Allotments 4 All

hi everyone, ive got a bit of a crisis on our brand new 1st yr allotment. We planted a bed of 1 yr old asparagus this spring, its come up and is nicely fronded but we have been attacked by a huge amount of small caterpillars,they look more maggots than caterpillars and they are stripping the fronds :(. Ive tried picking them off or squashing them but there rae too many, we raelly dont want to spray but cant see any other way as surely they are going to damage our plants?
any advice much appreciated.
thanks!

Did you notice their parents, the asparagus beetle? Black red and white small longish beetles that stab the stalks with neat row of little black eggs? You have to squash them as soon as you see them, and scrape off the eggs. If you let their grubs keep going, they will strip your asparagus fern back to nothing and the plants will suffer.

I don't know anything about spraying, but it is well worth devoting some time to scraping the grubs off before they do any more damage.

An old toothbrush is quite good for brushing them off. They should stick to the bristles, and if you then use a pint glass full of water & fairy liquid to rinse them off the brush & drown them, you'll get through them fairly quickly...

Thanks for tip Ollie. Guess what I'll be doing on Saturday ;)