Grow Your Own Magazine

Found little green maggots (the exact colour of the leaves, I almost didn't see them) on two of my cauliflowers. One had nibbled on the new, fresh leaves, the other had a nibble on the head. On one plant there were also lots of baby maggots

I checked my books and the web but the only mention of maggots are ones that feed on the roots/stems and these were definitely up top.

Any idea if they're the cabbage maggot and what to do about them?

I removed them then sprayed some organic insecticide liberally.

They are almost certainly the young caterpillars of the cabbage white butterfly. I would say you took the right course of treatment.

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Mark

Vegetable Kingdom blog

They are the Small White Cabbage butterfly larvae. The Large White larvae are black and green, and bigger.
The Cabbage Moth will also lay eggs on your plants. pick off all the caterpillars that you can find.

YOU MUST NET THEM !!!
(sorry to shout)

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I have netted them but I did so thinking of the threat of birds so they're not covered from all angles; I'll fix that later.

That sounds right though since I did see a white butterfly around yesterday.

Thanks folks!

the holes in your net need to be smaller than a butterfly, and it must be suspended a few inches clear of the plant, or else the flutterby will just crouch and plop her eggs through the net. Pesky little blighters. They're no match for my debris netting though

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi