Wednesday 6 August 2014

The pests are coming

I just saw the first tomato looper fall as I watered in the greenhouse. They are here. I doubt they'll do more damage than the slugs and snails which are lacing the lower leaves on the tomatoes as I speak, no matter how many I pick off and put into the compost there are always more, waiting in the undergrowth. They smell the sweet green of new shoots and they are in and eating and chomping and bye bye plant, often enough.



Here's a new one in my garden this year. Rose Sawfly, which turned up on the ridiculously red rose which this year is putting on the leggy growth of an established climber. Its new growth is mostly the colour of red wine, flushed with toxins to keep the pests off. But an odd green shoot off some old wood caught these.

From the way they're sitting I think they must be mildly toxic, so I'm sure my sparrow gang didn't mind me cleaning them off into the compost (from which they did not return). The looper has gone the same way, but I doubt it will be a beast as easily banished.

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