Creepy-crawlies in the air... dragonflies, wasps, hover flies, bumblebees, gnats, butterflies,                                         midges, house flies, moths, lacewings, dance flies, mosquitoes,

Creepy-crawlies on vegetation... ladybirds, froghoppers, crab spiders, aphids, leaf beetles,                                                shield bugs, crickets, barklice, grasshoppers, stick insects,

Creepy-crawlies on the ground... woodlice, earthworms, millipedes, tiger beetles, scorpions,                                                earwigs, carrion beetles, wolf spiders, slugs, centipedes,

Creepy-Crawly Poetry -

Cabbage Whites

These insects are probably the most hated and admired both at the same time! The caterpillars are hated by gardeners, and the butterflies are admired by everyone else. The reason the caterpillars cause gardeners so much distress and irritation is because they feed on brassicas such as brussel sprouts, cauliflowers and, of course, cabbages. The caterpillars do a huge amount of damage to the leaves which can completely ruin these vegetables. Strictly speaking, there is no such species as a 'cabbage white'. The name is a catch-all term for the Small Whites and the Large Whites - both of which look very similar and both of which behave in the same way. Unfortunately, cabbage white caterpillars tend to give all caterpillars a bad name - which really isn't fair.

      White and Wrong

There's a massacre

of my brassicas

and some caterpillars are to blame!

There's decimation

of my vegetation

and it's such an awful shame.

I'm shedding tears

coz it took me years

to cultivate those crops.

Then overnight

with a thousand bites

my cabbage patch has flopped.

I'm really sad

it makes me mad

why couldn't they leave my plants alone?

What a palaver

those insect larva

have nibbled everything I've grown.

The only consolation

to this situation

is that later on this spring;

Pretty butterflies

will fill the skies

as new cabbage whites flex their wings!

                                          Cabbage White

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Duncan Hoult asserts himself as the sole author of all poems on this website