Ragwort eating caterpillar

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davidholmes
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 1:30 am
Location: Bristol UK

Ragwort eating caterpillar

Post by davidholmes »

I was pulling up ragwort in our field earlier this week and found some plants infested with these guys. They are the caterpillar of the cinnabar moth which feeds on ragwort - I have never seen them before although we have had problems with ragwort for years. I left the infested plants for them to eat in the hope it would expand the local population.
I didn't have my camera with me so this is taken on my phone - Samsung S8

Image

Ken Ramos
Posts: 7208
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:12 pm
Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841

Post by Ken Ramos »

Good decision in letting them be, it could be that they are territorial and may return to where they spawned to lay the eggs of their offspring anew, thereby giving you biological control over your ragwort problem. I seen a video here a long while back where beetles were used to control invasive weeds in pasture land and it worked quite well. :)

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