For a week or two I have noticed dozens of tiny insects, like moths, flying off my raspberry canes when I have been picking raspberries. I could not find any damage to the fruit; none at all, no eggs, no caterpillars, nothing. I have now cut down the old canes on my double-cropping raspberry canes, Polka, to allow the new canes to produce fruit for autumn. And yet, the moths are still there. Thanks to the
Yorkshire Moth Recording experts, the moth has now been identified as Pseudargyrotoza conwagana which, I am told, will not hurt the raspberries but feeds on privet and ash trees. Mystery solved; right above my raspberry canes tower the ash trees in a neighbouring garden. Now as well as being deluged with ash tree seeds every year, I now have their bugs! Still, as long as they do no harm.
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| Tiny moth on raspberry leaves |
Sorry it is such a rubbish photograph but the things move so fast and do not keep still long enough to take a decent image. I actually saw a tiny bird in flight catch one today but the chances of the birds catching all of them seems remote. No wonder the insects move fast! I wonder if I can train my Ragdoll cat, Alfie, to catch them. It doesn't sound likely; he doesn't even go after the birds!
