Friday, May 16, 2014
Pretty butterfly.....
About a month ago, I told my little one that the grasshoppers were eating my cauliflower and broccoli plants. Around the same time I saw a pretty white butterfly hanging around the raised beds. Me a lover of the butterfly was happy to see it. It took about three weeks to realize that there was no flowers for that "butterfly" and it really liked the cauliflower. Oh crap I think it's a cabbage moth!!!! I looked in my garden book and guess what, it was.
I went outside and picked off tons of larvae, worms, and squished eggs. This is what I got the second time I checked the plants. I need a butterfly net to catch this girl. This is the second time I've tried to grow cauliflower but the first time to have moths. So beware sometimes the pretty butterfly is a plant eater!
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The European Cabbage Butterfly will look so pretty just before it's babies destroy your crop. I have found that chickens love to eat the worms when I pick a bunch and throw them into the chicken lot. Too bad I can't trust the chickens to pick them off themselves. I have seen wasps catch them and take them back to the nest after they chew them up good.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your cauliflower.
ReplyDeleteThis will be my first time to actually have a garden. I hope that we are not getting to late of a start. We just haven't had the time to work on our garden space. Now, you are showing be some of the things to watch out for. I'll be checking in to see how your garden grows and to glean from your green thumb and gardening wisdom.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend and happy gardening:)
Your blogging sis,
Connie :)
Wasps will take care of those for you.
ReplyDeleteWe don't kill the wasps around here, except for the ones that get into or nest were they don't belong, because they sting and eat the moths and caterpillars in the garden. It's rather interesting to watch them on the hunt.
I tried catching the cabbage moths with a finch net (it didn't go well), before the wasps took care of things for me.
Kimberly
Oh no! We have problems with cabbage loopers every year....it's a daily chore to pick them off. Good luck with your cauliflower!
ReplyDeleteYep, those darn things are a problem even for us up here near the tundra. I guess they aren't particular where they live. Our "screen cages" over our brassica last year were very helpful. Cabbage and Brussels sprouts had nary a worm, but somehow, someway the butterflies (too nice a name for the buggers) found their way into the broccoli. Is there no justice??
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