Found these little terrors munching one of my young alder trees. They rear up when disturbed and had already removed most of the leaves from the sapling...
Hazel sawfly caterpillars
- Thread starter spandit
- Start date
Oh those are distinctive (as well as destructive 
) enough, aren't they ?
One to watch out for.
What do we need to encourage to eat them though ?
M
) enough, aren't they ?One to watch out for.
What do we need to encourage to eat them though ?
M
I'm pretty sure I've seen wagtails, tits, sparrows & other LBJ's with beaks full of them when there's an outbreak so encouraging wee birdies to the garden should help control numbers.
As an aside I mind years back when there was a big outbreak of pine beauty moth catapillers that the seagulls were acting funny. Birds with webbed feet don't usually perch on branches and the gulls looked like they were trying to land on branches. What they were doing was bumping the branches so that the catapillers would dislodge and be suspended from their little silk safety lines. The gulls would then gobble them up as they dangled there. Interesting to see things exploit a new foodsource in a different way.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
As an aside I mind years back when there was a big outbreak of pine beauty moth catapillers that the seagulls were acting funny. Birds with webbed feet don't usually perch on branches and the gulls looked like they were trying to land on branches. What they were doing was bumping the branches so that the catapillers would dislodge and be suspended from their little silk safety lines. The gulls would then gobble them up as they dangled there. Interesting to see things exploit a new foodsource in a different way.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
These are right up the top of my 10 acres, so about 200 yards from the house - should be plenty of birdlife up there, although hopefully once the trees are a bit bigger that will increase. I just hope the tree makes it as they ate quite a significant proportion of the leaves
Spandit, can't remember if alder can do it but coming up soon a lot of trees have an extra period of growth called Lamas growth. It's a little evolution trick that allows trees to get some extra growth by replacing leaves that have been munched once the main blight of summer insects has died off.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
According to Wikipedia, no, they don't experience Lammas growth but it should have started by now. Hadn't heard of it before, though, thanks.
I'm hoping that the leaves still inside the tube will be unaffected as the flies can't lay their eggs there so easily
I'm hoping that the leaves still inside the tube will be unaffected as the flies can't lay their eggs there so easily
No worries and cheers for finding it despite my poor spelling. 
The way trees cope with adversity like lammas, epicormic growth, compartmentalisation and reatcive growth still amazes me after years of study. Just a pity that my memory seems to be a bit fuzzy on some stuff these days.
How are the rest of the trees doing on your plot? Have had problems with some tubes in the past. Getting choked up or in some cases where poorly fitted filling with water and killing the trees.
Hope your trees recover.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
The way trees cope with adversity like lammas, epicormic growth, compartmentalisation and reatcive growth still amazes me after years of study. Just a pity that my memory seems to be a bit fuzzy on some stuff these days.
How are the rest of the trees doing on your plot? Have had problems with some tubes in the past. Getting choked up or in some cases where poorly fitted filling with water and killing the trees.
Hope your trees recover.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
Some of the tubes have got choked with grass and have been a bit wet and slimy as a result. I tend to empty a few when I walk around each day but some of the trees have either self mulched where they dropped their leaves last year or I've added squares of cardboard ("micro-mulching") at the bottom of the stem to block out any grass.
The alder are doing particularly well, which has made most of the other species look as if they're failing, when in fact I think they're just slower growing. Oddly enough, the tallest tree (10'+) is a crab apple. One surprise was the aspen which, as a pioneer species, I was expecting to rocket, but many of them died and the rest have been quite sluggish. Have a few larger specimens now. There are thousands of oaks that have naturally seeded (or from acorns I've flung around) and although many of them have powdery mildew on them, I expect they'll survive for a while longer. Some of the cherry is doing very well but only 2 of the Scots pines are out of the tubes. Hazel is mostly doing well whereas the spindle is taking its time to put on growth. Beech and hornbeam are steady but not many are out of the tubes yet.
All in all, in places it's beginning to look like a young woodland but will be a few more years until the canopy closes and the undergrowth really starts getting supressed
The alder are doing particularly well, which has made most of the other species look as if they're failing, when in fact I think they're just slower growing. Oddly enough, the tallest tree (10'+) is a crab apple. One surprise was the aspen which, as a pioneer species, I was expecting to rocket, but many of them died and the rest have been quite sluggish. Have a few larger specimens now. There are thousands of oaks that have naturally seeded (or from acorns I've flung around) and although many of them have powdery mildew on them, I expect they'll survive for a while longer. Some of the cherry is doing very well but only 2 of the Scots pines are out of the tubes. Hazel is mostly doing well whereas the spindle is taking its time to put on growth. Beech and hornbeam are steady but not many are out of the tubes yet.
All in all, in places it's beginning to look like a young woodland but will be a few more years until the canopy closes and the undergrowth really starts getting supressed
I suppose as you see them daily you don't always see how much you've changed the landscape.
Have been back to a few sites I planted in my teens and it was hard to think it was the same place. One of the chaps that worked with me went on a trip with me before he moved abroad. He'd been a forester all his days and some of the sites he'd planted up were now at full rotation and were being clearfelled. He had photo's of the land before and during planting with him in them. Was nice to see the change in both of them.
I wouldn't worry overly much about the deaths, pests and diseases, it's a whole eco system that's establishing. Oak has some of the most diverse life living in and on it. The ones that fail are just nature saying she knows best as to what thrives where and will result in a more natural looking plantation.
Sounds like a great plot and it'll be around as your legacy for those who come after. I try to pass unobrltrusively through life but I like knowing that the thousands of trees I've planted will be there long after I'm gone. (Also means that.if I could afford it I could fly and drive a big car and be safe in my carbon offset )
Great to ear how it's all coming on.
ATB,
GB.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
Have been back to a few sites I planted in my teens and it was hard to think it was the same place. One of the chaps that worked with me went on a trip with me before he moved abroad. He'd been a forester all his days and some of the sites he'd planted up were now at full rotation and were being clearfelled. He had photo's of the land before and during planting with him in them. Was nice to see the change in both of them.
I wouldn't worry overly much about the deaths, pests and diseases, it's a whole eco system that's establishing. Oak has some of the most diverse life living in and on it. The ones that fail are just nature saying she knows best as to what thrives where and will result in a more natural looking plantation.
Sounds like a great plot and it'll be around as your legacy for those who come after. I try to pass unobrltrusively through life but I like knowing that the thousands of trees I've planted will be there long after I'm gone. (Also means that.if I could afford it I could fly and drive a big car and be safe in my carbon offset
)Great to ear how it's all coming on.
ATB,
GB.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
Just started resurveying the trees I'd flagged last year (there were 66 of them that were dead or dying). Most of the ones I've replanted are doing pretty well and at least one of the ones I'd written off as dead has made a miraculous recovery!
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