What is eating my kale

[Marb67]

I have my nero kale netted as the birds were pecking at it. There are no slugs and snails or cabbage white but something has been eating it from underneath, leaving indelible marks on the leaf. On another kale I did find tiny tiny caterpillers of which I thought were not around yet as the cabbage white isn't active.

Anyway, any ideas please ?

[Jungle Jane]

It might be the diamondback moth caterpillar,smaller than cabbage white caterpillars,tiny green things they can hang off the leaf edge using their webbing to escape. I had butterfly netting on my Brussels sprouts last year,these moths can get through the holes,must be small,so I took the netting off to deal with them every other day,eggs are laid singularly on the leaf edges,about two on each leaf,the eggs aren't in a cluster like cabbage whites. They eat a lot!

[Nannysally99]

Ive got mine covered in a net curtain. Been dying to take it off, but not till them butterfly's have flown away.
Yours have been seriously nibbled Marb

[Marb67]

Yep, doesn't surprise me that I seem to be cursed with just about every pest going in such a small, walled garden.

[mothhawk]

I've been keeping my kale snug under a layer of fleece. When I took it off to inspect progress, I found the kale was smothered in mealy brassica aphids
So I've taken off the fleece to let the dunnocks and robins have a go at them, and I'll just have to risk the cabbage whites and keep checking for eggs.

[Marb67]

And a gigantic, brown/grey slug going right accross the sheep pellets around kales which shows they don't work. My other perenial tree kale decimated too now

[Marb67]

Well even more has been eaten, including my perennial kale (the ones in pots incedently doing far better than in soil)

No sign of anything at all on the leaves on close inspection. They are netted so birds can't get to them.

[Jay-ell]

How far away from the kale is the netting - is it supported well away on canes or is it draped over the top with leaves touching it?

[Marb67]

Draped over the top touching

[Jay-ell]

Birds can still sit on the top and peck at it - they might not get much but they'll still give it a go

[veggiechicken]

.........and butterflies can lay their eggs through the netting.

[Nannysally99]

Hubby made a cage with six canes and then net curtain over the top, fleece for a roof, all kept together with clothes pegs.
Maybe try something like that Marb

[Marb67]

I could but everything is so cramped and awkward for constructing suctures.