Tragedy!

Creepy crawly horrors invading my garden!  Uck uck uck!

A massive sawfly larvae infestation all over my green and happy gooseberry bush.  At first we thought they were quite sweet, until we saw how they stripped the leaves clean down to their veins, and just kept on eating.  According to the Encyclopedia of Gardening, you have to pick them off by hand and for "severe" infestations it's insecticide, baby! 

Yeah.  It looks like we might be at that level.

Luckily pyrethrin is an organic insecticide, and is supposed to be safe for us, and for most of our other garden residents.  I still hate the idea of using it, but it beats picking handfuls of little green wriggly things off my poor mutilated gooseberry bush every 4 to 6 hours.  I say again UCK!

No pictures, but just imagine a tiny green caterpillar with a black head eating its bodyweight and expanding at the speed of light.  To the garden centre I go!