First cabbage white...

[bazzaboy]

Saw my first cabbage white of the new season on the allotment yesterday, one of the small ones. Felt quite sorry for it as, like me, it seemed to be flitting about trying to keep warm.... Can't see that sympathy lasting once it warms up.

On a more serious point, is this protracted cold spell going to significantly reduce pests 2013?

[Two_Sheds]

The long cold summer last year was disastrous for UK butterflies, including the Whites (which are Critically Endangered, on my plot).

Before anyone kills a Cabbage White, do check it's not a Brimstone, which looks very similar

[Darwin.]

I don't kill any of them, I know the white ones are the bad guys but I just shoo them out the door.

[Likac66]

Seems a bit cold for butterflies. Mind you I did see a big fat green caterpillar in the manure I was spreading yesterday.

[MarkHackwell]

oooh i hope the cabbage white ones have been reduced, they lay there eggs then there little friends eat all my cabbages. Any other butterfly i hope there fine love them . I never kills them i just lye netting overtop of all my brassicas to protect them but they seem to be soo good at finding holes sometimes even when im watching.

[sammy_roser]

They never get killed in my garden, the little wiggily babies however get smushed under my fingers.

[Samurailord]

Are you sure it was a butterfly and not just snowflakes?

That's all we have had round here and I'm getting sick of the sight of snow now.

I just hope the promised warm period hurrys up as i have a polytunnel to set up this weekend

Andy

[Aberdeenplotter]

they would get frostbite up here still.

[Two_Sheds]

They never get killed in my garden, the little wiggily babies however get smushed

... but if you smush the adult, you're preventing 100s of wigglies

[hilary'smum]

I can't kill them or the wigglies. Am going to cover my brassicas in fleece this year. They dont appear to be endangered here, counted 40 on the budlia one lunchtime last year, I read somewhere that wild blackberries in hedges are an overwintering site for their caterpillars. Anyone know if this is correct

[Two_Sheds]

It's the pupa that overwinter, not the wrigglies: cabbage white

[bazzaboy]

Thanks for ace responses - and do check out 2S's reference (above) coz quite extraordinary detail....

I see there that birds are listed as natural predators of cabbage whites and if you've ever seen an inflight battle of bird trying to catch one it is the most extraordinary dance of death....
Or "not death" as it happens, as on each occasion I've seen it the butterfly has lived to tell the tale and not been caught.

I always feel bad about it but I put a decoy cabbage outside the brassica cage - and then watch the cabbage whites totally ignore that one and spend all their energy trying to get inside the cage...! Nasturtiums are a better bet as a decoy, they seem to love nasturtiums... I don't think they'll be a threatened species while there's nasturtiums around, the plants get covered and completely devoured by the caterpillars which seem to like a peppery salad for tea!

Thanks to everyone who commented.... bb.

p.s. Did you know that the female butterfly decides where to lay eggs using sensors in her feet? And that butterflies can only drink but cannot chew solids! These and other unlikely facts at:
Facts About Butterflies – 10 Cool Facts About Butterflies

[Two_Sheds]

Verbena Bonariensis is a superb attractor for Cabbage Whites. You can spend all day then, with a net in hand, "fishing" for the little monsters

[Chippy Minton]

Our chickens love the little green wrigglers, they queue up when I come down from the cabbage patch

[bazzaboy]

Verbena Bonariensis is a superb attractor for Cabbage Whites. You can spend all day then, with a net in hand, "fishing" for the little monsters

lol, great, thank you for this tip, 2S, nice to be occupied - and healthy exercise too! I'll get some for outside the cage. I've already got (slightly leggy) nasturtiums going so the cabbage white caterpillars won't go hungry this year, bless 'em.

Yup, good defences. (Pity the cauliflower seedlings died so nowt to defend... )