Keep an eye on your Brassicas - lots of Diamond Geezers about!

A tiny Diamond-back moth - only around 7 or 8 mm long! 

On Saturday night I set my moth trap out in the garden, as the night looked set to be warm and still - not something we have experienced much of lately.

In the morning I was amazed to find the outside of the trap covered in little Diamond-back moths! On opening the trap, clouds of the tiny creatures flew out and the egg cartons (where the moths hide in the trap) were covered with yet more.

By the time I had finished examining the catch - a rough guesstimate was that I had caught around a 1000 of these little migrant moths.

Despite their minute size these micro moths travel to our shores from the continent and then have several broods during the summer. It is quite normal to have catches of double figures in the late summer - but a 1000 moths so early in the year is incredible.

The reason I have titled this blog so, is that the food plant of Diamond-back larvae is brassicas of all sorts. So you gardeners and commercial veg growers beware - we are being invaded big time!