Allotments 4 All

I have some Cinnabar Caterpillars on a ragwort plant near my raised beds and I do not want to destroy them.  The only plant they destroy is ragwort so I want to make sure they are safe.  I have a gardener who is going to do some strimming for me this morning and I was wondering whether to tell him to leave the area around the ragwort plant.  The other alternative is that I take the caterpillars to another ragwort in a wild area of my garden, that is not going to be strimmed.  I could cut the plant at the base rather than take each caterpillar off and lay the plant where it is touching a new one.  I know I will have to be careful as the plant and caterpillars are poisonous.

Any thoughts on the best way to save them please?   

I'd water the roots then pull up the plant or use a fork and carry the entire thing to the wild area and slot it in next to a live ragwort so the caterpilars can transfer easily.   

The plant is poisonous to cattle and horses and we have both on 3 sides of our plot so I've been pulling ragwort up by hand, after checking for caterpillars, and have had no ill effects.

They will also eat groundsel so you can put them on that and they'll demolish that - which seems like a win-win to me.

What I want to know is how come they all support Alloa Athletic?

http://www.alloaathletic.co.uk/BlogView.aspx?pageid=2&ItemID=1944&mid=2

Adrian

Well, somebody has to!
They do a good job of sorting groundsel. Not had any problem handling either the plants or the caterpillars.

I see one or two of the moths each year and get excited.  However, I've yet to find the caterpillars and given we are on former pasture and farmyard there's plenty of ragwort and groundsel about - ragwort in the old areas and groundsel popping up every time I make a new bed or weed or plant something.   Mile a minute stuff, both of them.

Spotted a few on my groundsel today on the allotment - I'll have to weed carefully!

Adrian

There seems to be more about this year than normal.
Looks like they change teams when they become moths. https://www.footballshirts.com/images/new/bmouth2018home.jpg
I had not realised that the yellow striped caterpillars and the black and white moths were related.   

Cinnabar moths are black and red.  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cinnabar_moth_(Tyria_jacobaeae).jpg

Still no caterpillars spotted here and we have lots of groundsel appearing.

I do not know why I typed white.  Rather oddly I keep typing the wrong words and when I read it back it is complete nonsense.   You will see from the link I got the right team kit.

Addled by thistles?