I'm generally a fan of Lepidoptera (apart from when I had a brown-tail moth infestation). The other day I had a very pretty moth fly into my office, that I'd never seen before. It looked like this:
I helped it fly back out of the window, and then looked it up. Turns out it was a box-tree moth, the same bastard that destroyed my ornamental box tree last year. It seems that good looks aren't a guarantee of good character. You think I'd have learned that at my age.
I saw the picture before I read the rest of the text. I recognised it as a box moth, as last week my wife found one in our garden and immediately killed it. We have several box plants and had assumed the box moth had not made it up to Derbyshire so far.
It seems not, so we now have invested in box moth traps, which seem good at trapping carpet moths but no further box moths.
You can pluck out the caterpillars if you really want to be diligent...
Have you seen the size of mothballs? Incredible.Originally Posted by hogthrob
I should get out more.
LOL - that made me smile.
My wife is terrified of moths and butterflies - so they all end up within our Dyson. I am sure it is used for this task more than it is for hoovering.
Old lady moths.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
That is quite special..
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
For the last 2 summers we have had a number of Jersey Tiger Moths in our garden.
They are very striking, large with brown and yellow striped wings and bright red bodies.
Apparently they are quite rare this far north but they are becoming more common in and around London.
When I first saw one I had to google it as we only ever get the Cabbage whites normally.
That blue emperor is stunning.
I saw this puss moth caterpillar in Epping Forest a few weeks ago …
And my daughter had a visitor while she was at grandad's yesterday …
That's very cool, never seen one of them. I've left a huge patch of nettles in one corner of the garden, hoping to encourage some more caterpillars.That blue emperor is stunning.
I saw this puss moth caterpillar in Epping Forest a few weeks ago …
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Tortoiseshells, peacocks, commas, red admirals and painted ladies all lay eggs in nettles. Good luck.
It's reassuring that many of us and our kid's are interested enough to want to encourage more butterflies and moths,
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Ah, I saw one on a window of my gym yesterday and thought how pretty it was with its near transparent wings, I will now persecute any I see at we suffered losing a number of box bushes over the past few years. Fortunately an effective remedy is available which tops the caterpillars and they haven't been back, yet...
Plant yew instead of box then you solve the problem of box moth caterpillars and blight. It's more attractive and better for wildlife than box anyway.
Indeed, there's a few red admiral wings which have clearly made a tasty meal for the bats in one of our barns. One bat got a bit lost last week, flew in through our bedroom balcony doors and I found it on the carpet.
Are there less around this year? Normally get several fly in my window at night in summer months. I think I’ve had one this year.
Seems that way round here. My buddleia is in full bloom, and scarcely a butterfly to be seen. Maybe the cold spring was bad for them.
... and then just an hour or so later, I went to the garden and there were four Peacocks, three Red Admirals and a Large White on the buddleia ...
Weird, I was thinking the same. We have two big, blooming buddleia, and barely a sniff of butterflies so far. Maybe there's hope yet but the monsoon rain we had last week must have been hard on them.
Loads of bees and hoverflies on the jasmine and honeysuckle though.
Saw a few of these a while back:
I think it's known as a Cinnabar Moth.
I believe that's a Burnet.Saw a few of these a while back:
I think it's known as a Cinnabar Moth.
https://butterflyconservation.ie/wp/...-and-cinnabar/
I think you will both find its 2 pieces of metal bar…
Quite correct, sir. Go right to the top of the class!
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