I know - Butterflies!
but butterflies don't lay on nettles in the shade..
There are some pdfs about nettles on the Recommended Resources PDF from Garden Organic, Butterfly Conservation, and Magnificent Meadows.
viewtopic.php?f=74&t=247
Interesting Points from the Garden Organic pdf:
"If cut before flowering and thoroughly dried, nettles make excellent hay with a protein content equivalent to lucerne or clover. .....
Common nettle is often infested with..aphid... in April-May. A wide range of beneficial insects feed on this aphid." (written in 2007 - out of date? Do we still get aphids like that?) ...
"Seeds are shed as early as June or as late as December. .. . Plants cut down in flower did not produce viable seed. Plants cut when the ....(outside of) the flowers was green and with the seeds.. (half ripe) can ripen and germinate as well as fully ripe seed. ... Seeds are able to germinate immediately on a bare soil ... Germination is greatest in full sun......"
More control methods on the Magnificent Meadows pdf.
Even Buglife pull nettles when creating a meadow...
https://www.buglife.org.uk/blog/meadow- ... -underway/