You can never have enough...

[Oh_hunnihunni]

OHH the army worm you mentioned was on Stuff News yesterday https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/300567063/alarming-armyworm-pest-found-on-outskirts-of-hamilton  
I pulled out my perpetual spinach yesterday after it was looking more hole than leaf. I found those caterpillars on the plants ... first time I've ever had it eaten by anything, such an easy to grow/long lasting vegetable plant - annoying because I pick it all the time for salads and in hot meals. I suppose that pest is something else to now contend with 

 OMG! I wonder if we have it on the North Shore? Maybe because the weather has been so hot and humid.

We've been wondering what could have caused the demise of the vegies we'd planted - Silverbeet, Spinach and beetroot.
We went out one day and they had all just suddenly collapsed (after doing so well for several weeks) and had great big holes in them.
Not only that, but 5 rhubarb plants next to them had holes in the leaves and were in a bad way also - they were well established plants and I've never seen anything like it!
I thought nothing would eat rhubarb leaves - aren't they toxic?

I can't see any caterpillars though - do they come out during the day or only at night? Does anyone know?

I need to know if they are still around as they also feed on lawns and we're paying a lot of money to have a new lawn (Woolgro) installed.

I can't imagine what else could have caused such sudden damage to everything.

I am in Narrowneck, so they are definitely here. I think mine came from an open door in the evening on one of our hot nights. I had a couple of big moths flying around, much to herself's delight, one of them might well have laid on my indoor plants.
None in the vegies so far. The slugs and snails are doing enough damage though, they need no help. Roll on the cooler weather...