Should I leave caterpillars alone

Builderfromhell

Odd question perhaps.

Just went to garden to get some cabbage and found that my Dutch cabbage leaves are covered in one species of caterpillar. Now I have more cabbage than I can eat and for that reason can accept a certain amount of loss to insects. I am thinking the caterpillars may only be eating for a day or two and then start the process of turning into butterlies.
Some plants in our garden attract huge amounts of butterflies and I am happy to see tham.

Wondering what others think. Am I mad to leave the caterpillars alone?

Nonmonotonic

Yes you are mad to leave them alone.

These guys bring nothing to the party!

The only plant they are attracted to is from the Brassica family and their only purpose is to eat them.

pwurple

Oh crumbs, I hope you are nowhere near me sending all those caterpillars airborn to land over here.

I hear caterpillars munching in my sleep.

Any friends about with creatures that would like to eat them all up for you?Ducks?

Mo60

Recently had these on my cabbage and broccolli and went down the organic route of just removing them with my fingers. Unfortunately the remaining eggs hatched and, because I was away, within 2 days they had almost demolished both vegetables.

Can anyone recommend any deterent for the future?

Supercell

Mo60 wrote: »

Recently had these on my cabbage and broccolli and went down the organic route of just removing them with my fingers. Unfortunately the remaining eggs hatched and, because I was away, within 2 days they had almost demolished both vegetables.

Can anyone recommend any deterent for the future?

This, get it in Woodies, works very well :-

Mothman

Nonmonotonic wrote: »

Yes you are mad to leave them alone.

These guys bring nothing to the party!

The only plant they are attracted to is from the Brassica family and their only purpose is to eat them.

This is the Small White. There is also the Large White which is probably what the OP is seeing.

Small White lay eggs singly and the caterpillars are green and can be surprisingly hard to see.
Large White lay eggs in batches usually on the underside of leaf. The caterpillars are colourful, and easy to see.

The eggs take about a week to hatch and the caterpillars don't do a lot of damage in first week, but in their 2nd week, they can get through a lot of eating!

My method of control (our garden is totally organic) is to rub out the eggs. I systematically go through the brassicas and check under each leaf once a week. I rub any eggs I see. If I miss a batch I'll squash the group of small caterpillars the following week.

Not a practical solution for a large patch, but it takes me about an hour to do ours. I don't get them all...the curly leafed Kale is difficult to do, but I'll pick off caterpillars if I see them.

The butterflies in my patch have done quite well this year and there was a LOT of eggs to squash this year!

redser7

I guess the best deterant is to net your plants but dont lay the net on the plants as they can lay throught the holes. You need to suspend it over some sort of frame. FIrst year on the plot. Would anyone know when it is safe to remove the netting? I am using hoops of plumbers pipe but the plants will outgrow that in a while.
Cheers

planetX

I've done the same as the OP - came back to find my broccoli in full flower so I just left the little guys to munch away.
Just had a thought though, how do they overwinter?

Mothman

The "white" Butterflies overwinter as pupa.

Clare man

I have same problem I have picking them off, alos spraying htem with washing up liquid, the other thing I have done is shaken the plants and they fall off. I spend 5 mins every day checking for eggs and picking them off, mostly contained though The have hit my kale hard,

muckyhands

Try growing a patch of Nasturtiums in a spot away from the Brassica bed.

Net Brassica bed, as redser7 said, with fine mesh making sure its well above the plants (if the netting touches the plants the butterflys can still land on/ lay their eggs on them).

Your cabbages etc. are kept safe and the butterflys and their caterpillars have an alternative egg laying/ food source, ie the Nasturtiums (luckily for us and them, cabbage white caterpillars can feed on these too).

Everyone wins I think.

I like to see butterflys in the garden and my little girl would be horrified if she thought I would kill one. :eek:

If the caterpillars manage to get on my plants, I have a place to transfer them to, that meets their needs without me having to kill them, or my little one wanting to kill me. :pac::):)

Zuiderzee

Kill them - simples