Firecrackers and Cinnabar Moths

I am so pleased with Lizzie Kate's "Pop".  I sewed on the bugle beeds yesterday and now the piece sparkles!

My take on the Tuesday Garden Party this week is a little different.  As gardeners many of us use organic methods of pest control.  I'm going to talk about the state of Oregon's successful Tansy Ragwort biological control program.

This is Tansy Ragwort, once considered to be western Oregon's most serious noxious weed.  If ingested by horses or cattle it causes irreversible, fatal liver damage.   In the 1970's animal losses topped $4,000,000.

After 20 years of biological controls, Tansy Ragwort is mostly a non-event.  See the 'very hungry caterpillars'?

 

They are the caterpillars of the Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae) and they love to eat the plant.

I was going to pull up the few plants of Tansy I found, until I noticed the caterpillars.

I figured, why not let them do all the hard work.  

The plants certainly will not reproduce when the caterpillars are through!

I well remember the 'War on Tansy' of the 1970's.  I was in junior high school.  We called the Cinnabar Moths 'Kennedy Moths' as they 'wore' our school colors of red and black.

Speaking of red...  

Our Bread seed poppy must be about three different plants.

After showing light lavender and dark purple blooms, we've now been treated to bright red, fiercely ruffled blooms.

I hope your garden has treated you to a welcome surprise or two.