Hi, my name is: Cabbage White Butterfly
Describe yourself: I am quite a striking white butterfly, with two lovely grey/black spots on my wings. I’m probably the most common butterfly in your home garden. In my youthful (but destructive) days, I am a silky, blue-green colour… very attractive, if I say so myself!
Hobbies: I love laying eggs all over your plants and watching my beautiful larvae destroy your garden!
Likes: Cabbages, broccoli, brussel sprouts, chinese cabbages, cauliflower, celery, beetroot, rocket and watercress.
Dislikes: Really smelly herbs, like dill, sage and coriander. I can’t stand other Cabbage White Butterflies on my turf! My larvae hate birds, being handpicked off plants, Assassin Bugs, Green Mantids, Paper Wasps, Lacewings and Ladybirds. I hate insecticidal soaps (like home made chilli soap), or store bought stuff (check out the SGA info page for some low environmental impact ones). I can’t stand Bacillius thuringiensis bacteria… this stuff makes me sick!
You’ll know you’ve met me when: My larvae munch through the leaves of your favourite cabbage (and related) plants. They leave massive holes in the outer leaves, and heaps of delightful green poo around the place!
Old School Control Methods: Mavrik, Baythroid, Malathion, Lebaycid, Carbaryl
If you want to dump me, you could try to:
- Spray your plants’ leaves with water and knock me and my mates right off our perch!
- Pay your neighbours kids to come round and wipe me off with a stick!
- Collect me in a bucket and feed me to the chooks!
- Encourage or release some of my well known enemies like Assasin Bugs, Lady Birds and Lacewings.
- Release some Bacillius thuringiensis bacteria to kill me and all members of my family. (It hurts no others!) You can buy this pre-packaged in your local nursery
- Cover your edible crops with fine mesh or similar. Then my beautiful mum can’t land and lay her eggs.
- Scatter eggshells around the garden… I get confused and lay my eggs on them!
- Cut up some old with plastic bags, and tie small “bow ties” to the top of thin bamboo stakes. A few of these around the garden look just like Cabbage White Butterflies, and will scare us off!
- Plant smelly herbs to confuse me such as sage, dill and coriander.
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Cabbage White Butterfly caterpillar having lunch. |
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Typical damage by Cabbage White Butterfly larvae (caterpillar) on a member of the Brassicaceae family. |
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Beneficial insects, like this green mantis, love to munch on Cabbage White Butterflies (both young and adults) |
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Assume the position! Cabbage White Butterfly caterpillars are often found hanging out on the veins of affected plants. |
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The Cabbage White Butterfly in its attractive (and less destructive) adult form. |
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Hi, I’ve been winning the race with the cabbage whites with 3 methods.
1. White bird nets, dont’use the cheap black nets as some cabbage moths will get through.
2 When I run out of nets I use Hand picking. I usually remove the tiny yellow or white eggs off before they hatch. If you wait for the grubs the damage is already done!
3. Spray with Bacillius thuringiensis or home maid chilly spray. At the moment I’m reluctant to spray as I have some lovely little tree frogs & ladyburds in my garden and I reckon they would hat it.
Cheers Russell.
PS a couple of years ago I bought some good quality bird net with heavy duty thread and slightly smaller holes. That net is awesome but I cant remember where I bought it. Any ideas on a good source of tougher bird net?
An idea for the home handyman: My husband built me a cage from recycled wood and covered it with chicken wire. It covers the space a punnet of 6-8 broccoli plants or cabbages need for planting. In autumn/winter it keeps the cabbage white butterfly at bay and in summer it doubles up as a container for organic garden waste which is mulched and put back on the vegie patch in autumn.
hey
after reading your article, I am trying ‘perfume’ warfare. I have hung posies of lavender around my brassica patch, layered fresh lavender leaves as mulch, but by far, the smelliest weapon is the bag that my coffee beans came in is just hanging in the garden. So far, no moths have come back to the patch…
An older gardener once gave me this tip:
Take a half eggshell and paint two black dots as eyes on it. Place on a stick and poke in the ground among your brocolli.
Passing white butterfly will think the space is invaded with a predator and will move on elsewhere to lay its eggs.
I am a member of San Remo Community Garden,,& i think all cabbage whites are coming here for the easter break.
I have been tearing up leaves of Basil ,& placing around my brassicas,& so far this seems to be working.
I tried hanging up plastic cutout butterflies, a little effective, however curry plant seems to be working. Have since taken cuttings of more to plant out further.