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Cabbage White Netting
Rainwater Fanatic
Posts: 60
in Fruit & veg
I have quite a large patch of brassicas which I thought I had secured inside butterfly proof netting. Unfortunately, I have clearly got some gaps that the little blighters have found and yesterday I had about half a dozen cabbage whites INSIDE the netting, trying to get OUT. Hmmm!
My question is whether now to just go ahead and remove the netting altogether which means the birds will be able to get in and hopefully deal with some caterpillars, or whether that will just result in absolute caterpillar carnage?
Most of the cabbages etc are looking big and healthy and so I am assuming will be able to withstand a bit of caterpillar/pigeon damage, but have never really grown brassicas before and so am not quite sure what to expect.
Any advice?
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I wouldn't remove the net, I would replace it with the very fine mesh, the type they put round scaffolding, this is the perfect time for caterpillars to completely strip your cabbages, not to mention the droppings they do on them.
I bought some from Amazon, not expensive but I think the scaffolding stuff could be even cheaper.
Before you re-net them check for eggs, they are bright yellow and on the underside of leaves.
Thanks Lynn, I have already bought some of this for use as a windbreak. I know it is good stuff. The problem is that the existing 'leaky' cage is about 25ft square and so is going to be pretty expensive.
Next year I will grow in smaller, more manageable blocks where I can hopefully track down any gaps more successfully.
The real problem for this year is that my defences have already been breached and so even replacing the netting still leaves me with the same problem. I already have an unknown number of caterpillars that have been laid on the patch, and know that if I leave/replace the netting then I have no chance of getting a helping hand from the birds. If I take it off, I am hoping that the birds may keep the caterpillar invasion under control. Perhaps this is too optimistic?
Yes. too optimistic
The first time I used netting which was sold as butterfly netting the butterflies were able to squeeze through the holes (I watched them do it so I know that's how they were getting in). I now use a smaller mesh which mostly works ok although I've seen butterflies laying eggs on leaves that are touching the netting so my cages probably aren't big enough.
My tactic is the old fashioned one to loosely net against pigeon and deer attack but to manually check for eggs and caterpillars at least once every four days, so far so good I have been finding and destroying large whites eggs but some small white caterpillars have managed to get through but have been destroyed before doing too much damage. This is becoming a bit of a pain as it takes roughly an hour each time but it saves on netting and canes with the possibility that some may get through the netting anyhow and go unnoticed. I also tried spraying the leaves with soapy water but I’m not sure how much effect this has had apart from getting rid of whitefly which can get out of hand although do little damage. I also give the brassica a good soaking once a week with water containing nettle tea and I suspect that apart from the nitrogen boost to the plants also hides the smell of the brassicas from the butterflies.
Thanks to all for the advice. I was really hoping to avoid this, but there doesn't seem to be any easy options here. it looks like some renetting is in order.
It could be too late now as the eggs will have been laid I checked my brassicas yesterday and again today and there were loads of small whites caterpillars that I had somehow missed there today.
7mm mesh size is the maximum RF - holes any larger and the whites will get through! You also need to keep the netting away from the leaves or they just lay their eggs through it.