On 2009-07-17, alan.holmes wrote:

Had a look at the sprouts yesterday, and they had caterpillars on them!

How the hell can I stop that?

Two options:
1 - Cover your sprouts with mesh netting as soon as they're outside
so that the pretty butterflies can't get to them to lay eggs on (it's
a bit late for that now though)

2 - Daily inspections of all leaves on the plant. Look on the underside
for clusters of small white/yellow/brown spheres - these are eggs - squash
them! If you squash them, they can't hatch into catterpillars. Any
caterpillars you see, squash them as well!

If you're squeamish about squashing the munching machines - put your
gloves on - oh, and squashing eggs feels less evil than squashing
a full size caterpillar.

I suppose there probably are chemicals and sprays and whatnot - but I
can never be bothered with that.

Oh, and don't worry about the holes in the leaves, brassicas can take
a surprising amount of nibbling before they give up.

-Paul
--
http://paulseward.com