Bog Myrtle & Peat

I am becoming wary of caterpillars. Ever since I discovered that certain species occassionally undergo population explosions and destroy heather stands, I have treated every new species with suspicion. It turns out that the most pestilent species of caterpillar for upand keepers is actually faily small and dull looking, but uncovering fantastically decorated species as I have over the past few weeks, I can’t help my initial reaction being one of horror and fury.

Around ten days ago, I was taking cuttings from a willow tree behind the farm when I came across the caterpillar of the dark tussock moth. He was partially coiled around a twig on one of the higher branches, and as soon as I returned home, I looked him up online. Although dark tussock moths do feed on heather, they are quite rare and it would be fairly unlikely that they would cause me any trouble.

This morning I found an unbelievably hairy caterpillar coiling himself around a new stalk of bracken in the triangle wood. Orange underneath with a silvery black mat of silky hairs flowing from his back, he looked like some kind of alien. Now I know that he was (or will become) a garden tiger moth. The moths are really stunning, and according to http://ukmoths.org.uk, they’ll fly in July and August.

I know that there are only a couple of moth species that I should really be looking out for as being potentially destructive, but there is such a fascinating variety out there that I can’t help being interested by the innocent bystanders.