The largest caterpillars in the British Isles are members of the Sphingidae, Hawk-moth family All Hawkmoth caterpillars are large and the largest caterpillar likely to be found in the British Isles is the migrant Death’s Head Hawkmoth, reaching 125mm in … Read More
Thanks for the replies. It certainly seems to be a Hawkmoth, someone else suggested a privet hawkmoth. Apparently she wanted to know if it was a pest and should she kill it!
Someone else told her to put it back where she found it and leave nature to take care of itself
Weird, why do folks want to kill what they don't know........................ isn't that so desparately sad?? Bud I'm not speaking ill of your friend it just saddens me that folks simply don't have an awareness of things like this. Every child should know we have some blumming big catapillars and moths here in blighty let alone us human adults. They are amazing to find especially if one is small.
Def hawkmoth , lime looks like a great call see here. but I'm no expert.................sorry bro about to give you the same link as above
Kev it really strikes me how important it might be ,that who ever found this actually learns what it is going to turn into, as an adult . Ok they might have a moth phobia ,but bar that surely the beauty of one of our hawkmoths must garner a change in mindset. IE if she knew what she was about to kill she would think twice and maybe just maybe might see a bigger picture.
Buddy there are some fantastic videos on you tube featuring hawk moths emerging from pupea get your friend to have a dig, she'll be entranced by them . amazing creatures
My wife corrected me, the friend wanted to know if it was a pest, if so she was going to move it to a local wood - not kill it.
Since the lockdown period she has started gadening, growing not only vegetables, hence the worry about pests, but also planting butterfly and bee friendly flowers. It is a bit ironic that she was wondering about moving one of the creatures that she as trying to attract, still we all started not knowing much.
My wife has given her lots of advice, we have not used any chemicals on our gardens for about 30 years, we rely on the birds and insects to create their own balance.
The only thing I would like to get rid of are the fox cubs. They are lovely to look at but they destroy our raised veg plots, I tried fencing the plots but the cubs just knock the fences down. One of the downsides of living 12 miles from the centre of London!
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