Cabbage White Caterpillars

[StephenLee]

My brassicas (cabbages, Brussels Sprout and Kale) have recently begun to resemble doilies due the the actions of the Cabbage White caterpillar. I religiously crush the small yellow/orange eggs and pick the little blighter's off. I even try to chase the butterflies off to prevent them landing. All to no (or not much) avail.

My Granddad, a gardener of some 70 years, who's garden is quite close to mine suffers much less from this problem.

Interrogation over a pint of Batham's Best Bitter (My local brewery) has elicited his secret.

He puts one or two partially rotted windfall apples or pears under his brassicas. This attracts wasps to the area. Wasps are partially carnivorous, enjoying caterpillars as protein. The wasps predate on the caterpillars and the problem is much reduced.

I do not know if this will work but empirically Granddad suffers much less than me and, since I put the apples down yesterday evening, I have seen two wasps flying off clutching caterpillars.

And it seems pretty organic.

Stephen

[Triple_sod]

Thanks for that Stephen, been lucky with mine only had a bit of superficial damage i put down to slugs but I’ll give it a go anyway.

[Carrot Cruncher]

Thanks, I will give it a go as well.

I netted my cabbage last year and they were ok, didnt net my sprouts or swedes this year and between the cabbage Whites and the slugs they have been ruined

[buttystella]

thanks for this I may try next year. Last year i grew my cabbages under fleece, it worked a treat.

[CatInTheTinFoilHat]

What a great post My brassicas are getting hammered. Been out squishing them (and the slugs) each night, all to no avail. Wish I'd known this earlier but as I have said before growing is a learning curve which takes time to get right. Better to learn now than when it's life or death.
Earlier in the year I had a big problem with green fly. I managed to sort them with an organic method I learned from a friend. Steep a big bunch of tomato leaves in a pint or two of water and leave it for a week, mashing and stirring each day. Then strain the greenish liquid out through a sieve and put it in a spray bottle and go round the affected plants spraying them well. I was amazed at how quickly it worked, a couple of days later and not a greenfly to be seen! I will not put any commercial pesticides on my food crops as that is one of the main reasons I started growing in the first place and it tastes so much better than the supermarket stuff.
It may be too late for some of my brassicas but I will be sure to try this apple thing out next year a little earlier.
Cat

[Carrot Cruncher]

Hi Cat, An old gardener told me a couple of weeks ago to do a similar thing with nettles (but you needed to dilute it after as it would be too strong) for getting rid of green/blackfly. Too late for this year but I will give it a go next year

[diamond lil]

I'll pass this onto my next door neighbour, she grows loads of cabbages and is moaning about caterpillars. Nothing eats my kale, nothing is that bloody desperate

[bloke]

I've read that the best use of the nettles is to tie a bunch in a muslin or hemp bag. Weigh it down with a rock and drop it into your water butt, leaving a string out the top to renew occasionally, that way you have a ready diluted supply. I think I read this in an article by Harry Dodsun, if you have not got anything by him I strongly recommend checking him out.