Why should we be attracting butterflies???

[Claire72]

Because don't they sort of lay eggs, which hatch into......
Hungry caterpillars!!!!

Just dont understand why any gardener would want to be encouraging them

[Capsid]

It's only the cabbage whites you need to worry about.

[chris]

All wildlife is beneficial - part of the whole food chain. They'll attract other wildlife into your garden, which will in turn eat other pests, and so forth. Plus they're pretty Except the white ones as Capsid says, I bat them with my hockey stick!

[Claire72]

So only cabbage white caterpillars eat veg? what do those caterpillars look like?

[Pies]

a plague, they dont arrive in ones and twos

[Claire72]

pmsl! I wont miss that then!!!

[Hans Mum]

they look like this
Cabbage White Butterfly
& as Pies said they're never alone

[chris]

you'll probably see clutches of yellow eggs underneath the leaves - and then a leaf curled over. Uncurl it, and there's mr white, munching away, getting fat. Aww. I'll leave them for a weekend, as I dont ahve the heart to squash them now.

Come back - erm, where's my broccoli gone?

Ever since then, squish squash! They have green goo inside them. Goes through me mind.

They're hard to spot, their green seems to exactly match the leafs - I had to use a torch in the sunlight to throw their shadows so I could squish 'em!

[Pies]

Cabbage white butterfly (Pieris brassicae) caterpillars on damaged cabbage leaf | Visuals Unlimited

[Potstubsdustbins]

Talking of catepillars I had an infestation on my GH grown Sun Gold last year. I have no idea what they were only that they were not cabbage white. They had had a right good go at the bottom leaves before I noticed them and put the thumb and forefinger to work.

Anyone any ideas?

Colin

[VirginVegGrower]

you'll probably see clutches of yellow eggs underneath the leaves - and then a leaf curled over. Uncurl it, and there's mr white, munching away, getting fat. Aww. I'll leave them for a weekend, as I dont ahve the heart to squash them now.

Come back - erm, where's my broccoli gone?

Ever since then, squish squash! They have green goo inside them. Goes through me mind.

They're hard to spot, their green seems to exactly match the leafs - I had to use a torch in the sunlight to throw their shadows so I could squish 'em!

Won't your chooks eat them?

[rana]

Caterpillars are an important early food source for nesting birds such as tits which at the same time will be feeding on aphids and other bugs. Take out the butterflies and you will lose more than you thought.

[Two_Sheds]

Caterpillars are an important early food source for nesting birds such as tits

I may be wrong, but I believe that birds won't eat cabbage white caterpillars? I used to put them on the bird table and they were never taken. Now I drop them in a bucket of salty water

[di]

Our chooks won't touch them...when you squish them and both smell how foul they are and see the disgusting blackish/green gunge that comes out you can hardly blame them!

[Alison]

I just squish the ones that manage to get in through the enviromesh defences - fortunately not usually too many.