Cabbage and Lettuce attacks

[frederick]

Hi all... I am having problems with large holes appearing in all my greens (including the colliflower leaves)... on examination I found quite a few catapillars (green) but not enough to do the damage that has been done. I assume the catapillars are from the cabbige white butterfly so I have place netting over and around. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can spray with to deter the invaders. On a silent night uou can almost hear them chewing !!

Herlp very much appreciated.... Frederick

[paulsherwin]

We're at the height of the cabbage white butterfly season at the moment and they seem to be really, really bad this year. The standard advice is to remove any caterpillars daily, but they can eat an amazing amount of leaf in only a few hours. I suppose you really need to use netting from June onwards.

It usually helps to grow some nasturtiums which they prefer, but things are so bad this year that the caterpillars have eaten most of my calabrese as well as the nasturtium leaves.

Your lettuce damage is most likely to have been caused by birds.

Paul