Spray with BT -- available at any home improvement or nursery. Will not harm beneficials like the mantids. Also, a fly swatter works wonders on the adults.

Kevin

I'm a newbie too and I'm not sure if I had cabbage loopers or some other type of caterpillar/worm but they were eating my eggplants like crazy (the leaves). I sat out there on a stool and had some tongs and I picked every single one of them off and killed them (or you can put them in a bucket of soapy water). After I was done I moved my plants (which are also in containers) to the other side of the yard and so far so good! I check daily now but there's been no sightings and no new damage.

sounds great Kevin the flyswatter route... but how to get the good for nothings to hold still.... Please they bug the heck out of me too,
Thanks

jeanwedding: I didn't say it was easy .LOL. You actually have to hunt them down as they flutter all over the yard and then finally land on some foliage. Then you have to sneak up on them -- they're very sensitive to YOU.

BT's the way to go, though. It's the young(caterpillars) that do all the damage. I just try to swat the adults to lessen the outbreak of future generations.

Kevin

Thank you so much!!!

Well, I've been using food grade Diatomaceous earth which you can pick up real cheap at any garden center. It works. Also consider companion plantings like marigolds, basil, onions, Nasturtiums that naturally keep pests away. Don't count on the praying mantis. By the time they hatch and grow up, your cucs will be long gone. Cucs are the prima donnas of the veggie garden.

Thank you so much!!!

Never heard of DE working on FLYING pests, just crawling like ants, earwigs, fleas and slugs.

And no... I do not consider caterpillars that are born in foliage to be a crawling insect. JMO

Kevin

You have only one plant? Hand pick them off! It's gardening entertainment!

You have only one plant? Hand pick them off! It's gardening entertainment!

Lol Susan yes we only have one plant, we are newbies! I'm so disgusted with those little boogers I think I would get entertainment from that!

I just found some cab loopers today on my broccoli I only have three plants so I just pic the little Nasty sob's off by hand and squish them with a rock very satisfying and entertaining .

Bt is one of the oldest and safest organic pesticides around. It's a bacteria that kills the larva of mosqitos, fruit flies and moths. It does no harm to anything else. And it's cheap. It's sold as Dipel in dust form or thuricide as a liquid.