Wondered around the orchard and noted a couple of things firstly these tiger like stripped caterpillars. They are on all the ragwort. The caterpillars are Cinnabar moth caterpillars which will develop into Cinnabar moths.
They seems to like the ragwort. which is poisonous to horses and can also make honey toxic. So to some extent they are eating it up and doing me a favor. Most farmers and people who own horses are always digging it up and burning it. I may also need to do the same thing. I'll wait and see if the caterpillars are really bringing it down. I will also have to read more on these moths and and caterpillars
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The kids seems to like them in the sense they want to collect them and bring them home and let them develop, to what they believe will be butterflies.
On a more positive note I have picked more morello cherries I collected a kilo of them, piped them and my wife made a lovely cherry tart.
We also found the black currents have gave them to the kids. They weren't impressed until we told them that its the fruit that's in ribbena. Then they were interested.
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