Pesky garden pests

[Mrs Magpie]

We all know about slugs snails and aphids but the current bane of my life is the Cabbage Moth. I don't have any Brassicas but the Cabbage Moth caterpillar ain't fussy.....My Gold Lace Primulas look tattered and bare and my Alstromeria's aren't much better.....look out for these buggers....if you knock them off the plant they curl up...they vary in colour from green to brown.

<esited to add pic of adult>

 

[felixthecat]

I'm awaiting the attack of the red lily beetles . I've taken the first one off my fritillaries yesterday (didn't know they liked them too) and as my lilies are coming up all green and gorgeous I know I'll be seeing the chunks eaten out of them anyday now if I don't take action. I've tried all of the environmentally friendly options without sucess so its Provado from now on, every 2 weeks. Death to the lily beetles!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

It's lily beetle larvae that are really revolting....just like wet bird-shit....luckily I've never had them in my garden so at least when I've had to deal with them elsewhere I've got paid for it.....

 

[felixthecat]

Yup, it's gross. The first time I saw it I thought it WAS bird shit - and then found out it was oh so much worse than that.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

The sole virtue of lily beetles is that they're pretty easy to spot and slay, being bright red and all. I think I'll go out and stomp a few to death in a bit.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I am tempted to thread them onto strings and hang them on the fence as a warning to other beetles, a bit like you get with crows and moles on fences in Scotland....

 

[felixthecat]

The sole virtue of lily beetles is that they're pretty easy to spot and slay, being bright red and all. I think I'll go out and stomp a few to death in a bit.

Problem is the little buggers have a tendancy to throw themselves to the ground on their backs if they think they are in any danger and then they are not so easy to see - bastards!

I do like Mrs M's suggestion, they'd make quite a pretty necklace too!

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Yes, they're tricky little bastards. My approach is to grow all our lillies in pots on the terrace (which also brings the scent up close to where we usually sit), then I can shake them off and stomp them on the concrete. A bit of stick is then used to scrape the disgusting larvae off and squish 'em

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Lily beetle and larvae

....and here are the larvae in action...

 

[Mrs Magpie]

....and I shall be keeping my eye open for Gooseberry Sawfly...they can strip a whole plant in a day....last year they did just that...I had a crop of one gooseberry the size of a pea

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Well, it's definitely lily beetle time again. I just found and squished a couple of the little red bastards, along with some mini-snails that were munching on my longiflorums.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

My longiflorums haven't come up yet.....

 

[aqua]

when will I know if I have slugs and snails around in the back yard? Other than seeingg them obviously but what things do they like and what signs are there that they've arrived?

*gets ready to destroy all slugs living or not*

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Go out and look at night with a torch, especially if it's been raining. Pick them off and squash 'em, or drop them into a jar of salt water.The damage is holes in the leaves and sometimes a small plant just keels over where its stem has been munched at ground level.


<edited to add pic>

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Good pic here too, but it's too big to post..

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/ag/distdiag/photos/slugs4.JPG

 

[Mrs Magpie]

oh, and they'll eat just about anything, but Hostas are their favourites which is why I don't bother growing them.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

footnote about Hostas...when I was a gal they were called Funkias which I think is a much better name, but no-one calls them that now....

 

[felixthecat]

I've got some Hostas, but they are in pots with copper tape around them which worked like a dream last year to keep the slugs off. In fact, the pots have copper tape on them and so do the dishes underneath them, just to be safe. I cut a wavy edge on one side and it looks quite decorative too. Costs a bit but is worth it.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I gave a friend some slug matting for his Hostas which has been a success, it's impregnated with copper. Like copper tape it's pricey though....for pots you can recycle electrical wire by stripping the plastic off and winding the copper wire around the pots.

 

[felixthecat]

........for pots you can recycle electrical wire by stripping the plastic off and winding the copper wire around the pots.

Now THAT is a good idea! THat slug stopper tape costs about £9 for 4m and I can get yards of electrical wire for free .

Top tip of the day award goes (as usual) to Mrs Magpie!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Thanks. btw have you tried any of the so-called 'slug resistant' Hostas?...I'm dubious, myself.

