CROW (Conserve Reading on Wednesdays)
Wednesday, 5th August 2015
Bugs Bottom, Gravel Hill, Emmer Green ~ Ragwort clearance

Ragwort is potentially poisonous to livestock including horses and must be controlled on this site in order to comply with an agreement relating to the site's management.

Having started the day thinking we might be finished by coffee time and at lunch time finding ourselves doubting we would complete the task, it was pleasing that by three o'clock we had cleared the entire site.

Along the way we found a few caterpillars of the cinnabar moth feeding on the ragwort, these were transferred to another location and will hopefully go on to reach adulthood.

(Ragwort is the main food plant of the cinnabar moth caterpillar. The caterpillar absorbs the plant's toxins which are passed on through the chrysalis to the adult moth making it inedible to most insect-eating predators.)

Created: Saturday, 8th August 2015
Photographs: Alan Stevens, Mike Kempton