Cabbage White Caterpillars

I didn't know whether to put this in the wildlife section or the pests section, so I put it general instead

My broccoli (calabrese) plants are covered in cabbage white caterpillars. They are of course eating the plants alive.

Here's the thing though, I can't decide whether to terminate them or leave them be.

My broccolis are about done anyway. We've had some off them before the caterpillars came, and in my experience, although you can sometimes get a second or third cut, as the summer progresses the heads become smaller and horrible anyway.

I like butterflies. They are very welcome in our garden. I presume they also appear somewhere in the food chain.

Some would declare them the enemy though.

So on balance, I can't decide. Should I kill them off? I sort of don't want to though.

My older son (4) picks them up. Some caterpillars are quite toxic. Is this a reason to get rid of them?

I honestly can't decide what to do. What says you all?

 

Any caterpillar you leave this year will result in dozens of butterflies and subsequent caterpillars next year. I would humanly despatch them.

Cheers, Tony.

 

I feed the ones in my garden to the birdees!

 

I'd leave them.

Butterflies have taken a real hit in the past 50 years, nice to see them having a good time this year at last.

 

My garden is full of cabbage whites and tortoiseshells, guess the Buddleia is finally kicking in! But the birds are loving the increase in food, and they give my cat more exercise

 

I'm with Zigs.....I'd leave them. My garden is also full of them.

 

I like Butterflies too. They are welcome in my garden too.

But I have enough Cabbage Whites. I presume the ones on your Calabrese can't be anything else? If so I see no point encouraging them as I have plenty of those already. I'd feed the catterpillars to the chickens (well, actually, I net my Brassicas so the Cabbage Whites would have to find a different host here)

 

I leave caterpillars . There are enough plant in my garden to let them have a little munch ( Now Thrips see my post are another matter!! ). Lots of cabbage whites and a few tortoiseshells this year . If it is a choice between Butterflys and Broccoli , I'll go for the former .

 

I'm really feeling your pain Clueless. I'm squishing them left right and centre in the greenhouse at the moment and I feel awful. The problem is, this is my first proper year of gardening and it's not gone brilliantly well on the veg front. The kale is pretty much all I've got left! I guess in the future I could not grow green leafy veg but it's my absolute favourite food. Next year I'll try harder to keep the butterflies off them but it is a real challenge. For now I'm going to keep squishing them but trying to make up for it by encouraging them elsewhere.

 

I don't bother with much Cabbagy stuff in the summer, not much point in having a huge plant taking up half the plot when you can get a cabbage from Tesco for £1.

Don't mind PSB over winter when the butterflys have gone.

Grew summer broccoli on the allotment when I was still living at home, Mum cooked it without washing it, was just about to eat it when I noticed all the green cooked caterpillars still wrapped round the florets

Mum loved her portion though

 

Have you got brassicas in the greenhouse Lindsay? (Just seems a bit warm for them)

In case you've not heard of it using scaffolders debris netting to keep the butterflies off is a cheap & cheerful option

Either a tunnel like I do
http://kgarden.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/brassica-netting-against-cabbage-white-butterfly/

or something posher
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/brassica-cage.52510/

 

Thanks for the opinions all. I've pondered it greatly, and have come to a decision.

The caterpillars, and the broccoli plants they are munching, can stay put. They're not in the way, and the realistically I wasn't going to get much broccoli off there now anyway, as its trying to go to seed. I could rip out the unsightly broc, but there's nothing currently waiting for a space so no point. Brocolli flowers are actually really pretty, and I found last year and beginning of this year that they are popular with the bees too, and all the while they are in there they are sending out roots which, after the plant is dead, will contribute to the soil structure, so there's more reasons to do nothing than to take action.

 

They're on the move. Anyone got any ideas why? Quite a few have vacated the broccoli and are migrating across the patio, up walls, and everywhere.

What are they doing?

 

They'll be off to pupate.

 

looking for somewhere to turn into chrysalis perhaps ? They are probably good and fat and ready to transform, but Im certainly no expert, for all I know they could all be starting a game of hide and seek

look for one with its hands over its eyes saying 97 ... 98 ...99...