very greedy caterpillars on my brassicas...

[madmarchhare]

Ive been growing cabbages and purple sprouting for the first time ever this year, and have been really depressed by the attentions of the caterpillars. As fast as I pick them off and squash them, the butterflies arrive again and then of course more caterpillars. Everything is decimated - and they really stink too!. My question is - is there any way of growing them successfully without spending a fortune on micromesh and without spraying them with all sorts of nasties? If not, I think this might be my last time...

[MaureenHall]

Same here!! Well to an extent anyway. I'd been religiously going to the allotment at least once a day to pick off the big ones and squirt the babies and little ones with garlic fire water. That was going ok till I went away for a long weekend and the ones I missed have grown into huge hairy things!!!! Now with all the horrible rain and mud I can't get to the lottie so they'll be having a right old feast. Next year I'm definitely going to net everything

[Demeter]

I've been on ebay hoovering up cheap net curtains. I'm going to turn them into a net for next year. (Oops shouldn't have said that, now I've got competition!!)

Another thread suggested debris netting which is a sight cheaper than micromesh. I looked on ebay and you could get it for £30-£40 for a roll of 3m x 100m, cheaper if you can settle for 2m widths but I can't remember exactly. If you don't need as much as that you could go halvsies with someone local?

[Jameslovell]

Good idea for looking for net curtains on ebay. Can't believe I haven't thought of it.
I am on my way there now...

[Demeter]

Ikea do net curtains. IKEA | Curtains & blinds | Curtains | LILL | Curtain
£2.99 for a pair of curtains 3m by 2.8m each.
I reckon that sounds reasonable, you could make a fair sized brassica tent for that. Hmm, I was going to go to Ikea soon anyway...

[Hazel at the Hill]

cheap net/voile curtains

Try your local charity shops.

[Two_Sheds]

My debris netting was 2m width @ 73p a metre (eBay). I wish I'd got 3m width though. 2m just isn't wide enough to cover fully-grown brassicas.

I also use voile panels stitched together. You should be able to get them from QD type shops. Or Ikea, like in Demeter's post above.

[yorkshire sam]

I had my spring cabbage plants planted recently and totally netted with debris netting and somehow the ******'s got in and I have been picking them off for the past week - so nothing is infallable.

[Two_Sheds]

I noticed yesterday in the sunshine (yes, we had about 20 mins of it) that the Cabbage Whites were mating again
Loads of them fluttering around, chased by mad-as-hell Two_Sheds