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Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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Posted by
aikigypsy MA (
My Page) on
Tue, Oct 4, 11 at 16:26
| I planted some cabbages, Kale, broccoli, etc., and these (*&$#(&(@*# caterpillars have moved in and are chomping it all up. My sister-in-law suggested spraying with BT, and I've been doing that since some time in August, though not as regularly as I should, and they keep coming back. All the leaves have holes in them, and what I do harvest always arrives at the table with a caterpillar or two, no mater how carefully I rinse.
I have some new starts in trays which don't appear to be infested yet, and I'm hoping to stick them into cold frames before we have a hard frost here (most likely about a month from now, though it could be any time). Do these bugs survive frost? Any other tips for getting rid of them (preferably organic)? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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- Posted by feijoas Temperate New Zealan (My Page) on
Tue, Oct 4, 11 at 22:16
| Row-covers are the safest and simplest option. Little work and no poisons. Over here, catarpillars don't handle the cold and row-covers are often removed over the winter. |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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| Ditto. Row covers. Cheap, reusable, effective. |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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| Chickens? Great pest control and eggs and manure/fertilizer too. Some places allow you up to four urban chickens within city limits. If you live in the country, what is stopping you? I hear ducks are good for that too. I wish we lived in a house and not a town home. I would definitely looking into chickens. |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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- Posted by adc14 5a SE MI (My Page) on
Mon, Oct 10, 11 at 8:37
| Of all the garden pests, I think cabbage moths are the easiest to control. I spray with Bt alternating with spinosad. When the plants are smaller, they live under row covers. Spinosad lasts longer on the plant but you need to spray it in the evening to avoid harming bees. Anecdotally, I discovered that spinosad also kills Japanese beetle. A few were feeding on my Brussels sprouts. I went to pick them off and discovered they were already dead! |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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| This has been a bad year here for cabbage moths. They are *still* floating around in my garden and laying eggs. Hard to believe. They are hitting my rutabagas very hard which they never did in the past. Collards too. Kale just a little bit. Cabbages oddly enough are relatively untouched. |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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| I watched a video online yesterday about a gal in Seattle, WA gardening in her yard selling vegetable surplus on weekends. She showed a pot of small cabbages with upside down egg shell halves in it & said that the cabbage moths would avoid laying eggs there because they're territorial. That sounded good, but has anyone actually tried it? Is it plausible that simple egg shells would deter them? |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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| Here's a better explanation about how the eggshell half works: Egg Shell Deterrent for Cabbage White Butterflies
Keeping your broccoli, edible cabbage, and ornamental cabbage free from the cabbage white butterfly is as simple as placing half of a white eggshell around the plants (position the shells so water can't fill the cavity.) It doesn't take many shells - just enough to fool the butterfly into thinking the eggshell is another butterfly laying eggs. Reportedly, the butterfly wants her progeny to have less competition for food and looks for other places to lay her eggs. At the end of the season, crush the shells up where they lay or add them to the compost heap. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Egg Shell Deterrent for Cabbage White Butterflies
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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| Hmmm... if that were to really work I would be more than willing to fashion some plastic cabbage moth replicas and mount them on thin straws or wires in abundance around my brassicas. I feel a new winter project coming on. |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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- Posted by feijoas Temperate New Zealan (My Page) on
Sat, Oct 15, 11 at 4:56
| I heartily recommend NOT letting chickens near the garden. They will eat caterpillars, but they'll also eat and/or scratch out your brassicas, along with everything else in the garden. |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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| OK, here's a funny question - tried to spray my broccoli with spinosad, but broccoli's funny frosty leaf covering made the spinosad spray dance right off the leaves! What gives -- I wouldn't hvae thought you'd have to ask this, but how do you spray broccoli? |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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| Why bother buying pesticides and spraying? What a pain in the.... Buy screening/netting/row covers and be done with it |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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Get some tulle at joann fabrics for row covers. It is wide and can be puddled at the bottom so as the plants grow, they take up the slack. Also known as bridal illusion veiling. Way cheaper than remay and I think it works better.
Keksi |
RE: Caterpillars eating my brassicas!!! Argh!
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| Tulle worked great for me. It kept the white cabbage butterfly from laying eggs on the leaves. |
Here is a link that might be useful: What's Growing On?
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