They’ve arrived. War has been declared.
Who are they? The saw flies that plant their eggs on the Solomon’s seal. As the creamy white seals start to dry out & drop, the fly arrives.
I found the first holes on the leaves yesterday. By today on some leaves there are twenty plus tiny caterpillars. Soon the beautiful banks of fresh soft green leaves will be stripped spindly stalks without a single leaf on them. I’m doing my best to squash as many caterpillars as I can, but even today I must have squashed well over a hundred & there are not as prolific as they become as the season goes on. At the moment the caterpillars are little more than dots. Soon they will be fat, juicy and mauve-grey.
The only blessing is they seem to be plant specific, Solomon’s seal. They don’t seem to bother with any other plant.
However, our Solomon’s seal is in a conspicuous spot, just by one of the lawns. I wish I knew some better way of tackling the problem, some spray perhaps. Meanwhile it is a daily, if not more frequent, squashing event to try to keep some of the beautiful arching stems with their drooping fresh green leaves still on them.
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