Cabbage Leaves being eaten

[Tattie-muncher]

I've just been checking our cabbage plants, and the leaves are being eaten, I sprayed them for black and green fly, but I've only just found a caterpillar in a curled up leaf, what is the caterpillar, and what would be the best way to kill it off the monsters without harming either the plant or my soil

[esbo]

Dunno but I caught a couple of wood pigeons (always seem to be in pairs!!) dining out on may cabbages I guess they would eat the caterpillar too and polish the lot off with a glass of red wine.

I put some foil cup cake cups up on string and that seems to deter the wood pigeons, doubt it would bother the caterpillar though!!

[rustylady]

Pick the caterpillars off by hand. Black and greenfly don't eat leaves, and very seldom even visit cabbages.

[solway cropper]

If you get a good infestation you can end up picking off literally hundreds of caterpillars every day and it ends up being a full-time job. Invest in some debris netting and cover your brassicas with that to keep those pretty little white butterflies off them.

[Two_Sheds]

I've only just found a caterpillar

There are at least 3 that will eat brassicas: cabbage white large, CW small, and cabbage moth. Google them for images

what would be the best way to kill it off ...without harming either the plant or my soil

Simply pick it off with your fingers.

Spraying will kill beneficial insects as well as your 'monsters'.

Really, you need to keep brassicas netted from seed to plate. They are magnets for pests.

[Tattie-muncher]

I'm disabled and can't get down low enough to look right under the plants, so the wife had a good look, and it turns out we're seriously infested with caterpillars, far too many to count, large ones and very small ones, there's hundreds in the soil and on the plants, and we've also got an infestation of what looks like corn fly, the damage to the cabbage under the lower leaves is so bad, we've basically lost the whole crop, has anybody got any ideas on how to get rid of the caterpillars from the soil, as well as how to get rid of the corn fly in ways that wont harm the soil, I'd don't want to start using insecticides, please help

[Two_Sheds]

I've never heard of corn fly*, but the name suggests it would attack corn, not brassicas.


You need to net your brassicas, full time, with a fine butterfly mesh



* I've just g00gled it ~ do you mean thrips?

[Bren In Pots]

There's always nematodes have a read at the RHS site :-

Cabbage caterpillars / Royal Horticultural Society