David Hare-Scott wrote:
songbird wrote:

....
as i've not really cared much about the
white butterflies before to pay attention to
their life cycle i figured i could ask the
experts here about them.

i'm assuming that as long as they are
flying around they are capable of laying
eggs. so the quest of picking worms off
will likely be until i stop seeing them
flying around.

Yes

i may take a butterfly net with me as
sometimes i can get fairly close enough
to the butterflies.


as to specific questions, do they ever
give up? or can they have more than one
generation per season?


No they never give up except when it is too cold, yes they can have many
generations per season depending on how long your warm season is.

i'm not seeing any reference which says that
they will cocoon and hatch out again more than
once a season. i do see references which say
that they lay eggs all season and are fairly
cold hardy.


the cabbage is getting a more compact
inner set of leaves now, do the worms keep
burrowing in or will the plant be able to
form a head anyways if i ignore them? it
looks like it can be hard to get all the
worms off of those inner leaves without
breaking them off.


The worms will only attack the outside but still will cause quite a bit of
waste.

that's ok. we just want organic/non-sprayed
cabbage. if they have to cut around damage
during processing that is fairly normal anyways.


when the worms are done where do they
hibernate/pupate?


Where you can't find them.

hehe. probably some of them, but if they
don't crawl far before spinning there's not
much place for them to go in this particular
patch. if they will use the underside of rocks
then i can likely find some of them (and the
raccoons will find some of them too).


i had a nice handful of them today and
put them in soapy water to drown them. poor
guys.

yes, i know i can google all of this, but
it's fun to also be able to talk to people
about their experiences.

as for control, hand picking seems to be the
only option as i don't spray anything other
than water on the plants. if there are other
ways of controlling them (bugs to encourage
other than praying mantis or birds that will
eat them or the butterflies, etc.) i'll be
interested in hearing your experiences with
what you've attempted and what's worked the
best.


By far the simplest solution if you don't want to spray is netting. Use
polymer netting that is used on fruit trees, the mesh is about 2cm (1in) and
the butterflies cannot get through. No butterlfies means no eggs, no eggs
no grubs. Youy can make hoops out of polypipe to stand the net off the
cabbage. The same applies to any brassica that the cabbage butterfly eats.

if i can protect the heads using old stockings
that would be much more preferable (less material
used and less fuss and bother overall). just
not experienced enough with cabbage yet to know
how they work/grow/habit, etc.

my mistake was ignoring the plants to begin
with, they looked good from a distance and i
didn't need to water them for quite some time.
with the white butterflies floating around i
should have kept a closer eye on them.

as they say, yet another growth experience...
next batch will get a daily inspection now that
i see what the worms can do.

thanks,


songbird