Potatos and critters.

[moonsongwolf]

Potatos!.... hmm..... how do my potato plants pertain to wildlife gardening?
Answer......some unknown critter devoured two entire potato plants that i'd planted in containers - leaf, stem, roots and all, and then left a large clump of round white eggs buried near the bottom, which i discovered when i tried to recycle the compost. Any ideas as to the culprit? I'd left the eggs there to see what might emerge. I haven't checked but now i'm wondering if there is any connection to approx 35 very small and fairly acrobatic green caterpillars which appeared on my willow sapling overnight and voraciously devoured eight leaves completely leaving only the center vein. I wondered how many days it might take them to demolish the entire tree.
I was in a quandry as i don't like to deny any critter it's lunch, but i was quite proud of the lovely 4' willow grown from a twig put into a glass of water last summer. While i went to put put the kettle on and ponder what to do over a nice cuppa, the kids pulled off the remainder
of caterpillared leaves and tossed them willy nilly into the unspoiled potato plants that i'd planted in a separate box. Well, thats likely the end of those, i thought. I decided to pull up a few and see what was there. Nine firm red salad potaos, my very first home grown produce, went into the pot and were quickly turned into a delicious potato salad. Now i have to say, they were THE best poatos i've ever tasted. There is something very satisfying about home grown. So the caterpillars are welcome to the greenery......as long as they leave the potatos for me!

[Cotham Marble]

The caterpillars from the Willow are very unlikely to feed on potatoes - in fact they may feed on nothing but Willow. The most likely sources of the damage to your potatoes are slugs and snails - have a look at the following to compare the eggs that you found: Slugs and Slug Control in the Garden and Landscape

It is never a good idea to reuse compost. So long as the plants haven't been affected by a serious disease you can add it to your garden soil, though it is best to put old compost in part of your garden where it can be weathered for some months and be open to predators.

CM

[moonsongwolf]

Hi, yes those are definately the same eggs, so slugs it was then. Sorry for the caterpillas if that was their only food source, no doubt they'll now be dinner for some other critter. That's the way it goes. I'll try and look them up to see what they would have transformed into. I have a beautiful vapourer caterpillar who's been around for a good three weeks, despite all the rain, hanging out amongst some oak saplings i've sprouted from acorns picked in the fall. Another interesting resident i came upon recently is the white death crab spider (otherwise known as the flower spider) in it's yellow form - very vivid!