Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello,
New here, so apologies if this has been covered before.
I'm trying to find out HOW the damned Cabbage Whites find my brassicas. My Brussels and Broccolli have been destroyed AGAIN.
If anybody knows how it is the seek out the plants then I can plan a deterrent. Netting is ugly, and they always seem to get in, and fleece isn't really an option.
Dusting with Derris is an "after the fact" cure, but I'd like to stop the butterflies 1st. Do they use sight or smell to find our food??
Thanks in advance.
Pj

Heat seeking missiles.
Seriously I dunno but it's probably a combination of smell and visual. Apart from covering the leaves the only option is vigilance. Daily checking the leaves and ( forgive me if I get too technical here) squidging the egg clusters on the undersides before they hatch or the mini caterpillars before the eat too much.
It's a jungle out here......

It's not just cabbage whites, I've been away from my allotment 3 weeks due to a new grandchild, and my brassicas look like lace curtains! At least 3 different types of caterpillar. Suppose fine netting or fleece is the only option apart from daily visits and squashing eggs.

Funny, this year there seems to have been loads of cabbage whites about but I have had very little damage to brasicas! I have had some netted because of pidgeons, but it was coarse netting and the butterflies flew straight through it. Gardening is a strange hobby sometimes! I have done everything to deter carrot fly but the only carrots worth keeping are the ones I covered with fleece.

Snadger you really are lucky, the caterpillers really descimated my brassicas this year, as it is my first year at growing veg i will be far more vigilant next year and try and alsom cover them with some mesh. hopefully that will stop the little b****rs.

My kale was shredded last year initially by caterpillars and then by pigeons. I did manage to get plenty off but this year all will be netted. When I first put the plants out they were covered in fleece and I still managed to get a few caterpillars. I also put down tomato pinchings which seem to have helped.

Seriously though fine mesh netting is a good option because it is so "organic" and probably the best option over a cage type structure to allow plenty of room for growth.

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

I used netting this year, 10mm square holes, and they just flew on through. Took great satisfaction in squishing them when they got trapped tho'. Tried rubbing off the eggs, squishing the caterpillars,or picking them off and putting them on the bird feeder, and dusting with derris. But I've about 50 brussels, caulis and broccili, along with 5 other veg beds, a small orchard, family garden, shrubbery, the house and my two year old to look after also, so daily inspections are out of the question. I'll do some more research, and post if I find out the "search and lay" mechanism they use.

Everyone you have my sympathies! I finally gave in to the cabbage white re: cabbage, broccoil and sprouts earlier on in the summer!
Little b*****s! I did the daily checks and covered them in netting, but they still managed to get through! Running around the back garden shouting at them had no effect (not even first thing in a morning in my PJs! )
I was so gutted that I've decided not to grow any next year! DDL

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

Oh DDL, don't give up! I'm determined to beat them next year!

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smiling is infectious....

http://www.thehudsonallotment.blogspot.com/ updated 28th May 2008

That's a shame DDL. I wouldn't be without my greens espesh in the winter. Fortunately I've not had that level of problems but I would be gutted too if it happened to me.

I thought I read something about a plant that attracts them which would be good for companion planting. Only problem is I can't remember where or what. Will have a think and probably end up posting at 2 in the morning given the way my brain works.

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

There are lots of other veg I want to grow in my small back garden, so it isn't much of a hardship - I was only growing the sprouts for other people - I hate them! DDL

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

So you are going to take brassicas out of your crop rotation! That should be interesting!

I have loads of nastutiums growing all over my lotty....maybe the peppery taste puts them off? I noticed the butterflies didn't home in on the brassicas, they just seem to start at the botom of the allotment and land on one crop at a time working their way up until something took their fancy!

methinks, jasper and his 12 bore shotgun may work next year! DDL

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

Surely there'd be more 'holes' in the brassicas from shotgun shot than from cabbage whites DDL

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Blessings
Suzanne (aka Mrs Dobby)

'Garden naked - get some colour in your cheeks'!

The Dobby's Pumpkin Patch - a blogspot work in progress!
Last updated 5th November2008 - new piccies!

Mine looked like string vests by the time those little darlings had done their worst! DDL the gun could only minor damage compared!

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

There is an organic spray on the market called, I think, 'Bug Gone'. I'm pretty sure I remember it called that. It is extremely effective against caterpillars and other nasties. On some crops, 1 application is enough, but no more than two, and it really really works.

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Zebedee
"Raised to a state of heavenly lunacy where I just can't be touched!"

There you are dexter, Bug Gun, but you need a firearms licence to use it!

I must say that the most organic way to deal with cabbage whites is to use fine netting. Make sure that the netting doesn't touch any of the leaves. Then there is no need to spray your crops with anything at all.

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Apparently they do something strange with their wings and they can get themselves down to third of a pencils width?????Really fine netting I would say.

It works for me!

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My nasturtiums seem to have been tasty for them - I had two types of cabbage whites - the one with green, camoflage caterpillars, and the other which were green and black (not the chocolate). I guess they can smell them a mile off! I suppose might be worth companion planting with suitable smelly things or even other plants to attract predatory insects that like a tasty caterpillar for lunch.

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I use my daughter and the dog, dogs catches and eats butterflies and daughter squishes caterpillars. Good fun is had by all