Weather ... again

[Blaze]

Another wet and windy night with the force 8 gusts that seem to have become so common here.
An interesting side effect of the weather (?) is the appearance of Box moth caterpillars on one of our little box shrubs. I noticed them the day before yesterday and took drastic action : a trim down to new growth and disposal of the cuttings. I just need to check them every day - and just need to get some Bacillus thuringiensis which seems to be the most effective treatment. It's biological ....

[DominicBest]

Yes, you need to treat these box plants as soon as possible. The Bacillus Thuringiensis is brilliant, a magic potion. It acts on the processionary caterpillars as well. I was talking to a friend yesterday because he has noted out a new firewood supplier for me. We got around to talking about the buis and he told me that he had bought a huge 4kg tub of the magic powder from a local frying cooperative.

[Blaze]

There don't seem to be any caterpillars this morning but I'll get the BT anyway. I will try it on another species : the Large (Cabbage) White caterpillars that almost decimated my young white willow trees last year. I understand it is selective and will deal with the caterpillars whilst not harming their predators.

[DominicBest]

Exactly. The problem with the box caterpillars is that they have no natural predators.

[Blaze]

They make rather attractive moths .... I didn't realise they had no natural predators and I've been reading up a bit more about them. They are also guilty along with the Large White butterfly caterpillars, of eating my willows. I should have looked more closely at the box plants earlier - ot's the warm weather bringing them out. Hopefully I've caught them in time ... and a good spray of BC should see them off for the time being.

[exile]

Lager weather this morning and remnants of snow in sheltered corners, so we must have had quite a flurry overnight.

[Lori]

Power just returned at 12h20 today after having gone out at 19h20 yesterday. Huge storm with hail the size of large olives beating down. Had to use the manual option to open the garage door early this morning as I had an appt. for a revision at the Renault garage at 8h00. Luckily the back up battery on the new portail motor was still working (though there is a manual key that we have never used up to now), so I could get out..

Haven't opened the fridge since the power went out. No idea what will be salvageable.

[DominicBest]

I saw that there had been some huge storms further south.

[DominicBest]

They make rather attractive moths .... I didn't realise they had no natural predators and I've been reading up a bit more about them. They are also guilty along with the Large White butterfly caterpillars, of eating my willows. I should have looked more closely at the box plants earlier - ot's the warm weather bringing them out. Hopefully I've caught them in time ... and a good spray of BC should see them off for the time being.

Another huge problem with Cydalima perspectalisis is that eggs laid in the box in the autumn survive the winter and hatch in the spring. Th damage done by by them over recent year has been huge.

[Doug]

It's weathering again, in fact hissing down.
Only just got in from doing some more mowing, now it's eating time.