Gorse Webs

A blast from the recent past here – September of last year. My own dear father sent this picture of fine, dense webs on gorse bushes. If you look closely you can see that there are multiple layers.

I had assumed that these must be the work of caterpillars, like the webs that sometimes enshroud whole trees and cars. But a little research suggests they might be the work of tiny red Gorse spider mites. Apparently it is damaging to the plant and is even used as a biological control in some parts of the worlds, to keep Gorse down.