Our brassicas are being shredded by thousands of caterpillars what would be
the best, preferably natural, control to use?

Cheers

Sam

On Sat, 7 Aug 2004 22:22:39 +0100, "Sam" wrote:

Our brassicas are being shredded by thousands of caterpillars what would be
the best, preferably natural, control to use?


Enviromesh/fleece.
Of course, before you enclose the crops you'll need to ensure there
are no remaining caterpillars or eggs.

It's worth spending a bit of time to knock up a frame of some sort, as
you'll need to lift the fleece to tend the crops and pick the slugs
off.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

"Sam" wrote:

Our brassicas are being shredded by thousands of caterpillars what would be
the best, preferably natural, control to use?

BT works well... it's a biological control that kills the cabbage looper
caterpillar. Harmless to humans. Dunno brand names in the U.K., but look
for "bacillus thuregensis." I use the wettable powder form, which is
really the spores of the disease that kills the worms. Coverings work
well, if they're put in before the pretty white moths lay their eggs...


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

"Gary" wrote in message
...
"Sam" wrote:

Our brassicas are being shredded by thousands of caterpillars what would
be
the best, preferably natural, control to use?

BT works well... it's a biological control that kills the cabbage looper
caterpillar. Harmless to humans. Dunno brand names in the U.K., but look
for "bacillus thuregensis." I use the wettable powder form, which is
really the spores of the disease that kills the worms. Coverings work
well, if they're put in before the pretty white moths lay their eggs...



I very much doubt these would be cabbage looper caterpillars, the cabbage
white caterpillars here in the UK arent 'looper' types and they arent moths
they are butterflies.

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

On Sun, 8 Aug 2004 07:35:13 +0100, "Tumbleweed"
wrote:



I very much doubt these would be cabbage looper caterpillars, the cabbage
white caterpillars here in the UK arent 'looper' types and they arent moths
they are butterflies.

Right, but BT works just as well. It is effective against all
lepidopterans afaik.
For the OP, you're too late for covering to work and probably too late
for BT so it's time to deploy the finger and thumb technique. Tedious
and messy but works every time. If you start 'caterpillar patrols'
soon enough you can get the young caterpillars of the large white soon
after the eggs hatch - at that stage they're tiny and all still close
together so your thumb squashes the lot all in one go. That way it's
not a very onerous task and is very effective - we do it one quite a
large scale here.

=================================================

Rod

Weed my email address to reply.
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

"Gary" wrote in message
...
"Sam" wrote:

Our brassicas are being shredded by thousands of caterpillars what
would be
the best, preferably natural, control to use?

BT works well... it's a biological control that kills the cabbage
looper
caterpillar. Harmless to humans. Dunno brand names in the U.K., but
look
for "bacillus thuregensis." I use the wettable powder form, which is
really the spores of the disease that kills the worms. Coverings work
well, if they're put in before the pretty white moths lay their
eggs...


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at
home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

*********
Yup! - BT works very well, - I should know, I worked for them for 38
years and left just as the glass fibre cables were installed and the
big telephone buldings became redundant along with all the Techs and a
small suitcase did it all and they were all fail-safe so lots of profit
was made and the prices lifted yet again so my shares cleared the
remaining mortgage, and I had enough left to get a nice Rover and build
a 8x10 greenhouse.
As far as the Great White Flutterbys are concerned it is my experience
that there is one way and one way only to reach a point where you can
have cabbage on your dinner plate. There is no escape, specially if the
attack is virulent, and that one way is to go out each morning, and, -
lifting every leaf of every cabbage, and grasping each offending green
crawler between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand and squeeze
each little bu---er into two pieces. (Ladies are permitted to use
rubber yellow washing-up gloves, but using swear words is taboo)
A few years ago I passed a big field of caulies and cabbages, and
hovering over them was a massive cloud of millions of White flutterby's,
next day I passed again and all there was left was a field full of green

stumps.
BTW 1, This year the toads and frogs have deserted my pond, - probably
they've fallen foul gradually as time passed and been scoffed at the
crack of dawn by the blackbirds and crows. I noticed that snail and
slog slime was all over my concrete paths.
BTW 2.
Later, :-
I've just been out with a torch and coal shovel and collected 8 big
brown slugs plus 6 snails , all crawling on the wet concrete paths. I
was very kind to them; instead of suffering my big clodhoppers they are
now enjoying the lush weeds and window-height couch grass in the 'N.'s
from Hell's wasteland next door.
Oh! I forgot! - there was one medium sized frog on the path as well, so
they haven't all deserted their domiciliary edifice.
Doug.

In article ,
(Doug.) wrote:

that there is one way
....
green crawler between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand and
squeeze
...
A few years ago I passed a big field of caulies and cabbages, and
hovering over them was a massive cloud of millions of White
flutterby's,
next day I passed again and all there was left was a field full of
green

My experience is this:

- Several times week, patrol plants for eggs which I squash
- Last year, go away fro 9 days - no trouble
- This year, go away for 10 days - devastation

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

In the end I sprayed with Doff brand pyrethrum based spray. Next day all
there seemed to be was dead caterpillars. I expect some have escaped but the
infestation seems to be broken.

Cheers all

Sam