They're gorging themselves on Eupatorium atropurpureum and Buddleias at
the moment. The air is alive!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

Unfortunately we have wasps and fruit flies gorging
themselves on the barely ripe raspberries and
loganberries at the moment. Any one know of a suitable
deterrent, so I can get the fruit before them!


In article ,
says...

They're gorging themselves on Eupatorium atropurpureum and Buddleias at
the moment. The air is alive!



--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

Neighbour just called me round to look at this ...........

http://www.myalbum.co.uk/Album-AJQSH...-of-Other.html

Mike



"Roger Tonkin" wrote in message
...

Unfortunately we have wasps and fruit flies gorging
themselves on the barely ripe raspberries and
loganberries at the moment. Any one know of a suitable
deterrent, so I can get the fruit before them!


In article ,
says...

They're gorging themselves on Eupatorium atropurpureum and Buddleias at
the moment. The air is alive!



--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

On Thu, 8 Aug 2013 14:39:22 +0100, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

Unfortunately we have wasps and fruit flies gorging
themselves on the barely ripe raspberries and
loganberries at the moment. Any one know of a suitable
deterrent, so I can get the fruit before them!


In my experience very dilute detergent like Fairy Liquid keeps most
insects off.

Steve

--
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. http://www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. http://www.justnn.com

On 2013-08-08 13:32:53 +0100, Sacha said:

They're gorging themselves on Eupatorium atropurpureum and Buddleias at
the moment. The air is alive!

And having just been in another part of the garden, I have to add
Telekia speciosa to the bee and butterfly attractive plants that are
earning their keep just now. The Eucryphia is also smothered in bees.
It's really good to see them having the chance to feed well while the
sunny weather lasts.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

"Sacha" wrote

They're gorging themselves on Eupatorium atropurpureum and Buddleias at the
moment. The air is alive!

We were our walking in Richmond Park on Tuesday and came across a large
Oxford Ragwort plant covered in butterflies, there must have been a hundred
Meadow Browns all over the plant taking nectar. It was like a cloud.
Strangely other plants had none feeding on them.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Was up at Ribblehead Quarry the other day looking at the ragworts coveed in cinnabar moth caterpillars. Apparently the cinnabar moths absorb the poisonous substance from the ragwort and in their turn become poisonous, hence their yellow and black warning colouration, and the fact they see no need to hide themselves.

But we were also finding them on coltsfoot, but on no other plants, and when I googled, I found that the same poisonous substance is found in Coltsfoot (but not in many other plants) in small quantities, along with a closely related also poisonous substance. It's for this reason they choose coltsfoot as an alternative feedplant once they've stripped all the ragwort in an area.

Meanwhile, I found this beauty on our lavender and marjoram this morning (several of them)
Pyrausta aurata - UKMoths

On 2013-08-08 22:17:43 +0100, kay said:
[color=blue][i]
Bob Hobden;989411 Wrote:
"Sacha" wrote

We were our walking in Richmond Park on Tuesday and came across a large

Oxford Ragwort plant covered in butterflies, there must have been a
hundred
Meadow Browns all over the plant taking nectar. It was like a cloud.
Strangely other plants had none feeding on them.


Was up at Ribblehead Quarry the other day looking at the ragworts coveed
in cinnabar moth caterpillars. Apparently the cinnabar moths absorb the
poisonous substance from the ragwort and in their turn become poisonous,
hence their yellow and black warning colouration, and the fact they see
no need to hide themselves.

But we were also finding them on coltsfoot, but on no other plants, and
when I googled, I found that the same poisonous substance is found in
Coltsfoot (but not in many other plants) in small quantities, along with
a closely related also poisonous substance. It's for this reason they
choose coltsfoot as an alternative feedplant once they've stripped all
the ragwort in an area.

Meanwhile, I found this beauty on our lavender and marjoram this morning
(several of them)
'Pyrausta aurata - UKMoths' (http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?bf=1361)

What a beautiful creature. I've certainly never seen that but I'll be
keeping my eyes open.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 08/08/2013 22:17, kay wrote:[color=blue][i]
Bob Hobden;989411 Wrote:
"Sacha" wrote

We were our walking in Richmond Park on Tuesday and came across a large

Oxford Ragwort plant covered in butterflies, there must have been a
hundred
Meadow Browns all over the plant taking nectar. It was like a cloud.
Strangely other plants had none feeding on them.


Was up at Ribblehead Quarry the other day looking at the ragworts coveed
in cinnabar moth caterpillars. Apparently the cinnabar moths absorb the
poisonous substance from the ragwort and in their turn become poisonous,
hence their yellow and black warning colouration, and the fact they see
no need to hide themselves.

But we were also finding them on coltsfoot, but on no other plants, and
when I googled, I found that the same poisonous substance is found in
Coltsfoot (but not in many other plants) in small quantities, along with
a closely related also poisonous substance. It's for this reason they
choose coltsfoot as an alternative feedplant once they've stripped all
the ragwort in an area.

Meanwhile, I found this beauty on our lavender and marjoram this morning
(several of them)
'Pyrausta aurata - UKMoths' (http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?bf=1361)






Yes, that's lovely. I've seen it in my garden, though not recently.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

It's very tiny! about 1cm across. But it's day flying, and settles for quite a time. Have a look on any scented labiates that are in flower at the moment.