 

[felixthecat]

Thanks. btw have you tried any of the so-called 'slug resistant' Hostas?...I'm dubious, myself.

Nope - how on earth do they breed them to be slug resistant anyway?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Dunno...here's a list I've lifted from various Hosta sites.....some are meant to be better than others....
Great Expectations, Aureonebulosa,
Blue Wedgwood, Canadian Shield
‘Leather Sheen’ ‘Krossa Regal’
‘Halcyon’ ‘Elegans’
‘Queen Josephine’
‘Blue Moon’ ‘Love Pat’
‘Blue Dimples’ ‘Hadspen Blue’
‘Camelot’ ‘Dorset Blue’
‘Blue Arrow’ ‘Sweet Jill ’
‘Sweet Marjorie’ ‘Sweet Standard’
‘Sweet Susan’ ‘Sweet Winifred’
‘Blue Angel’ ‘Northern Halo’ ‘Grey Ghost’
‘Venus’ ‘White Knight’
‘Robert Frost’ .‘Northern Exposure’
‘Olive Bailey Langdon’
‘Sum and Substance’ ‘Tokudama'
‘Blue Dimples’ ‘Blue Whirls’
‘Wide Brim’ ‘Zounds’
‘Regal Splendour’ ‘Sea Lotus Leaf’
‘Snow Cap’ Sun Power
‘Super Nova’ ‘Tokudama’
‘June’ ‘Bold Ruffles’ ‘Blue Mammoth’
‘Joseph’ ‘Guardian Angel’

 

[Mrs Magpie]

btw, Sum & Substance is the one I've heard most widely mentioned, possibly because it's pretty easy to obtain...there are ones on that list above that I've never seen for sale.....

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Now THAT is a good idea! THat slug stopper tape costs about £9 for 4m and I can get yards of electrical wire for free .

It's a bugger stripping the plastic off though. Scrapyards burn the plastic off but you get clouds of choking black smoke. I used to live in a high-rise just above a scrapyard and the smell was foul.

 

[weepiper]

I gave a friend some slug matting for his Hostas which has been a success, it's impregnated with copper. Like copper tape it's pricey though....for pots you can recycle electrical wire by stripping the plastic off and winding the copper wire around the pots.

I'm having reasonable success with a layer of sharp pointy gravel around the one Hosta in my garden at the moment. Last year it was shredded almost before it had put out leaves but so far it's doing quite well

Mrs M: do you know anything you can do about gooseberry sawfly? I also had a plague of them last year, although at least my gooseberry bushes were already in fruit.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

For gooseberry sawfly you just keep your eyes open and pick them off manually. There are probably sprays but then I wouldn't want to eat the gooseberries.....

 

[Ducklin]

Yesterday I was sitting outside looking at the lilies when I saw a couple of red beetles - how pretty! Then this morning browsing on this sight I saw the cute red things are lilly beetles - Yuk! Disgusting! So out in the rain this morning I exterminated the fuckers. Thanks U75 my lilies are safe.

What about snails though? I bagged up about fifty yesterday and took them to the park, is it OK to kill them, or just relocate them? Are they any good for the garden?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

The good that they do in the garden is mainly as a protein source for other creatures including ground beetles ants, birds etc after you have mercilessly squished the snails underfoot on the path.....I'm having a bit of hassle with Dot Moth caterpillars at the moment. Like Cabbage Moths they aren't fussy about what they eat but they are slightly less damaging....and on the 'revenge is a dish best eaten cold' front, I saw a parasitic wasp (some sort of largeish Ichneumon) lay a single egg on a caterpillar munching away on the bud of my Madame Alfred Carriere....Nature red in tooth and ovipositor....

 

[jerseymonkey]

I wonder if anyone knows what pest is possibly infecting my rosemary? Both my plants are looking decidedly the worse for wear - many of the leaves are sort of bound together in a twisty fashion and the whole plant is now looking a bit brownish - decidedly unhealthy. No flowers and I don't much fancy eating it. Is there anything I can do or do just uproot them and start again, and do I need to do anything (wait?) before planting to stop them getting reinfected with whatever it is?