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Mystery brassica pests.
Womble54
Posts: 348
in Fruit & veg
I've got a bed of brassicas growing nicely for a winter crop. Cabbages, red cabbage, sprouting broccoli and kale.
I kept finding big chunks taken out of the outer leaves but had no idea what was doing it.
I've finally caught the culprits red handed. Any suggestions how to keep these pests away?
0
Posts
In the sticks near Peterborough
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Very tricky to eradicate these. You may well be lumbered with them for another 20ish years!
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The cutest pests I've ever seen, Womble
It's nice that they'll grow up knowing that cabbages grow in soil and do not materilise magically on supermarket shelves.
I've turned the pests into friends. I've trained the older one to shoo away the cabbage whites.
Though the lady at nursery asked me why he hates butterflies.
Also, is it safe to eat the little caterpillars if you cook them? I've been picking the cavolo nero and some leaves had a couple of little caterpillars on them. I picked them off but worried I may have missed some. If it was just for me I wouldn't worry but now I've got little people to cook for I should probably be more careful.
I'm sure I've eaten a few caterpillars in my lifetime and I'm still here.
If there are a lot of insects/ caterpillars etc on your cabbage leaves just soak them in salted water for ten minutes and then rinse. The salt will kill them and they will lose their grip and float off.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.