Topic: Cabbage Whites

[tim]

Why, pray, is there no predator for their beastly offspring?

What are all those sparrows & things doing?  For that matter, can't one train them to eat cabbage whitefly? = Tim

[Mrs Ava]

Well I don't know if it was the birds, or just that the caterpillars were ready to cocoon themselves up and then flutter away, but my sprouting brocolli was looking a sorry state, covered in caterpillars, so I oiked back the netting and decided the plants would have to fend for themselves.  In no time the wrigglies are all gone and new undamaged foliage began to grown and not a caterpillar in site!  Today I picked my first 'proper' head of broc which we had with roast chook for dinner and it was devine!

[Multiveg]

I have some sorry looking nasturtiums next to sorry looking bright lights chard :( therefore needed to have a caterpillar squishing session or two.

[Jill]

Garden full of birds: sparrows, blackbirds, starlings and others.  Also full of caterpillars.  Nasturtiums are a mess.  They didn't seem to like PFA foliage tho'.  If you find a bird trainer Tim, can I borrow him after?

[tim]

Maybe I should stop feeding the d....d things in the hope of enlisting their help? = Tim

[Hugh_Jones]

tim, there is, in fact, a cabbage white caterpillar destroyer which, I suppose, can be considered organic in that it is a living bacteria, namely Baccilus thuringiensis, which is simply sprayed onto the plants, the caterpillars then become infected and quickly die.

[tim]

Yes, Hugh - that's the one I use when I'm not so d....d lazy.

But why should I have to do it when we have 'starving' birds?? = Tim

[RSJK]

trouble is with the cost of some of these pesticides and how c##p some of them are and how often you have to use them, they out way the cost of growing them.  Its about time there was some good pesticides on the market again for us gardeners, not many people are going to get into this great and active hobby of ours if they cannot get good returns for their efforts.i think its about time we lobbied are MPs, or climb onto buck palace to protest.

    :(

[teresa]

Down the lottie the other day I was spraying the cabbages and lots of cabbage whites around.
One flew into my face and hovered defiying me  :o ( must have been a male one) so I sprayed him.
Well what a show he put on he flew up and down side to side a good 5 mins I was treated to this show then the B. flew off nothing wrong with him? ???
Beat that how big are their brains?

[tim]

With us, Richard, Dipel works wonders (on the caterpillars, of course) & is organic to boot. When I remember not to  exceed its shelf-life. = Tim

[john_miller]

If Dipel doesn't work wonders then it is generally because it has been applied at the wrong time. Applied just as the generations of caterpillars start feeding I find it 100% effective and only needs to be applied two or three times a season, depending upon how many generations emerge. This hardly makes it cost prohibitive.

[gilgamesh]

There are at least 3 types of "Cabbage" whit, Small White, Large White & Green-veined White. The yello & green striped caterpillars are a no-no for birds - as you would expect, anything that goes out of its way to look conspicuous is bad tasting / poisonous. Since brassicas are all (vaguely) poisonous, those blighters concentrate the distasteful / toxic alkoloids in their bodies, so even a starving bird will turn up its beak at them. The green munchers are, however, quite acceptable to many birdies.

[RSJK]

 ;D ;)l have found out that if you are fast enough run round after them with a brick in each hand and clout the little bu###rs between them.they donot get up after that.

PS the mail ones tend to screm if you catch them in the right place ;D ;D

[tim]

GG - the whole thing is badly arranged? = Tim

[teresa]

I like the idea of the bricks, or how about the small bats with electric shocks you have for flies.
Can see us all dancing around the cabbages batting the whites ha ha
Then the black van comes to take you away

[Mrs Ava]

Oh I have green caterpillars a-plenty.  Problem is, they are camouflaged within the cabbages!  >:(

[trucker_al]

 8) I had two weks hols got back no cabbages worth having but the catterpilars were fat. would have made a nice stew did some one say they were poison. ???