ChrisA
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Location: South Dakota

Help! Green caterpillars eating my Cabbage/Broccoli plants!

I just found the culprits that have been eating my Broccoli and Cabbage plants.

These little buggers...
Image

I bought Ortho Max Flower, Fruit & Vegetable Insect Killer and have sprayed them twice so far. I wonder if there is anything else I can do, or how long this spray takes in order to stop them.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

That is a cabbage butterfly caterpillar. The butterfly comes in the daytime, usually they are more active in the morning. They are white with a black spot on the wings. Bt will usually control them. you can also use bug netting over hoops but you need to make sure the seal is tight to exclude them.

ChrisA
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Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 2:07 pm
Location: South Dakota

What is BT? Do you think the Ortho stuff will work on these guys? If so, how much should I spray and how long before I should see a drop in the population?

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Rainbowgardener put together a very informative thread that addresses some important information. Here's the link and an excerpt from intro to the pertinent section for your product.

Subject: Please read before you spray poisons! INFO
rainbowgardener wrote:Imidaclopid & other neonicotinoids

Product names: Bayer Advanced products including 2-In-1 Insect Control Plus Fertilizer Plant Spikes, 2-In-1 Systemic Rose & Flower Care, 3-In-1 Insect, Disease & Mite Control (Ready-to-Spray), 12 Month Tree & Shrub Protect & Feed (Concentrate) and many others. Aloft, Arena, Criterion, Fertil-lome, Lesco, Mallet, Marathon, Meridian, Ortho® Flower, Fruit & Vegetable Insect Killer, Safari, Surrender, Transtect, Xytect, and many others.

ChrisA
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Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 2:07 pm
Location: South Dakota

Thats a lot of info. I am spraying it on 9 plants in a fenced in garden out in the middle of BFE South Dakota.

I have to get rid of these things otherwise they're going to destroy my plants that were, up till just recently, doing great!

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

For that number of plants, depending on level of infestation, I've only needed to examine and hand pick the caterpillars and rub off the eggs with cabbages and kales. It gets harder once the older caterpillars manage to get inside the heads.

With broccoli, it's harder once the broccoli heads form because the caterpillars get inside the branches where it's impossible to get at them.

Bt is an effective bacteria specific to butterfly and moth caterpillars that infect them in the gut and kills them.

Overall, I prefer to exclude them from the outset by growing them inside a screen enclosure/cover. I posted some photos in this thread:
Subject: Yay! Got some planting done! :)

This thread might be of interest for future reference.
Subject: Cabbage/broccoli/cauliflower planting plan: a theory
I definitely think leaving parsley to overwinter in the garden and allowing them to flower next year is tremendously helpful. This year, some of the russet mite infested tomato starts are recovering after I put them under the blooming parsley canopy.



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