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. The first is relatively straightforward: the mullein moth caterpillar. These are stripy chaps that start quite skinny, but rapidly become as fat as witchity grubs by eating verbascum leaves at a terrifying rate. I grow the gorgeous Verbascum bombyciferum

-proof I'm told), a very sticky glue card plus a specific phermone capsule. This sex pheromone provides the lure to attract male moths to an untimely end, hopefully before they've done the deed with any female moths. No mating...no eggs...no grubs inside

the tubers being eaten away by vine weevil grubs. None of my begonias has survived. Next autumn I'll remember to empty out the pots, clean up the tubers, and store them in clean dry compost for winter instead.

academic. Having heard about this invader, which probably arrived about 10 years ago in imported horticultural material, this was the first time I had seen it in south-east London.My interest in this bush was first roused a few years ago when I found a

these wonderful creatures in my back garden. South London is now about the only place in the UK where you can regularly see these awesome monsters. My supposition is that when the housing boom spread across the area 100 to 150 years ago, it was one of the most

underwear). It takes about 1500 cocoons to make a pound of silk.In the 19th century there was the equivalent of a gold rush over mulberries in the United States. There was massive speculation and excitement about growing mulberry trees and the long

fighting back. The eggs hatch and the ichneumon grubs then eat the insect alive, from the inside. Although they are amongst the most important of biological control agents, they are incredibly poorly studied; the few identification guides are highly