I use 1cmx1cm garden mesh to keep off both pigeons and cabbage whites
but still lets the slimmer bees in. Mostly works a treat (though you
still get the occasional Houdini butterfly inside the netting if you
don't peg it down really securely!). The fruit mesh tends to be too
coarse and they can easily get through.
jane

I'd like to second this option! On my previous veg plot back in the midlands
we seldom got a cabbage without it being completely full of green
caterpillars, often boring right to the heart of the plants. The
cauliflowers and broccoli were too disgusting to eat with lots of the little
blighters and their silky threads completely filling every nook and cranny.
The following year we used some one cm mesh and it worked a dream, simply
draped over the top of the patch and pegged down with tent hooks and rocks.
We had to slacken off the net periodically as the plants grew but at least
we got to eat the produce!
Unfortunately, since moving to our new massive garden here in Normandy, I've
been too busy and never got around to putting the netting over the cabbage,
and the cabbage whites are having fun decimating the entire crop! I'll
remember next year!
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/