friend or foe?

[Flump]

Inspecting my raised bed a day or so back and these eggs appeared on my netting. Before i squish em are they good or bad things. I've got a lot of cabbages baiting/waiting below nets so just being careful


Any advice peeps?

[Two_Sheds]

I've never seen owt like it

[lynnmac]

I've got these on my netting as well. Can't find any info on what they are. Incredibly difficult to rub off too.

[T8Ter]

They look like slug/snail eggs, but not sure they'd lay them like that

[ann-the-nan]

friend or foe?

Yip. Dem is slug/snail eggs. I only know this 'cos t'other day I caught a snail in the act of laying eggs on the side of my comp. bin I know what they look like now.

[FB.]

Generally speaking, the eggs of pests are laid in large numbers in big clusters, while the eggs of predators tend to be laid singly.
If you've ever watched a hover fly (aphid predator) laying eggs, you'll see that she scouts among plant leaves for an aphid colony and then lays one egg per leaf, near to the aphid colony.

[FB.]

.....and even hoverflies have their predators.....

It sometimes happens that special types of small wasps actually "sting" an egg into the hoverfly larva. The result is that the hoverfly larva eats the aphids, but has a wasp larva growing inside it that will eventually burst out (killing it's host in the process) - like in the film "Alien".
Certain (different) types of these wasps also do the same directly to aphids.