Building an anti butterfly cage.

[Bigmallly]

Bill if you click the photo of the yellow netting you can see the holes that need stitching up they're more like slits than holes though.

The debris netting has slits/holes but the garden netting does not appear to have them so may be a good find Bill. I noticed the debris netting is 80gsm but the garden netting is only 60gsm so slightly finer.

[Bill HH]

Funnily enough, I got some of 2m x 50m green netting from the same company.

I've still got work to do with the ground, hence I haven't unrolled it to check for slit holes.

Anyway, is the cage for an allotment or for your garden ?

The reason I ask is - would traditional black netting be more aesthetically pleasing on the eye in your garden, rather than a bright plastic green/orange/blue, etc.

This will be in my garden, I have a patch about 6m x3 m, I reckon if I make a cage to cover half of it then next year use the same netting to cover the other half so I can at least rotate the brassicas on a two year basis. I wonder if having a baton under the slits / holes would avoid sewing them up?

[bearded bloke]

This looks good ...... Woven Anti-Insect Clear Netting - 2.1m x 5m (72mm x 72mm Mesh)

[Bill HH]

The debris netting has slits/holes but the garden netting does not appear to have them so may be a good find Bill. I noticed the debris netting is 80gsm but the garden netting is only 60gsm so slightly finer.

I am looking at the black garden netting 50m x 2 m, its cheap at £19, but it looks like its folded 4 times, I don't relish having to unravel 50 m in my small garden just to get a few 5m pieces. I have emailed them for the mesh size. There will be enough there to last me 20 years. They also do a proper insect netting but it is dearer.

[Bill HH]

This looks good ...... Woven Anti-Insect Clear Netting - 2.1m x 5m (72mm x 72mm Mesh)

Yes I just saw that too

[bearded bloke]

I am looking at the black garden netting 50m x 2 m, its cheap at £19, but it looks like its folded 4 times, I don't relish having to unravel 50 m in my small garden just to get a few 5m pieces. I have emailed them for the mesh size. There will be enough there to last me 20 years. They also do a proper insect netting but it is dearer.

Mine came folded once (1 metre wide) & then rolled, so lay on ground unroll the length you want & cut with sharp scissors/craft knife & straight edge.

[kathyd]

Bill - if you use a baton to block the holes, you do risk exposing them again if/when the netting slips. You can use clothes pegs to peg the holes, but check after heavy winds. I'm currently using two widths to cover my frame, so am relying on the overlap at the top to do the job - which it would if it didn't keep slipping all the time, probably when the *&^^ cats jump on it! One way or another you'll need to close the holes though.

edit: I just thought - if you staple the netting to the baton then it wouldn't slip! Might tear though when you dismantle it, unless you place yet another baton over the top to hold the netting, and fix that in place instead of the netting......(thank goodness I was never destined to become an engineer!!). Be aware too, I've had holes every 1m of width in some netting I've bought, so the holes run along the sides and not the top once it's in position - it will depend partly on the width you buy, and partly on the supplier I guess. Worth checking position of holes before you buy if you don't like sewing though .

[Penellype]

I had a fruit cage which I weighted down with bricks, but I was unhappy about the anti bird netting as twice I had to release birds that had got tangled in it. I then had wasps eating my fruit so I covered it in veggiemesh.

Before:


After:


However, after a stiff breeze, the day before Bertha arrived, the plastic corner pieces snapped because the veggiemesh acted a bit like a sail, whereas the bird mesh allowed the wind to blow straight through. This is what it looks like now:


The point of this is to say that if you are thinking of covering a fruit cage, which is designed for bird netting, with veggiemesh or similar, make sure that the framework is strong enough to cope with strong winds, because many of them are probably not. A polytunnel covered with netting sounds to me like a better idea.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Earlier this year I asked SWMBO to pick me up some netting from Wilko's. When there she rang me to ask whether I wanted the standard green netting or some black stuff with smaller holes I plumped for the black stuff. It is described as 10mm holes but this is across the diagonal of the square so the squares are only about 7mm along the sides. I have used it this year and so far no caterpillar damage.

[Veggiemama]

I too have to make a brassica cage Bill. I swear when i was planting the seeds the white butterflies could smell them because loads appeared...................maybe i hadnt noticed them before.

I have the debris netting which i am gonna machine sew this weekend. I was gonna get a polytunnel for the frame off ebay....but then...

Mr VM was in a supermarket and they had gazebos reduced to £6. He bought one and brought it home. He thought i would like it....i did, but all i could think was that it would make a good framt for my brassica cage. We got 4 more.
So, i am gonna use these as the frame (havent decided if i am gonna put them altogether yet or split up)
I have some breezeblocks that i am gonna secure all the netting with and may secure the frames onto a wooden post, again secured down the bricks.

Hopefully this will work for me.

I am in the country and we do get lots of cabbage whites and the debris netting has worked on a smaller scale for me before.

Good luck with it.
VM

[Bill HH]

I am planning on knocking in 4 3x2 inch x 8 ft stakes as corner posts Then using 2 x1 inch treated batons as needed to carry the net which will most likely be stapled on. I am considering using a magnetic fly screen door, we have one on our kitchen door and its really good, you walk through it then the magnets click together and close it.

[Veggiemama]

I am planning on knocking in 4 3x2 inch x 8 ft stakes as corner posts Then using 2 x1 inch treated batons as needed to carry the net which will most likely be stapled on. I am considering using a magnetic fly screen door, we have one on our kitchen door and its really good, you walk through it then the magnets click together and close it.

I think i will pinch your idea with the magnetic insect fly screen. Great idea and totally what i will need. I was wondering just how i would make a door.
Cheers
VM

[Potstubsdustbins]

Bill can I suggest small plastic cable ties instead of staples, I find they are so much kinder to the netting. I also use a good few of the releasable cable ties as well to provide entry security.

[skeggijon]

Mr VM was in a supermarket and they had gazebos reduced to £6. He bought one and brought it home. He thought i would like it....i did, but all i could think was that it would make a good framt for my brassica cage. We got 4 more.
VM

Funnily enough I was just about to suggest something similar. I was given a gazebo recently by my father-in-law which I was going to put up in front of my lotty shed, but after my caterpillar vs cabbage armageddon this year, was planning to do the same thing.

[Bill HH]

Bill can I suggest small plastic cable ties instead of staples, I find they are so much kinder to the netting. I also use a good few of the releasable cable ties as well to provide entry security.

Yes you are right staples are a bit vicious, but I do have a staple gun and I don't have the cable ties lol.

Sometimes I attach netting by having a bottom piece of wood and screwing in roundhead screws but leaving an inch protruding, then just hook the net over it, that way it is instantly releasable.