A lover of disturbed ground, the poisonous Common Ragwort has been the bane of horses for centuries where it frequently grows in pasture-land churned up by their hooves. It’s also the favoured nursery plant of the Cinnabar Moth caterpillar which has learned to absorb its poison as a means of defending itself in both its larval and adult Moth form against insect-eating birds. Wet, Cold and Seemingly Unable to Cope I know I keep banging on about Bees, but things are going from bad to worse out there. We seemed to get off to a fairly hopeful start in the Spring of 2009, but all the rain we’ve been getting of late has had a profoundly negative effect upon far too many Bees in just about every kind of habitat.