| I really do not know how the pests find our garden and yet they do. Today I was on my way out to plant some chard when I saw a pretty white butterfly fluttering around our brassica plants. And I remembered a very memorable line in a book on pests I've been reading: If you see a white butterfly near your cabbage plants, admire its beauty for a moment and then kill it. So I did.
Cabbage butterflies are easy to spot. They are white butterflies with two dark spots on their wings. It's not the butterfly that's the problem - it's their larvae, the imported cabbage worm. These are green caterpillars that hang out on the underside of brassica family plants, feeding on and damaging the plant leaves. Then they chew their way into the cabbage heads.
Parasitic wasps will prey on imported cabbage worms, but I don't know that we have any parasitic wasps in our garden and I'd rather not assume that we do. You can buy some but I don't plan to at this point. For now, I made a pepper garlic spray and sprayed it on the plants (including the undersides of the leaves). To do this, blend 1 qt water with 2-6 cloves of garlic and 1-2 tsp of cayenne pepper. Let your mixture soak overnight if you have time. The strain it through a cheesecloth, put it into a spray bottle, and spray your plants. Re-apply about once a week or as frequently as every 3 days. You can also check the undersides of the plant leaves for the caterpillars and remove them by hand. This is easiest if you plant purple cabbage (which I did) because the caterpillars are bright green.
While I do not like having these pests around, I am glad that I've been able to spot and recognize them so far. Pests are much easier to deal with when you actually know which pest you're dealing with. |
