Pretty but a sure sign of neglect

Jessey

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Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
I saw this cinnabar moth yesterday, its very pretty, but a sure sign my neighbours are not dealing with their ragwort, again :mad:
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We had all the fields sprayed last year and unfortunately one of the down sides of that is that I havent seen a single cinnabar this year :(
 
It is pretty. I just googled and it's used as a means of controlling ragwort?? Wonder I've not seen it here. We don't have any on our land but you do see it growing along roadsides here in places.
 
It is pretty. I just googled and it's used as a means of controlling ragwort?? Wonder I've not seen it here. We don't have any on our land but you do see it growing along roadsides here in places.
They eat ragwort. I personally think its the new excuse for not removing ragwort, that they are being used to control it (I've never seen them so much damage other than to the occasional plant) or that removing the ragwort is damaging to the cinnabar moth population....there's plenty of places around here that have ragwort where there aren't any stock, so me keeping my fields clear isn't going to impact the population that much.
 
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They eat ragwort. I personally think its the new excuse for not removing ragwort, that they are being used to control it (I've never seen them so much damage other than to the occasional plant) or that removing the ragwort is damaging to the cinnabar moth population....there's plenty of places around here that have ragwort where there aren't any stock, so me keeping my fields clear isn't going to impact the population that much.

I should imagine there would have to be an awful lot of moths to do much damage to it. Like you say, probably just and excuse for not getting shut of it. How annoying for you when you clear yours.
 
I should imagine there would have to be an awful lot of moths to do much damage to it. Like you say, probably just and excuse for not getting shut of it. How annoying for you when you clear yours.
My neighbour doesn't give this excuse, he doesn't give any, just doesn't do it :(
 
Sorry but unless these moths are capable of digging down into the soil and competely removing the roots they are never going to get rid of it!
 
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Its really sad isn't it that we have to get rid of the cinnabar moths main source of food.
I can see why we need to get it out of our horse paddocks but surely there must be some way of keeping ragwort somewhere to allow them to survive?
I’m not fond of ragwort but neither am I fond of destroying another species habitat.
 
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Sorry but unless these moths are capable of digging down into the soil and competely removing the roots they are never going to get rid of it!

Maybe by defoliating the plant before it’s had chance to set seed? Ragwort if left alone is a biennial so if the moths eat the plant flowers it never gets to seed anywhere and then dies off as it should, interesting and annoyingly if we allow ragwort to flower it should then die off, however if we don’t allow it to flower it will just keep on growing.
 
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Its really sad isn't it that we have to get rid of the cinnabar moths main source of food.
I can see why we need to get it out of our horse paddocks but surely there must be some way of keeping ragwort somewhere to allow them to survive?
I’m not fond of ragwort but neither am I fond of destroying another species habitat.
It really is sad, but we have lots of land around here that doesn't have stock on that ragwort grows on, so they are not completely without food, it's just not in my paddock :)
 
That's educational thanks, I came across one of these in the tack room at the field amber and whisks are currently at after I'd been pulling the ragwort out and tidying up
Never realised that they eat the stuff, sorry wee guy.
 
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