Kitchen Garden Forum

Do you have dragonflies ? Apparently the nymphs feed on tadpoles often just eat the limbs,

Didn't see any dragonflies last year, but there are a few about this year. I know there is at least one great diving beetle larva in the pond, because I saw it munching into a dragonfly that had been washed onto the surface of the pond. I suspect that is why there is a shortage of tadpoles.

Just found a large caterpillar on a half standard Holly, must be inch & a quarter long, green with grey stripes, and has a spike on it's rear, also quite plump.

Llots of caterpillars here Shallot man, is it one of these?

http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/-caterpi ... rpillar%29

Natures Babe. Thankyou, the nearest to it is "Tobacco Hornworm"

Shallot Man wrote:Natures Babe. Thankyou, the nearest to it is "Tobacco Hornworm"

Hi Shallotman,

Natures Babe seems to have sent you a link to an American site by mistake.
It sounds like an Eyed Hawk Moth or possibly a Privet Hawk Moth

http://www.uksafari.com/caterpillars.htm

Thank you for that correction PJ. Apologies for that Shallot man I put UK first in the search - I expected to get UK sites, sorry, I should have checked. I spotted an elephant hawkmoth caterpillar the other day, from quite a distance, they are huge, and their "eyes" seem to attract attention.

not sure what this is but i found it in my kitchen

opps wrong pic lets try this one
[img][/img]

A red admiral, maybe.

oldherbaceous wrote:A red admiral, maybe.

Quite correct OH

Red admirals, gatekeepers, wall, and the dreaded cabbage whites here today. Warmer again.

Just logged them and noticed the count has been extended into the first week in August, due to dull weather, they are asking for multiple counts of 15 mins so you can record more than one.

A new Buddleia that might be useful for people wanting to attract butterflies to the garden is, Buddleia Blue Chip, the thing that makes this slightly different is that it is only meant to grow to, between 18 to 30inches tall. Very handy if you have limited space.

We have a whole row of buddleias on our plot and a couple in the gardedn but this year no butterfly visitors spotted just yet!

It would seem my two caterpillars were "Eyed Hawk Moth"'s. The Memsahib and I have been mesmerised by them, tho the Memsahib wasn't happy on the leaves they demolished on her half standard holly tree, both came down the stem yesterday and decamped to we don't
know where. Underground !