 GMT
Did you dispose of it Tig? Although I could'nt find many of them this year, the lilly beetle has obviously been busy on my lillies. I check every day, at different times and still they've been.  |
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Post by Rosefriend on Jun 27, 2011 5:13:44 GMT
What is it Tig? RF - I missed your pest troubles - what happened in the end? Keep those there please Tig - got enough weird things on this side of the water... Jasmine - aahhh well - I stormed through the garden like Dark Vader wielding my lightsabel spray gun and killed them all!!!!! Can't be coping with millions of those around...awful things.. RF |
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Post by Jasmine on Jun 27, 2011 5:38:55 GMT
I have a vision RF! Your neighbours must have dealt with theirs as well did they? Sorry Tig - I did that thing teachers accuse parents of - not reading to the bottom of a letter!  |
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Post by Rosefriend on Jun 27, 2011 5:44:19 GMT
Nope - neighbours didn't do anything - there was a bit that got cut off - now who did that then....and thankfully they hadn't gone so high up that I couldn't spray them...
They have been a terrible problem in Germany this year - whole trees have been eaten bare and are just getting leaves again...heaven knows how many millions of moths we will have to cope with in a little while!!
I am all for nature and even S & S but elsewhere - not on my patch!!
RF
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Post by Jasmine on Jun 27, 2011 5:47:41 GMT
Quite!
I've just been reading about Tig's beetle - will have to have a google of 'your' caterpillars.
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Post by Barbara on Jul 20, 2011 7:01:40 GMT
 This vine weevil is walking up and down my bedroom windowsill, and I can't get to it. |
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Post by Dutchy on Jul 20, 2011 8:00:14 GMT
Yikes do the monsters eat windowsills as well these days?
Moths yes that blstd little white stipled one I know what you are on about RF we have them too but thankfully this year something natural decreased their numbers. I can only hope that whatever caused it will be around next year as well.
Having a bald contorted willow of 8 by 8 meter in early summer is horrid. Not this year fortunately.
Fingers crossed it is another animal eating them and not a perk of nature killing them off.
I love counter pests like Ladybirds.
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Post by Chuckles on Sept 12, 2013 16:13:18 GMT
Its that time of year when daddy long legs are mating and they then lay thier eggs in your lawn, after a couple of weeks the eggs hatch and start eating the roots of the grass I had small patches on the lawn a couple of years ago and excavated to find the leather jackets. There seems to be a lot of daddy long legs around atm, I've just stamped on at least 20 of them, not sure if they had laid eggs or not. Some help www.grassclippings.co.uk/grassclippings/controlling-leatherjacket-larvae.html |
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Post by Jasmine on Sept 12, 2013 17:20:26 GMT
I can't bare it when the poor things get trapped by one leg in a spider's web and we have lots of webs most of which are redundant so I have to rescue the poor things. I remember Barbara identifying a chafer grub I'd found - looked like something off Doctor Who but they don't bother me to be honest. Now, where are all the bloomin' wasps coming from. You squish one and 3 come to the funeral! |
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Post by Barbara on Sept 12, 2013 18:32:14 GMT
I read at weekend, a dying wasp gives off pherimones and that's what brings the others. Emily is almost off her head the number of daddy longlegs coming from the fields all around them are giving her the heebie jeebies, she said ''you wonder why I don't like the country ''  |
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Post by Tig on Sept 12, 2013 18:41:58 GMT
It is true about the wasps 'funeral' - if I have to splat one I always make sure it is moved well away from the door, even then they can leave a 'scent trail'.
I don't mind daddy longlegs, wasps are a no no, and I'm not too keen on really big bodied, hairy legged spiders that move far too quickly for my liking, either.
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They are (as posted) lagria hirta aka darkling beetles 
