There’s something in the greenhouse eating my plants. I know there are a few slugs in there, lurking under the pots and capillary matting, I keep hoiking them out as soon as I see them slithering up the greenhouse glass, but it’s not them.
Something has been eating my basil plants, chewing my tomato plants and leaving little blobs of black poo everywhere.
And that’s the clue.
Whenever I see those tell tale blobs of poo I start taking a closer look at the plants.
That’s essential as the guilty critters are a dab hand at camouflage and are sometimes so difficult to see that they end up in the salad. What’s worse than finding a caterpillar in your salad? Finding half a caterpillar in the salad, especially if you are vegetarian, eughh. Which is exactly what happened at the weekend.
So if you hadn’t already worked it out, I’ve got caterpillars in the greenhouse and it’s not just one sort. I’ve seen the fat, bright green grubs of the tomato moth and it’s bound to be another species eating the other plants. I don’t want to annihilate them but I do want to limit their damage.
There are masses of tomato plants at the moment, so I figure a few caterpillars aren’t going to deplete my crop. Like all creatures they have a part to play in the eco system, so I shall leave them be for now, but if they start to totally defoliate the plants or munch on the precious crop then I may have to pick a few off and move them outside.
I’m a bit more bothered by whatever is eating the basil as I have plans to make that into pesto. A good shake of the plants usually removes the worst of the pest, but if there are a lot I need to do this daily for a few days. Not a problem as I visit the greenhouse at least twice a day at the moment and definitely better than having the extra protein in the pesto.
