caterpillar-butterfly

Hi I was just wondering (now i'm killing off anything that moves, near my plants:D). what about the butterflies?

I don't mind one or even 2 munched leaves if it means i'm helping them. What do you do? How do you tell the difference between a horrible long thing & a soon-to-be beautiful one:rolleyes:

cheers

 

The only butterfly type I've regularly killed has been the cabbage white, both large and small. This year, I'm trying small mesh netting to protect my cabbages. When I had a big apple tree, I used to put on grease bands to protect against codling moth - I don't know if they really worked, though.

When it comes to caterpillars, I kill any small green ones that look like cabbage whites. I don't often find other caterpillars in my garden but if I do, I try to identify them and would only kill them if I was sure they were harmful.

If you're operating a "shoot on sight" policy, I trust you're not killing beneficial insects like ladybird lavae or lacewings?

I looked long and hard for a good book on insects and eventually chose the Reader's Digest Field Guide to the Butterflies and Other Insects of Britain ISBN 027642505 7. This book was last reprinted in 2002 and may be out of print now but you can sometimes find it in charity shops. It's fascinating and very useful.

 

Thanks for that Flinty, I'll see if maybe the library could get it for me. that's exactly the problem I have - identification. You will notice I have that with plants as well:o.

I'll try a google and see if i can find some useful info, print and keep it. That way hopefully i can save some butterflies & I suppose i should be good and say moths to - shouldn't I?

Found a 'pile' of baby spiders, and/or eggs on the garden table yesterday. We squirted them to death, then I felt really guilty:( I think they were the sort that are on house walls etc, little black & yellow ones that jump a bit.

I'm going to try and encourage some insects in now.

cheers

 

I forgot to mention that a rough rule of thumb is that any insect (without wings) which can move quickly e.g. the common centipede, is probably a predator and is therefore either beneficial or at least, not harmful. This rule doesn't always work but it's a starting point.

As far as I know, spiders are generally beneficial in the garden so I wouldn't advise killing them unless they're actually doing something you don't want them to. For example, those little jumping spiders, salticus scenicus, just eat other small insects so they won't damage your plants in any way.

I'd concentrate on looking out for green caterpillars or similar. Last night, I had to squash a number of sawfly larvae (like very small green caterpillars) that were making a meal of my aruncus sylvestris. Now they're the ones which need a "zero tolerance" policy!

 

With the exception of vine weevil larvae, which I feed to the birds, I don't kill anything in the garden. Caterpillars not only grow into beautiful butterflys (what a remarkable process), they feed birds and are invaluable at this time of year for small birds feeding their young. I actively encourage wildlife into my garden as it brigs me great deal of pleasure to watch. there were a large amount of caterpillars feeding on one of my prize plants, I would pick them off, and put them on the bird table, but (slugs and snails apart) I find that most things are taken care of by one predator or another, and I only step in if must!

 

Thank you flinty & JarBax, I'll try to remember your comments when I'm panicking cos I see something 'horrible'

I do feel bad about killing anything really - hence the cobwebs and spiders that live in my house Only joking - sort of.

I can even watch ants but not if they're destroying my plants that i've waited for for so long. Also those little bugs. As I say I don't know what they are yet. We noticed alot of black beetle looking things (v. small) this morning. Don't know what they are. On our hedgehog(?) rose we have alot of liitle things in the new curled up leaves. We only got it last year & it's looking lovely with the leaves, no flowers yet, so we squirted them I'm afraid. This was one of the plants with lots of ants, but after the bit of Nippon they seem to have disappeared.

cheers