Caterpillars on my peppers & aubergines

[Saoirse]

Hello! I am new to this forum and look forward to gaining all sorts of great tips!

I have a small greenhouse on my allotment and grow tomatoes, aubergines and peppers/chillis in there. Last year I was plagued by bright green caterpillars, which start off tiny (of course) and seem to fall to the ground when disturbed and rapidly become large (of course!). Very pretty and all but they appeared to ruin the aubergines last year and did not do the peppers alot of good either. And now they are back! I try and pick them off but they are so hard to find.

I have trawled the biological pest exterminators lists on organic websites and cannot find any thing to kill them. I really want the equivilent of a heat seeking missile!

Any suggestions please? I want to deal with the little blighters before they get a real hold.

Thank you in advance...

Saoirse

[Doggler]

Welcome to the Vine Saorise! I'm not sure what the answer is but one thing's for sure, someone here will. They're such a helpful bunch, you'll be sorted in no time. Enjoy!

[poultrychat]

Hi there. I can only pressume this is the cabbage white off spring so check the back of the leaves and look for little yellow clusters, these are the eggs, and squash them then you won't get the caterpillars although the odd few still can get missed but unless you cover everything you have the next best thing that I know of is to squash the eggs. Good luck!

[nick the grief]

Try some liquid Derris or Derris powder, that'll help. Failing that index finger & thumb & squish them, very satisfying

[Saoirse]

Thanks you guys: I guess I will just have to done a magnifying glass! I have picked off a few and fed them to the hens, but I never seem to find them all. One of those things. I thought that I had read about a biological predator, but maybe not.

[leona]

even better get some carnivorous plants and feed the caterpillars to them. i have some that are stcicky and some that have tubes so they get well fed by me as well as what they catch

[poultrychat]

I didn't think you could use derris dust once the plants were around I thought it had to be added before you planted

[gcroft]

caterpillars

Firstly get an id on them with a pocket field book, they are likely to be cabbage white larvae however dont rule out sawfly and as for biological control have a read of this page and then do a suitable google

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/biocontrol.asp

couple of picks to show similarity
cabbage white


Sawfly

[nick the grief]

Hi PC,

You use Derris as a contact insecticide, trouble is it's indiscriminate & nuke's everything good & bad. but it is natural (made from the root of a chrysanthemum)

[poultrychat]

I picked up my powder a few weeks ago to use it and actually read the label, which is unlike me, and it said to use before putting in any crops

[nick the grief]

Well you've got me there PC. I (and my dad) always used it as a contact insecticide. You just have to be careful when you use it cos of bees etc. I haven't ot any at the moment so I can't look.

[Bugeyes]

Hello
The most common caterpillar to cause problems on peppers at this time of year is that of the tomato moth (Lacanobia oleracea). It is bright green/dull green/brownish depending on age, food & conditions with a thin yellow line along each side. Commercial growers use a solution of Bacillus thuringiensis to control it but I don't think this is available to us mere mortals. By far the best way is to examine your plants daily and squish any larvae or eggs - beware of websites selling nematodes to kill absolutely everything, this is often based on anecdotal evidence. It is unlikely that you could spray your plants with a solution and keep them wet enough for long enough for the nematodes to find the caterpillars and enter them. Thumb and forefinger rule ok!

[Saoirse]

Hello Bugeyes: you have it spot on! They are bright green with a yellow line!

I've read about the Bacillus and you are right: we can't buy it anymore. I've seen the nematodes but you have to buy the exact one for the type of moth, and also still spray the blighters directly with it. If I find them then I feed them to the hens, but they hide really well. I noticed last year that when they are very small they would drop off the plant when I touched it, seemingly on a silken thread. Would that be right? I haven't seen any eggs: maybe they've all hatched. I'll put some more sticky traps up. There is already one largish moth stuck to it. I must do a search to see if I can ID it.

Thanks for all the help. I shall go hunting regularly and recycle them through the hens!!