Any ideas on what this might be on my salvias? I thought maybe a day-flying moth. It sat pretty still for hours in the sun. Not very typical or a moth or a flutterby, I would think... It didn't seem unwell. More just happy to chill.
@Fire , looks very like a mint moth. Have them in abundance here (South Coast). They are quite small. Last year did ruin quite a lot of plants in the mint family as their caterpillars seal themselves in the leaves of the plant by sticking them together with their silky thread (not a technical description...!). Most growing tips of the plants were then stunted, and I was left with quite weak plants. Affected mint plants, lemon balm, catmint and oregano.
By the time I realised what was happening, the caterpillars were already established Obvs I'm a complete sucker for nature, so I left most of them as they're just doing their thing, but didn't get a second flush of eg the catmint as the plant was too sad.
@Anna33 Facinating. They are pretty welcome to my well established salvias. I love the colours on the wings - such a deep tawny chocolate. I'm still finding my balance of delight-infuriation with wildlife. I'm having a very easy year of it with slugs and snails, a terrible year with cats and aphids. Swings and roundabouts?
Yes, they are beautiful moths! And yes! Aphids this year!! Crikey.
Speaking of aphids - my wildlife experiment this year is my Sambucus nigra Black Lace. I've had it for a few years, and it started getting aphids in significant numbers last year, along with a few predators. This year it is absolutely smothered with aphids - it hasn't affected the plant, thankfully, and I've seen quite a few hoverfly larvae on the plant. The experiment is to see how the balance between pest and predator plays out. Aphids still seem to be winning..... Very few ladybird larvae, sadly. But I'm the only one round here that seems to garden much, so there's perhaps not enough else in the neighbourhood to tempt them!
I have an elder tree - at least 30 ft high - and some years it's black with aphids, some years hardly any. This year there are none that I can see. I guess there's just a lot we don't get to control. We do what can and try not to worry so much.
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