I tend to ID first. Sawfly get removed - I put them on the bird table, even though I'm not sure the birds eat them; if there's eggs on my veg I just scrape them off (time consuming but less yucky than squishing 'pillars) everything else tends to be left to its own devices
I keep an eye out for caterpillars ofsawfly on solomon's seal, mullein moth on verbascums and of course cabbage whites on brassicas. Agree that squishing eggs much less gruesome than dispatching the caterpillars.
I don't get it whenever people say they love butterflies then they destroy caterpillars, it perplexes me. If you don't want caterpillars on your cabbages grow other brassicas for them to eat instead - that way you get both butterflies and cabbages. At the very least if you feed the caterpillars etc to the birds you are helping the birds. Hope Kitty4 can photograph (to scale maybe) her caterpillars, and hope she finds loads more than 3
i dont mind them.. i go round and gather them all up and put them on area of wild meadow planting.. the dont seem to mind.. only ones that annoy me and hte mulliun moth ones.. they a nightmare..
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I tend to ID first. Sawfly get removed - I put them on the bird table, even though I'm not sure the birds eat them; if there's eggs on my veg I just scrape them off (time consuming but less yucky than squishing 'pillars) everything else tends to be left to its own devices
I don't get it whenever people say they love butterflies then they destroy caterpillars, it perplexes me. If you don't want caterpillars on your cabbages grow other brassicas for them to eat instead - that way you get both butterflies and cabbages. At the very least if you feed the caterpillars etc to the birds you are helping the birds. Hope Kitty4 can photograph (to scale maybe) her caterpillars, and hope she finds loads more than 3
Karen-that was the point I was trying to make- only you put it better than me.
It is the gardener's dilemma -if you encourage butterflies you will caterpillars but you don't want caterpillars you can't have butterflies.
Also remember that no caterpillars means no blue tits, and many other small birds.
Choose life.
i dont mind them.. i go round and gather them all up and put them on area of wild meadow planting.. the dont seem to mind.. only ones that annoy me and hte mulliun moth ones.. they a nightmare..
I grow nasturtium especially for the whites