"Ron" wrote in message
...

"Kate Morgan" wrote in message

Please would you all check your lawns for ragwort, I know it is a time
consuming job but it is a bad year for the nasty weed.

Snip

I trust that you do not use broad band insecticides.

One explanation for the increase in ragwort is most likely the reduction
in
the tiger moth population for their caterpillars eat the weed and I've
seen
a patch of ragwort plants stripped of their foliage in less than a day.
No
grazing animal would think of eating it then for the smell of the
caterpillars' faeces would put them off!.

I hope that some ragwort is left for the moths.

Judging by the amout of ragwort, and its rate of increase in my part of the
world, the farmers put too much trust in tiger moths and don't spend enough
money on glyphosate.

Franz