My wife constantly has me pulling the stuff out of our grazing field when she spots it.. it's also pretty hard to kill by the way, most home use weed killer like glyphosate doesn't touch it.
Fairly easy to control though, it's more of a problem if it gets hold in an field it can be a nightmare to get rid of.
We only have it occasionally and it's a constant battle with some idiots letting it grow rife. Our highways dept being the worse culprits! We pull it up including roots and burn it.
I was aware Ragwort was toxic to animals but didn't know it was the only food plant of the cinnabar moth. Photo captures of its caterpillars feeding on it and an ID search after brought me to this moth. The photo below is not the best due to wind movement this day but for anyone else reading this forum post it might be interesting to see.
My sighting of ragwort above was in sand dunes at a beach a short distance along from St Andrews in Scotland. In all my visits to this coastal strip I had never noticed the many feeding caterpillars on this plant. In fact I had never really taken a second look at the Ragwort.
Two weeks later we returned on another visit (this time armed with a video camera to capture the many feeding caterpillars for my blog) to find the same area of Ragwort striped of leaves and flowers with only main stems left! These caterpillars could be one of nature's way of controlling this plant pest - although in reality no match for the growth a spread of this plant.
Small tortoiseshells caught my eye this time and following one with my camera I found it feeding on a new patch of Ragwort and there I found the cinnabar moth caterpillars once again - even more of them!
I captured a great piece of video footage of the small tortoiseshell appearing to deliberately knock of one of the caterpillars off the Ragwort and feed where it was (must get it uploaded one night). I also spotted Ringlet butterflies feeding on ragort on this coastal location too. It's great what you discover when out with a camera
Nutcutlet, I was fascinated and captivated but the numbers of these caterpillars. I really can't believe I have never noticed them before over the years we have visited this area.
We discussed in the past, maybe not on this thread, the cycles of these and other wild creatures. I'd never seen them before we moved here 22 years ago. Then for a few years there were lots. Now very few again.
The caterpillars ingest the toxins from the ragwort and have some way of using those very same toxins for their own defence.That's why they are yellowy orange/black stripes. Any animal that is red,orange or yellow combined with black in nature spells danger to a predator.
Nutcutlet, my visits here are more recent and not too frequent so it would be easy for me to miss previous discussions. This one caught my attention tonight and as I had a photo thought I'd share it..
Hopefully your moth numbers will increase again in future years
Fishy 65, I was reading that when I looked up for info on this caterpillar. Nature is fascinating isn't it
Now you've got me on to my favourite subject! Be warned
Owning a horse does not magically imbue the owner with knowledge. Regrettably ever since it became a lifestyle choice and the number of horse owners out stripped the number of horsemen/women, the knowledge level, let alone the skills level has been in a constant and often precipitous, decline.
This was all enabled / facilitated by *some* farmers looking to diversify and recover overheads by making buildings and rubbish land available for d-i-y horse livery. It contributed to the lie that owning a horse is cheap and easy could be for everyone.
Too many didn't appreciate that just because they "can" doesn't mean they "should" and encumbered by ignorance bordering on terminal stupidity and without the wit and wherewithal they parked their newly acquired low grade horse / expensive lawn mower onto a field that was entirely inappropriate. Either because it's full of toxic weeds or because it's more suitable for fattening beef cattle.
The horse paid the consequences.
However the animal welfare act does mean that if owners have a horse in a field of ragwort, buttercups and docks they can and will be prosecuted.
I've reported owners in the past and I'll do it again if I see it.
The difference with docks is that they're easier to cut before they seed and they're easier to do with a broad leaf weed killer. The usual method is to top the grassland before May and then if infestation is bad to spray either at rosette stage or when actively growing.
Posts
You're right about the ups and downs. Thrushes are down here, skylarks very much up
In the sticks near Peterborough
My wife constantly has me pulling the stuff out of our grazing field when she spots it.. it's also pretty hard to kill by the way, most home use weed killer like glyphosate doesn't touch it.
Fairly easy to control though, it's more of a problem if it gets hold in an field it can be a nightmare to get rid of.
We only have it occasionally and it's a constant battle with some idiots letting it grow rife. Our highways dept being the worse culprits! We pull it up including roots and burn it.
I was aware Ragwort was toxic to animals but didn't know it was the only food plant of the cinnabar moth. Photo captures of its caterpillars feeding on it and an ID search after brought me to this moth. The photo below is not the best due to wind movement this day but for anyone else reading this forum post it might be interesting to see.
My sighting of ragwort above was in sand dunes at a beach a short distance along from St Andrews in Scotland. In all my visits to this coastal strip I had never noticed the many feeding caterpillars on this plant. In fact I had never really taken a second look at the Ragwort.
Two weeks later we returned on another visit (this time armed with a video camera to capture the many feeding caterpillars for my blog) to find the same area of Ragwort striped of leaves and flowers with only main stems left! These caterpillars could be one of nature's way of controlling this plant pest - although in reality no match for the growth a spread of this plant.
Small tortoiseshells caught my eye this time and following one with my camera I found it feeding on a new patch of Ragwort and there I found the cinnabar moth caterpillars once again - even more of them!
I captured a great piece of video footage of the small tortoiseshell appearing to deliberately knock of one of the caterpillars off the Ragwort and feed where it was (must get it uploaded one night). I also spotted Ringlet butterflies feeding on ragort on this coastal location too. It's great what you discover when out with a camera
That's lovely to see
In the sticks near Peterborough
Nutcutlet, I was fascinated and captivated but the numbers of these caterpillars. I really can't believe I have never noticed them before over the years we have visited this area.
We discussed in the past, maybe not on this thread, the cycles of these and other wild creatures. I'd never seen them before we moved here 22 years ago. Then for a few years there were lots. Now very few again.
In the sticks near Peterborough
The caterpillars ingest the toxins from the ragwort and have some way of using those very same toxins for their own defence.That's why they are yellowy orange/black stripes. Any animal that is red,orange or yellow combined with black in nature spells danger to a predator.
Nutcutlet, my visits here are more recent and not too frequent so it would be easy for me to miss previous discussions. This one caught my attention tonight and as I had a photo thought I'd share it..
Hopefully your moth numbers will increase again in future years
Fishy 65, I was reading that when I looked up for info on this caterpillar. Nature is fascinating isn't it
Now you've got me on to my favourite subject! Be warned
Owning a horse does not magically imbue the owner with knowledge. Regrettably ever since it became a lifestyle choice and the number of horse owners out stripped the number of horsemen/women, the knowledge level, let alone the skills level has been in a constant and often precipitous, decline.
This was all enabled / facilitated by *some* farmers looking to diversify and recover overheads by making buildings and rubbish land available for d-i-y horse livery. It contributed to the lie that owning a horse is cheap and easy could be for everyone.
Too many didn't appreciate that just because they "can" doesn't mean they "should" and encumbered by ignorance bordering on terminal stupidity and without the wit and wherewithal they parked their newly acquired low grade horse / expensive lawn mower onto a field that was entirely inappropriate. Either because it's full of toxic weeds or because it's more suitable for fattening beef cattle.
The horse paid the consequences.
However the animal welfare act does mean that if owners have a horse in a field of ragwort, buttercups and docks they can and will be prosecuted.
I've reported owners in the past and I'll do it again if I see it.
The difference with docks is that they're easier to cut before they seed and they're easier to do with a broad leaf weed killer. The usual method is to top the grassland before May and then if infestation is bad to spray either at rosette stage or when actively growing.