Kitchen Garden Forum

Can anyone help me identify this (Google hasn't helped): I'm clearing out compost that was in a pot all last season and overwinter. I'm finding a lot of small orange cocoons, a bit over 1mm in diameter and 3-4mm long. I can't be sure to pick all of them out, so I'm wondering what they are and if it's ok touse the compost for earthing up potatoes.

Pam, I haven't a clue, but any chance of a photo to aid those more clued up than me?

peter wrote:Pam, I haven't a clue, but any chance of a photo to aid those more clued up than me?

Sorry, Peter, great idea, but I don't have the equipment to be able to do this!

Pam

Hello Pam
Can't help with identification I'm afraid but I doubt if the cocoons will develop into pests. I suspect some of the minibeasts that inhabit your compost have laid these so your plants are pretty safe.

John

Sounds a little bit like ladybird eggs, though they are normally found on the underside of leaves in little clusters.
There is a picture of them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinellidae

Richard at GS wrote:Sounds a little bit like ladybird eggs, though they are normally found on the underside of leaves in little clusters.
There is a picture of them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinellidae

thanks for this - but alas, not. The picture clearly shows eggs: round, a bit translucent.

The things I found were more cigar-shaped, not translucent, a darker orange, and clearly a cocoon - you could see the lines/segments going around the circumference.

Pam

Evening Pam,
These cocoons are puzzling me too. I dig them up on my allotment,along with slugs eggs,chafer grubs and assorted beasties which the local robin population devour whole-heartedly
I did think that they may be centipede larvae,then millipedes,then earwigs but, no, they lay eggs.I guess that the next I find will have to go in a matchbox with some earth,then wait for it to "hatch".Unless,of course,we have an entymologist on site who might know the answer.

I guess that the next I find will have to go in a matchbox with some earth,then wait for it to "hatch".Unless,of course,we have an entymologist on site who might know the answer.[/quote]

well, no entymologist has popped up yet - so I look forward to ther esult of your hatchery! What a good idea - it hadn't occurred to me: I was too busy getting rid of the things!

They were in the soil below some kale plants . . .

Pam

I think you have a fly puparium. I have found this page in my "Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe" by Michael Chinery.



The description fits but unfortunately there are no dimensions given. Is there any particular fly you have seen around the compost, e.g. Bluebottles or Horseflies; perhaps you could then do some persistent interneting to see if you could find an image of pupae with dimensions.

[quote="Geoff"]I think you have a fly puparium. I have found this page in my "Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe" by Michael Chinery.

thank you - the bluebottle pupa has the right general form - although my finds were proportionately longer and thinner. And orange rather than brown. Googling various combinations of words hasn't yet delivered the goods, and none of my books has a picture that corresponds, but I'll keep trying!

I carried on searching after I posted but didn't make much progress. I found this website http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/ and registered with it but haven't fully searched it yet. It has a forum so you may be able to ask, I guess you might have to find some more and take a photograph.

Is this what you found Pam?



I don't know what it is either but thought a photo may aid the discussion. I found it under the rim of a hanging basket. Only found the one so far though so not sure if it's the same as yours as you found a number in the compost heap.

I see quite a lot of those, I think it is a butterfly or moth, must hatch one sometime. I think it is rather bigger than what Pam found.

Geoff wrote:I see quite a lot of those, I think it is a butterfly or moth, must hatch one sometime. I think it is rather bigger than what Pam found.

thank you both for these. What I found was similar in form, but much smaller, and paler in colour. Same *type* of thing, though.

Pam