iGrowVeg

Holey Cabbage

Posted on 07. Oct, 2007 by Tracey in My Veg Plot, Pests

This week I have mostly been squishing green caterpillars and whitefly from my cabbage leaves.
I have to say it isn’t a pleasant or enjoyable job, but if I want winter cabbage leaves I have to do it before the pests obliterate all of my seedlings.

Tiny Green Caterpillars

I have a holey cabbage problem in plot 2 where most of my seedlings have holes in their leaves. These have been left by tiny green caterpillars which hatched from larvae from the cabbage white butterfly.

I thought I had escaped the actually butterflies landing on my cabbages in the summer by putting the enviromesh over the plot. However I didn’t read up about the larvae and caterpillars which appear up until late October, so some must have got underneath the netting and spread.

Cabbage White fly

I also have white fly on the underside of my cabbage leaves. This is identifiable from the white trails on the leaf which is actually their larvae (see bottom leaf on picture below) and they leave behind misshapen leaves.

Whitefly Trails on cabbage leaf

Pest Control

I am monitoring the plot daily and I run my fingers up and down the cabbage leaves squishing any white fly and caterpillars I find or that drop off the leaves.