Bug Problems

Hi I thought all my fruit and veg was doing well until I discovered quite a few bugs. I have found tiny white caterpillar and eggs on my cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli, white fly in my lettuce, white and green fly in my tomatoes and strawberries. I rinsed the strawberries and tomatoes with soapy solution and removed all infected brassica leaves of caterpillar and eggs by hand but I want to stop things returning. I bought bug clear ultra spray but after reading the label it says only for use on edible plants listed (and this list does not contain cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli or strawberries). Does anyone know if it is safe to use on them or recommend a different type for those fruit and veg not listed? I have attached photos of the bottle.....

Thank you!

 

A cheap and easy way to protect your smaller plants would be to cover with fleece. If you want to lay out a bit more cash then cloches made from Enviromesh will keep bugs out.

 

Thanks Dave, I think I need to do something like that as I've sprayed the plants but the white butterflies are still landing on them. They were repelled for a few days but they are back again. The cabbages etc are pretty big though so I think I'll need quite a bit of fleece/mesh and a good support structure

 

You could support low cloches covered with fleece with small bore plastic water pipe. Larger cloches would require something more substantial; I use old garden hose with thick fence wire inside supported by lengths of alloy tube. You can also use the plastic covered metal "canes" available in B&Q to support the hoops.

Enviromesh covering my maincrop carrots, cabbages and sprouts. The fleece up the sides of the peas was to keep the sparrows from nibbling and keep the wind off. (Early June).

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Fleece 'cloche' covering a small row of carrots, spinach, and summer cabbage.​

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Hi I looked up the enviromesh, it's quite expensive but hopefully could be used year on year so that wouldn't be so bad. Thanks for the photos, I think I have enough to make supports, just need the mesh. Are you able to water through it or do you have to take it off? Also does it affect the amount of sunlight/growth ?

 

It is expensive Autumn but it lasts for years. Mine is now about 7 years old and still in perfect condition. Yes, you can water through it, and the affect on sunlight does not seem to have any significant affect on growth . It does though have the advantage of reducing the wind chill in Spring-early Summer.
I reckon that my initial outlay has save me hours of time de-bugging and a good few ££ on bug sprays.

 

Well that settles it. I will get some as it sounds like it will be a lot less hassle and less expensive in the long run as I have spent £10 on bug sprays with no deterrent for that white butterfly! Thanks for all your advice. I'm maybe a bit late this year and damage has already been done but...you live, you learn and next year will be better :-)