caterpillars on the brassicas

amandstu

This is not very technical I know -or even very competent.

I know you should net the cabaage and kale plants and I did so on some at first but the long and the short is that I am now picking off the caterpillars by hand and I am surprised at how difficult it is to get on top of the problem once they have set in.

I go through them 2 or 3 times a day for the past 5 days or so and am not really making much of an improvement .Some days there seem to be even more than ever.I look both sides of the leaves , uncurl the edges and look right down into the new growing leaves.

Am I just attempting the impossible?

I know that if I renet them the problem has to tail off but I also feel thet the cooler weather will soon slow the moths down and so I am putting that off(it would make the manual picking that much more tedious)

Oldtree

it may be too late to rennet as the eggs have been laid and are going to hatch under the net. I don't net, and appear to be lucky. so far.

Maidhci

I would think it is too late to net at this stage - it really depends on the area involved, the eggs will hatch under the net and depending on the area involved, it may be quite difficult to undo and re-net. How many plants do you have? I usually apply a net about 4 weeks after planting and seems to work pretty good - I have/had 60+ broccoli plants and 40+ plants of different varieties of cabbage. I did have some caterpillars this year but not a major problem, arising from the fact that I had to uncover the plants on a few occasions to trim off the bottom leaves of broccoli and also to keep weeds under control and obviously to harvest the crop as it matured. At the moment, the netting is off and am considering not re-covering again. Does anyone know if it is too early to leave the plants uncovered or at what stage in the season do butterflies stop laying their eggs?

amandstu

I have about 40 plants in about 4 different areas.

I don't know when the butterflies stop laying eggs.I did notice though that I got through until about 2 weeks ago before they really became a problem and so I think it might take a while for the eggs to hatch out since presumably they were laying during May(?) and thereafter.

I have noticed 2 main varieties of the caterpillars.

One has alternate yellow and black (or blue) markings/rings which I assume (why?) is from the cabbage white and the other is a real **** as it is almost invisible being pale green .I don't know if it can change its colour to match the leaf but it is really easy to miss and it can get very large.

I have seen it on the turnips and letttuces as well and I suspect it travels along the ground and finds plants it was not on originally.

Last night someone in the house took a hot water bottle to her bed and discovered the beast in the bottle cover when she got upstairs!

Mo60

I have never seen as many caterpillars before as I have this year. Tried netting but this did not work.

Cabbages have been attacked, now swede/turnip are taking a bashing. Have had to go out 2 or 3 times a day to try and contain the damage.

Technophobe

Also, the caterpillars from the "small cabbage white" butterfly bury themselves within the heart of the cabbage etc so are very hard to find and dislodge...The ones from the "large cabbage white" butterfly generally stay on the surface/outer leaves...

amandstu

I use scissors for the ones in the recesses. They are long and thin and you can use them like tweezers to hoik them out.

I figure that it is particularly important to get them and that the damage to the small young leaves is even more destructive than that on the outer leaves (I am thinking of broccoli as an example) .

robbie checker

I think when it gets to July/August you either have to net brassica or spray them. I netted mine this year and the buggers were still getting in so I reverted to Bugclear which is mighty stuff. Don't like using it but when it gets to a certain stage you just have to use it or lose your crop. If you use it when the plants are small, by the time you harvest them a few months later there would be very little spray on the produce particularly brocoli/cauliflower where the floret would not have been developed when you sprayed them. Tried the picking off lark on spouts in the polytunnel this year but it was pointless. As previous poster said, some are light green and you'd need a magnifying glass to get them all. This picking them off lark is alright for people with too much time on their hands.

The Red Ace

I have being told recently by an old time gardener that salt dissolved in hot water and added to lukewarm water in a watering can and sprayed over the plants will kill off the eggs