When to remove butterfly netting?

[Mulchkin]

I went to remove my butterfly netting from the brassicas this morning as they are getting a bit big, but then spotted one bed was partially exposed and the plants were absolutely covered in both the green and the patterned caterpillars.

I can't believe that in October they are still around - this is my first year with the veg patch, so is this normal or just due to the late summer this year? Looks like I'll be leaving the netting on until Christmas

[Thelma Sanders]

I took mine off on Saturday! I think these few frosty nights will do for the butterflies.
Won't kill all the 'pillars that are scoffing already, but I wouldn't think there will be any more getting laid

[Newton]

Or doing anything else for that matter..............

[zazen999]

Don't believe a word of it; you'd be surprised how long they will hang about. Personally, I find that whitefly is the worse pest on brassicas; so we limit ours to things we grow that don't hide them so much.

[Two_Sheds]

if you take the net off, the pigeons will feast

[roitelet]

Not yet! I'm having more trouble with caterpillars now than I have had all summer.

[binley100]

Mine stay netted cos of the flying rats but I use netting over winter rather than the debris stuff cos the snow falls thru better rather than collapsing it.......

[Alison]

Mine are all still enviromeshed at the moment. In a few weeks time I'll take the frames down and put the mesh flat on the cabbages but will do a different cage for the sprouts etc to protect them from pigeons (and neighbouring chooks) but with bigger spaced net so any snow can go through without collapsing it all.

[Thelma Sanders]

yes I did put up pigeon netting, instead of the butterfly netting, and there were no butterflies on the allotments today.........so that's allwight then

[Mulchkin]

if you take the net off, the pigeons will feast

Oooh, I got really excited for a minute, but then realised you meant on the brassicas, rather than on the caterpillars!

[Shadylane]

Dunno if I've just been lucky this year but I got rid of the netting and no major problems. I used twiggy, spikey sticks to keep off the winged rats, (though I need to get bigger ones now) and the winged hankies haven't seemed to bother that much. I like to think it's because of the interplanted herbs/flowers but it's probably down to the fact that they're just crap.

[perkin]

I took mine off last week - luckily I don't have a pigeon problem. Found quite a few caterpillars on the underside of the voile sheets I was using, so fed these to the chickens and haven't seen any since.