[1st time veg grower]

I planted lots of insect friendly plants in my garden this year in an effort to encourage bees and be good to the environment etc.

What I didn't think of was the offspring of the beautiful butterflies I have seen in the garden this year.

I have just had to pull up all my peas because they have been decimated by little green caterpillers, and then I noticed some branches of my gooseberry bushes have also been stripped bare - closer inspection: little black caterpillers.

Feel a bit bad as I had to spray the goosberries - so in effect attracted the butterflies into the garden only to kill the next generation off. And the chickens got what was left of the pea plants...and the green caterpillers.

Have never known peas and gooseberries to be eaten by caterpillers like this before - usually just brassicas, although I am only growing brassicas for winter this year so the butterflies wouldn't have had access to their usual egg laying sites. So is it common? Have I just been lucky in previous years?

Yet more stuff that needs to be netted next year, grr! Think soon my whole garden will be covered in nets!

[JayG]

I've never heard of pea plants being eaten by caterpillars before so I think you've been a bit unlucky there, the gooseberry sawfly is responsible for the gooseberry damage and is pretty specific to both that plant and white and red currants.

In that sense you can't blame your butterfly-friendly garden, although I have to say that with one or two exceptions I'm not a fan of many forms of companion planting (for instance, I don't understand how establishing a giant breeding colony of blackfly on nasturtiums helps to "attract" them away from plants such as beans!)

A combination of EU bans on many pesticides and the trend to more environmentally-friendly gardening means that a lot of nasty beasties are having an easier time of it than they used to, and of course birds can do a lot of damage although of course they do help to keep insect populations down.

Top Tip1: don't despair - most fruit and veg still grow well and taste much better than the supermarket versions even if there's the odd hole here and there. 
Top Tip2: buy shares in garden netting companies! 

[oldcow]

Last year my peas got eaten by caterpillars too. Not this year though, because the slugs didn't leave any for them.

[1st time veg grower]

I've never heard of pea plants being eaten by caterpillars before so I think you've been a bit unlucky there, the gooseberry sawfly is responsible for the gooseberry damage and is pretty specific to both that plant and white and red currants.

Just googled the sawfly and think that is probably what they were and now really don't feel guilty for killing them! Just discovered they pupate in the soil though, so nets wouldn't even protect them! Interestingly I have redcurrants in the same bed which are (as yet) untouched.

...with one or two exceptions I'm not a fan of many forms of companion planting (for instance, I don't understand how establishing a giant breeding colony of blackfly on nasturtiums helps to "attract" them away from plants such as beans!)

Yep, I've never got that one either!

Top Tip1: don't despair - most fruit and veg still grow well and taste much better than the supermarket versions even if there's the odd hole here and there. 
Top Tip2: buy shares in garden netting companies! 

Too true!

Last year my peas got eaten by caterpillars too. Not this year though, because the slugs didn't leave any for them.

Well, I can be thankful that at least the plants produced well before they got eaten and pulled up and the peas themselves were delicious and bug free, and to be fair I do now need the space for other things...

[sunshineband]

There are lots of 'useful' insects attracted too, like hover flies (whose larvae eat greenfly), ditto for lady birds etc, and not all butterfly larvae eat crops.

Small tortoiseshell, peacock & red admiral all eat nettles for example. so don't despair 

[1st time veg grower]

Yes, the other insects are more than welcome, especially when they help get rid of other, less welcome insects. For example, I always thought wasps were just plain evil and served no real purpose except getting angry and stinging people, until I found out that they also eat pests! Now I look at them quite differently! 

[sunshineband]

Just don't let wasps make a nest in your shed   

[1st time veg grower]

Or, like they did at my parents' house, in the loft! My Mum then stupidly thinking it was only one or two wasps sprayed some insect killer through the loft hatch but didn't shut it quick enough - she got stung all over her arm and face - even on her lip. They had to get someone (council maybe?) to come and remove them and they showed me the nest - it was quite amazing!

[sunshineband]

Yes they are an absolute marvel aren't they?  :happy:

Luckily I saw the one in the shed when it was about tomato size and managed to deal with it without getting stung. felt  abit mean but I didn't want to have to fight my way past hordes of wasps to get things out of the shed for the rest of the year