Plump and pendulous

The little bastards are back.

Having seen off the gooseberry sawfly larvae last time with a good dousing of bug clear spray, I was doing the usual plant watch at the weekend and found yet more devastation, and a whole new breed cycle of nasty green wiggly things. This time the gooseberries were so nearly ripe I didn't want to spray. It says on the package that you can eat fruit once the spray has dried, but I'm not so sure. This stuff is designed to kill animals - admittedly much smaller animals than me - so I'd rather not take the chance.

Despite all their best efforts to destroy them, this year has seen a bumper gooseberry crop, and since they're going to be mostly jam (there's only so much fool you can take), I decided to strip the whole lot off and then douse the remaining leaves with bug killer.

what's green and hairy and goes up and down?*

My hands and arms now look like I got into a serious argument with a porcupine, and they itch like crazy, but the bushes have been stripped. It wasn't a bad haul either. I took great delight in spraying the hell out of the bushes afterwards, but I fear next years crop is going to be rather meagre by comparison.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to whip some cream.

* a gooseberry in a lift.

Comments

A pest on those pests.

Luckily, my geranium bug (I don't know their Latin name) larvae haven't been back so far.
JamesO said…
I'm glad you've got your bugs under control, Gabriele. I'm more annoyed with the ones who destroyed my cabbages and cauliflowers before they could produce anything I could eat. At least I got a good crop of gooseberries this year.

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