[jaydig]

We have two fuchsia bushes near the house, and  a few days ago noticed some elephant hawk moth caterpillars on them.  We have so far spotted nine of them and they are huge.  We are hoping to see some of the moths when they hatch out next year.
We've seen the odd one over the years, but never as many as this all together.  I'm very tempted to put a net over the bushes so the birds can't take them, or perhaps they don't eat these caterpillars anyway.

[Elaine G]

Wow nine! They are lovely aren't they.

I was lucky enough to have one on the fuschia by the front door, but haven't seen it for the last couple of days so I am concerned it has been taken, but it was an awfully big snack for a bird!

Elaine

[Pescador]

You can see how bare my plants were looking after 3 elephants took up residence! Haven't seen them for a few days now, so I hope they're pupating.
Handsome creatures, aren't they!!

[mumofstig]

I feared for my fuchsias so I relocated mine to the willowherb along the railwayline

[jaydig]

At the moment, they don't seem to be doing too much damage to the fuchsias, but at this time of the year I'm not too concerned as the fuchsias will be finishing soon anyway, so they can eat away at their heart's content.  It will be worth it if they manage to overwinter and turn into moths. They seem to be eating both the leaves and the flowers, but the bushes are so prolific that it will take even these nine guys to do too much damage.  Having said that, I'll probably be posting next week to say that all I have left is a bunch of naked sticks.

[8doubles]

Don't think many birds will tackle an Elephant but i did see half a dozen Wasps stinging one on a footpath  many years ago !

[grinling]

If they are still there you could ask the butterfly places if they would be interested

[jaydig]

They are still there, but our nearest butterfly place is many miles away, so we'll just look after them as best we can until next year.
I don't have a phone that takes pictures, and even if I did, I wouldn't have a clue how to upload them to the site, but if they develop into moths and they're about when one of our sons is home, I'll get them to do it.