Continued war on caterpillars and other Saturday shenanigins

Today my partner has the car, so I'm still at home in my pajamas.
Since I can't get to the allotment, I decided it was finally time to do some things in the post-stamp garden this morning. First task. Caterpillars.

I thought I'd rid myself of most of them after last week. But nope. I'd seen a few in passing to the compost bin a few days ago. But its worse than I thought.

I'm going to have to make a daily effort to go out and check that there aren't more fat hairy worms on my poor brussel sprouts. They're not looking happy.

I had less mercy with them this time. I put them in the compost bin. Probably not a good idea, as the bin is basically next to the poor plants BUT, I did do a lot of weeding and tipping out of wet old icky soil on top of the caterpillars, so they should be entombed. Even talking about caterpillars and I can feel them all over me. It makes me itch! Yuck.

Next up was onions. I wanted to dig them up. We're going away on holiday soon and I didn't want to leave them until I got back- although they most likely would have been fine. I have to laugh though as they're only about as big as they were when I put them in the ground.

This is due to the poor soil, the density of planting and the fact they've hardly been watered all summer. AND I pulled them too early. Its my own fault but it was fun to try. They're drying in the shed.
I never expected them to work properly in that location anyway. I'm going to try a lot harder this next year in the allotment with them.

I finally separated out the Rogue Pot and finally repotted my strawberry runners. If they survive, there will be 3 new strawberry plants from runners and 1 tiny strawberry from the rogue pot.

I also separated out the primroses into new compost. I now have 5 pots of primroses from the one rogue pot. Hopefully my rough treatment of them won't hurt them and they'll grow next year.

I repotted my loganberry that was looking very sad in its current pot. It was very root bound and I should have done it months ago. I'm hoping the discoloration isn't due to something more malevolent like vine weevil.

Bees are still visiting the garden. 

Caterpillar Shenaniganary- not for the Entomophobic!

3 weeks ago I was out watering the garden after a few sunny days without rain. I noticed a trapped cabbage white. It couldn't escape for leaves in my box of of brussel sprouts. It only had half a wing on its left side and I felt sorry for it. It looked like it was having a hard day. So I moved the leaves aside so it could fly out.

No more than 3 minutes after its escape, it landed back on the plant, immediately laying eggs. I groaned. How could you butterfly, I thought we were friends, reproducing wasn't part of your release deal!
After it flew away I cut off the offending egg leaf to dump in the compost bin then searched the rest of the plants for more eggs. I found some more and removed them.

On this Friday past, I looked out the back door and found caterpillars on nearly every leaf, all munching away happily on my hard work. I don't know when or how they arrived. But there they were, having a party on my kale and sprouts.

I didn't want to move them until I was sure they were cabbage whites. A google later,  indeed they were. If they were red admirals or any other type of butterfly I would have considered leaving them, but they'd already eaten whole sections away from my plants.

On Sunday I decided enough was enough. I took a cup and a pencil and went about shoogling the caterpillars into the cup. I didn't have the heart to kill them, regardless that they were cabbage whites. They're only trying to survive. The only thing I kill with no mercy are midges. As a general rule, I'm not keen on anything that wants to take blood from me, GPs included!  

I didn't realise that caterpillars were so covered in silk. They were thoroughly stuck to the leaves and it took a lot of careful poking to dislodge them. Some leaves were so infested with them that instead moving them by hand, I snapped the leaf away entirely.

Years ago when I lived in Lerwick with my parents we used to have regular trips removing bucket loads of slugs from the garden.

I couldn't bear to pick them up myself, preferring to bully my poor younger brother into doing it for me. Once we'd (mostly he'd) collected a slimy pile, my parents would drive out to our regular slug depositing spot. It was a walled patch of long grass that was in the middle of a roundabout. No escape.

We only lived 2 minutes away from this spot, regardless, whoever was holding the bucket would panic as the slugs would slither closer and closer to the top of the bucket.
Unfortunately this roundabout no longer exists, otherwise I would have the caterpillars there! But I was about to relive the panic of escaping creepy crawlies.

The caterpillars using the leaf as a climbing frame, started to climb upwards. I poked them back down again, hopping in the car. Of course, like cartoon ants, more caterpillars marched up the leaves replacing the ones I poked down. I didn't have anyone at the house who could have accompanied me as caterpillar container,  I just had to go, QUICKLY. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. I should have put them in a better container. Preferably one with a lid! 

As I was driving, again they were nearly at the top. I nearly went off the road more than once trying to keep them from spilling out into the car. The idea of finding caterpillars in the car for weeks was horrifying. I don't mind bugs, but I certainly don't want them crawling over the gear stick or pupating on the rear mirror. The thought makes me itchy.

As I parked the car, this is where they'd got to! ARGHH. Seconds to spare!

After arriving in an innocuous enough spot away from gardens, I pulled in and RAN carrying the cup. I half dropped, half poured them out onto some grass with the infested leaves as a last supper.

More likely as not they'll starve, or be picked off by birds. But at least they might have a chance.

Next year I'm going to cover my brassicas with netting, prevention rather than cure.

For the rest of the day, every time I closed my eyes I could see imaginary caterpillars crawling around. And writing this whole post has given me the shivers and itches.