Got any yellow jackets around? They hunt the caterpillars down and carry them off. It's fun to watch.

Rodney

One year I did not have them until July. I picked my brain and realized that I had been particularly thorough in spraying BT during August-Octobe the previous year. By now lots of people have gardens around here, but they are all tomatoes, peppers, etc.. I am the looper nursery in the area (arugula, bekana, three types of cabbage, a few broccoli, 60 collards, 2 beds of red mustard, kale, and lacinato).

I second the yellow jackets and wasps. I have lots of them in the garden and they do a great job controlling the loopers. Last year and this year I have not had much problems at all with them.

Funny how you mention that sunnibel. Completely across the country, I've seen a total of 1 looper adult. Now, the only brassica I've got going right now is some kale and not the usual broccoli, cauli, et al that I normally grow through the fall and winter, but they've ALWAYS been here in droves even when all I grew was maters.. However, my IPM program has been attracting the good bugs. So, maybe a triumph on my part, finally.

I'll still be spraying the BT regularly though. Hornworms can make quick work. And I hate searching for them.

Have not seen a cabbage looper in years. Cabbage worms tho can come in droves. If you plant cabbage and its relatives en mass they will come, but like everything everything else they run in cycles.

I think you are being helped by wasps and hornets, too. Last week I found a dirt dauber nest on a folding chair, and when I cleaned it up about 20 little caterpillars of assorted species fell out. Hopefully some of them were cabbageworms babies from my broccoli.

In my experience, cabbage loopers appear a little later, but cabbage worms (larvae of cabbage white butterfly) are very early. I am seeing fewer cabbage whites this year, probably because of the severe winter.

My experience is this: I don't have problems with worms on spring broccoli, but fall broccoli and cauliflower is another story

I do mean the larva of the white butterflies, we always called those loopers. :) So maybe wasps? Or the hard winter? It was a hard winter for here, but probably about like a typical upstate NY winter. What made me think of it was when I realized I was hand picking tons of Colorado Potato Beetle larva but hadn't had to touch the broccoli all spring. Which is highly unusual for me, spring or fall.