Nettle news

Exciting news from our nettle patch - we found our first spiky black caterpillar of the summer. I think it's a Comma, but it could be a Small Tortoiseshell or Peacock, as it's only recently hatched and they change as they grow bigger. Anyway, it means a butterfly has found our nettles. Could even have been one of the caterpillars that we put on the nettles in the spring, that's turned into a butterfly and is now laying it's own eggs on our nettles. I think that's exciting and where there's one caterpillar, there's bound to be more.

We also found an orange Harlequin Ladybird - could be one of the ladybird larva that we saw on the nettles earlier in the spring. There's plenty of aphids for it to eat!

Other interesting things that we found today: a huge spiders web (but no sign of the spider) and a very strange bug. The web was spread horizontally as if it was designed to catch things falling off the nettles. The bug had a black body, green legs and a long 'nose' that was split into two parts that opened and closed as it ran around. Very strange!