Cabbage White Caterpillars!!

I have got these little so and so's (Cabbage White Caterpillars) crawling all over my cabbages stuffing their slimy little green faces with my cabbage!! I think theyâ??ve also have ago at my lettuce but donâ??t know if theyâ??d touch lettuce?

What can I do to get rid of them without poisoning my guinea pigs in the process (as the cabbage is being grown for the pigs)?

Is there a spray of some sort to use that will stop them but still leave the cabbage safe for my piggies?

 

Just pick them off... and feed them to the birds!

 

Check under the leaves for clumps of eggs (usually white or yellow I think). They are easy to rub off at that stage, and less yucky that squishing caterpillars (plus they haven't had time to do damage at that stage!)

Netting them is best for stopping future foraging raids

 

In my experience the birds avoid them. Are they toxic?

 

argh i feared i might have to pick them off, i picked nearly 20 off the other day and that was just before i got bored! lol

 

I have had two of them whites paying attention to my brocolli
One has been despatched, but I still managed to find some eggs on the underside of the leaves.
For anybody not sure this is what they look like.
I reckon theres about 50 there!

 

Thanks John
It sure makes them look a lot larger then they actully are

 

we're having this trouble, too. despite the kids best efforts to catch as many white butterflies and feed them to the chickens as possible. 40 was the highest cuont we got. in about an hour.

the chickens dont seem fond of the caterpillars so i think i'll feed them to our fish :hehe: unless theyre distasteful/poisonous?

 

I drown the caterpillars in a bucket of water then chuck them on the compost heap, after all they're 99% cabbage!

 

good point/idea!