Topic: Cabbage killer

[buxton diggers]

Some wretched creature has drilled holes right through my cabbages: they look like lace. What happened to cabbages being able to survive nuclear war? Is this the work of the dreaded cabbage white caterpillar and will a hearty frost kill 'em off? I'm hoping the hearts of the cabbages are in one piece: there's certainly not enough left of the rest to be edible!
Could it spread to PSB and winter greens in same bed and caulis on next one?

[manicscousers]

I've found some big caterpillars on the chinese leaves, the cabbage are netted so nothing but slugs bothering them, these are big moth caterpillars, sort of light brown, made a mess of the pak choy as well, only thing they've not touched is the mizuna  :)

[saddad]

One of the cabbage caterpillars worms in and eats the hearts from the inside can't remember if it is the small or large white...
 >:(

[tim]

Only just seen this -

1. When were the heads first damaged?
2. If only in the last month, it's not Cabbage Whites. They've long gone.
3. When you wash the heads, have you found any wee slugs?
4. If it is slugs, they won't spread but there are plenty more where they came from & any other green stuff can be attacked.
5. Were it not for slug bait, we would have none left.
6. Don't know about the 'moth caterpillars'.

[jennym]

Once the caterpillar gets nicely snug into the head of the cabbage, not much is going to kill it - it'll keep munching away, same as small slugs will - they are well protected from frost, drying winds etc in there.
To save what I can, often I've chopped the lot and cut out damaged parts, and frozen the good stuff, either as chopped leaf or as a basic mix with mashed potato to do bubble and squeak with later on, it depends how much you need the crop.

[tim]

If you can't beat them, join them!!

1. EGG - The females of different species of butterflies and moths lay tiny eggs on the plant their caterpillars will like to feed on.

2. LARVA (Caterpillar) - Tiny caterpillars of moths and butterflies soon hatch out of each of the eggs. Once the caterpillars hatch they eat their egg shell and then they feed on leaves from the plant for a few weeks and grow. The caterpillars can only nibble little bits of leaves because they are so tiny. They eat all day long and every day of the week until they get bigger and bigger. The more they eat, the bigger they grow and the bigger they grow the tighter their skin gets until it gets too tight and splits open. The skin splits all the way down and underneath is a new skin that is bigger and the old skin is shed.

3. PUPA (Chrysalis) - When the caterpillar reaches its full size, it prepares to turn into a chrysalis or cocoon. Some caterpillars attach themselves to a leaf or twig to form the pupa and certain species spin a cocoon around the pupa. The pupa outer case is hard and it stays still and inactive. But inside, the larva continues changing its body shape into a butterfly or moth. The caterpillar then metamorphosis (change/develop) into butterflies and moths.

4. ADULT (Butterfly/Moth) - The pupa's case finally splits open from which the adult butterfly or moth crawls out into the world. Their body, legs and wings spread out and harden and the butterfly life cycle and the moth life cycle starts all over again. They are ready to find food and to find a mate.