Little Pest: Cabbage Worms!

[Buff Shallots]

Who else has had Brussell Sprouts ruined by tiny little ugly white worms?! Not only do they eat my sprouts, but their poo falls on the sprouts below the ones they're eating so you can't harvest any at all !! Yuck.

What's the solution? (Don't want to spray pesticides or insecticidal soap on stuff I might eat.)

 

[Reinbeau]

I've got them, but I just wash the pooh off of them - it comes righ toff, or take the outer leaves off. I hate the little buggers. Next season I'm going to try some BT powder and see if they doesn't help.

I think I asked you this before, but I can't remember - where in MA are you located? Down the Cape? I fergtt!

 

[Buff Shallots]

Yes, I'm on Cape.

 

[Reinbeau]

Ah, I'm north of Plymouth, about midway between Plymouth and Boston.

Every Thanksgiving I harvest Brussels Sprouts for my feast, but I have to say, this year it was tough to find enough that hadn't been gnawed on by those buggers

 

[peeps7]

I don't grow brussel sprouts but anything that messes with my garden has got to go.

 

[sgtsheart]

I don't know much about that kind of worm; since I don't grow cabbage and other cool weather veggies. I'm thinking though, can't you just leave out plates of beer and get em drunk so they drown like other slugs/worms?

I'm being totally serious here. It works for slugs.

 

[Buff Shallots]

I had never grown any cabbage type plant in any of my raised beds, and was shocked when I found the plants infested with the tiny caterpillars before I even knew what was going on. The moth's eggs must have been in the soil, or a passing moth laid the eggs under the leaves, or whatever.

Now that I know the eggs, etc. are in the soil and likely to strike again, I just skip growing Br. Sprouts. But that's a shame...

 

[Reinbeau]

sgtsheart no, they're not like slugs, they don't like beer. The best thing to do for them is to keep on top of them with a BT (Bacillus thuringiensis,) spray (that's a biological control, they eat it, gives them a terrible tummy ache, poor things then they die. Die! un)

And Buff, I won't give up. They don't come out of the soil, it's a white moth that lays the eggs, the cabbage moth. Just clean up the old debris and start again next year, being vigilant with the BT spray.

 

[sgtsheart]

sgtsheart no, they're not like slugs, they don't like beer. The best thing to do for them is to keep on top of them with a BT (Bacillus thuringiensis,) spray (that's a biological control, they eat it, gives them a terrible tummy ache, poor things then they die. Die! un)

And Buff, I won't give up. They don't come out of the soil, it's a white moth that lays the eggs, the cabbage moth. Just clean up the old debris and start again next year, being vigilant with the BT spray.

Well, dang....then how 'bout a good margarita?

Sorry, fair warning. I'm feeling well enough tonight to be just a tad bit goofy. :dance