Cube mk2 and WIR

[Chooks Aloud]

.... I hate them. They've had everything virtually off my veg patch. I do not use chemicals and when I see them I squash them but there's hundreds. Help, how do I get rid of them?

 

Karen

[lisa33]

Can you send in the chickens?

[Snowy]

I wish I knew I covered all my brassicas with netting to stop the butterflies getting in. That was successful, so instead they laid their eggs on nearby nasturtiums and the caterpillars just waltzed through my netting and decimated my plants I've just been out and picked off the biggest and thrown them into the chicken run. If they don't get eaten they will be trampled to death

[Guest]

I felt very sad when I saw several cabbage white caterpillars drowned in a bucket the other day. DH had picked them off his sprouts and drowned them. I love caterpillars but if he didn't get rid of them, we'd lose our crop wouldn't we

 

The chickens weren't interested in eating them so he had to drown them. (not the chickens I hasten to add!)

[ajm200]

I pick them off our veg by hand. Feed some to the chickens and up the rest over the fence onto the grass verge by the road as I know that butterfiles are endangered this year because of the awful weather and can't bear to think of the garden without them

 

Someone told me that DE works so I used some from our chicken supplies but it doesn't seem to have done much.

 

Shame i can't send you our broccolli plants, plenty for the caterpillars to munch and no chance of a crop. It all formed tiny heads then bolted. This weather has ruined our veggie plot this year.

[Mrs Webmuppet]

I use an organic soapy stuff , mix with water in a squirty bottle and spray. It has to be done every day but its quicker than picking them off. I think I got it at the garden centre ( would tell you what its called but the labels a bit mangled)

[Donna_0]

They've done the same to ours..our sprouts are full of them

I've been told to try washing up liquid in water and spray it on, but if it rains you have to re-spray. Not sure if it works as not tried it yet

 

-Barbara

-Margot

[Cinnamon]

My Swede were all munched down to the bare leaf stalks in 48 hours last week.

I am afraid I opted for an industrial strength killer

[dancing cloud]

They've shredded the calabrese in my veg patch and I shocked folks at work by telling them how I gently picked off the caterpillars and fed them to the nearest chook (usually Chance who hangs around hopefully). They thought I was kind to all little creatures (except them!), but gardening is war

 

Only problem is, the hens don't like the stripey caterpillars and won't eat them (just the bright green ones), so the rejects get thrown onto the shed roof, where there's nothing for them to eat and they can be supper for the wild birds. Doesn't sit comfortably with my usual "live and let live" approach, but I didn't exactly invite them to come and eat my carefully tended veggies. Did I mention it's war out there ?

[Lesley]

I use a thing called 'Jake' - he picked all the caterpillars off my winter brassicas today and then fed them to the chickens along with the lacy spinach leaves ( )

 

The chickens didn't eat them though

 

It cost me 50p - well, £1 really as Lauren started cooking their tea while we were in the garden

 

Small boy! - available for hire?

[Valkyrie]

Hi all

When I used to go to the HDRA meetings one of our guests said that he used diluted garden lime when he watered his brassicas. Apparently it seems to work, but I haven't tried it myself. I remember my grandmother used to sprinkle salt on her enormous greens and she only had the occasional caterpillar although my grandfather running around the garden catching the white butterflies with a fishing net must have helped! I tried the salt on mine and it killed them! Hence not got the nerve to try the lime, it may have something to do with dulling the colour which may attract them.

I grew calabrese a couple of years ago and managed to keep the butterflies off but the flea beetles got in and scoffed the lot, mind you that year was dreadful, they were all over the garden, washing and me when I ventured outside - ugh!

Last year I tried companion planting and I had a Romanesco near the house surrounded by roses, fuschias and penstemons. No caterpillars, but the woodpigeons pigged the lot.

[Chooks Aloud]

Thanks everyone for your replies. They really are a nuisance. If the leaves are all gone, will the caulis still grow? There is a tiny little floret in the middle at the moment.

 

If its not the caterpillars, it's the slugs. Thought about letting the chooks in, and then thought better of it, as they'd scoff the lot.

 

Karen

[chickencam]

The only way to avoid them is to use Enviromesh which is a very fine mesh that keeps out most beasties. We use it on our carrots to stop root fly and our brassicas to stop pigeons and caterpillars.

 

Even with the mesh we had one butterfly in there and she had obviously laid before we got her out because one plant at the end of the row has been well munched.

 

We have asked our relatives to buy us some more for Christmas because it is expensive and we haven't got enough. Most of our sprouts are protected but we have lost a couple of lots of cabbages which were just under normal netting

 

My chickens will not touch caterpillars of any kind

 

You can control them by picking them off if you are around but we always end up going away for a week in August and coming back to lace doilies

[Jen&Rog]

I can sympathise! I picked about 200 catterpillars off the purple sprouting brocolli this morning and rehomed them safely over the road (no, not someone else's graden, on an overgrown scrubby patch of land not yet built on by developers). Couldn't bring myself to kill em! I'd been religously rubbing off the eggs from undersides of leaves, but alas I was slack for a few weeks and now paying the price! As for the hens, they haven't helped a bit, they love munching the broccoli leaves when I'm not looking..

[chickencam]

Sorry to say but cabbage white caterpillars bring out my murderous side they get squished because otherwise they will go on to pupate and turn into more egg laying butterflies next year. I know that butterflies are in short supply at the moment but there still seem to be plenty to eat my cabbages

 

We once had loads in our back garden at home which we didn't deal with and they all crawled up the wall of the house and then pupated under the overhang of the render to hatch and cause havoc the next year so since then we have given them no mercy.

[mrsallen08]

I had blamed the sneaky rabbits for scoffing a load of radishes, then discovered it was a couple of sneaky caterpillars! I sow them in trays and put them on the outdoor table to keep away from slugs, but obv this isnt enough now, I have a new garden foe!