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All good ideas and all work to a certain extent, netting possibly being the most effective. We have discovered that our hens are the best pest control we have, they love the caterpillars. Just watch out though, they also love the leaves of pretty much anything so you might need to fence sections of your veg patch as required. (a few garden canes and some chicken wire works well and can be moved easily as needed).
This year i went out every evening and checked my plants for eggs and then just squashed them any catapillers i did find went on bird table. also i have a black and white cat that seems to like catching cabbage whites s that helped.
Hi, my friends had terrible problems with catterpillars and made a stong garlic solution (just loads of garlic and water). That seemed to help!!
You could plant french marigolds near them or nasturtiums as they will lay eggs on them instead and you can then clear the eggs off. The marigold smell is supposed to fool them but they still lay eggs if they can get to ours. The best thing would be to net the cabbages with 2 layers of nets - that should work!
garlic spray is quite good at repelling the cabbage white butterflies from laying their eggs to start with, as they detect the leaves they like by 'tasting them' through their feet. Boil up a couple of garlic bulbs (the whole thing not just a clove) til soft, strain and then dilute 10 to 1 in a hand sprayer with a few drops of washing up liquid added - smells disgusting but seems to work. If you already have caterpillars eating leaves, pick them off by hand and squash them - nasty but effective!
Wasps are doing an excellent job of killing the caterpillars on our kale and broccoli - despite the dozens of cabbage whites that float in and out of our garden.
Here are two unproven wasp-related ideas that may be worth experimenting with.
1/ David Attenborough in Life in the Undergrowth said the wasps that lay their eggs inside the caterpillars are attracted by the smell released from the cabbage leaf when it's being munched on. This got me thinking, why not sacrifice a few leaves (especially over-infested ones) - bruise them and hang them on a nearby post as a beacon for these particular wasps?
2/ The common/everyday wasps in my garden are continually patrolling our veg patch and I've taken great pleasure in watching them devour the little green caterpillars. I think these wasps are also attracted into the garden by all the windfall apples. If you don't have any sweet-smelling windfalls that you could place near your veg, maybe a bit of jam would encourage them in?
Let me know if you try these.
The best method to keep away slugs and caterpillars is to scatter ashes from a woodburning stove or bonfire around and directly on the plants and veg that are affected by these pests. Slugs and caterpilars do not like the slightly alkaline environment that the ash provides.
If you have money you can buy a biological control which kills caterpillars - Steinernema capcarpse - otherwise the best solution is to squash them with your fingers (or jump on them if they are big and squishy)