I hate you, pretty white butterfly!
Some people think this beautiful white butterfly is a lovely addition to their garden. When I noticed it in my very first winter vegetable garden years ago, I thought, "Oh how wonderful. My garden is so healthy, it's attracting all these fabulous butterflies." When I looked across my garden full of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, turnips, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and a bunch of other things, there seemed to be at least a hundred of them, fluttering merrily above it all. I admired them for a few minutes, then bent over and got back to work. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that their beauty turned deadly. Hundreds of little green caterpillars were everywhere eating everything down to nubbins. Well, not everything. But just about everything.
When I realized that the culprit was this pretty white butterfly, properly called the Cabbage Moth, it was game on. Over the years we have dealt with them by: 1. hand-rubbing out the worms as we hunt them among the veggies, 2. catching them with a butterfly net, 3. slapping them with our bare hands (much to the horror of the occasional child in the garden), 4. covering their favorite delicacies with floating row cover, 5. spraying with organic-approved Bt (bacillus thuringiensis), swatting them with a tennis racket, or 7. ignoring them.
No matter how much I want it to, ignoring them is just not helpful. I don't recommend ignoring them. As Glenn Close said in Fatal Attraction, "I will NOT be ignored!"
Is the Bt effective? Are there any parasitic wasps that you can encourage to come and prey on your caterpillars for you?
Posted by: Nate | August 16, 2008 at 04:29 AM
I just saw this butterfly in my garden on Sunday and I thought the same thing, it's beautiful... but now I will go hunt them down.
It appears that I have solved my rodent problem with some deer cover but now I've noticed some bore holes in my tomatoes. Must be those worms!
Posted by: Cheryl Wolhar | August 18, 2008 at 09:50 AM
I fight the good fight with the cabbage whites too! I've just build a fort knox around my broccoli. You have given me a wonderful idea - I think I will buy a butterfly net and have some fun! I'm sure they wouldn't be hard to catch, and it would give my neighbours something to talk about!
Posted by: Matron | August 18, 2008 at 02:02 PM
Matron: A tennis or badminton raquette really is more effective than the butterfly net. Wack, wack, wack!
Posted by: Love Apple Farm | August 18, 2008 at 05:48 PM
Yes, those cabbage whites can be a severe pest. I've read that they got to Quebec from Europe in the 1800s, and within a hundred years they had spread across the country.
I liked all your methods for controlling them, lol!
Posted by: OsmoJoe | August 23, 2008 at 07:35 AM
that white butterfly has destroyed my cauliflower and all my cabbages. I am gutted
Posted by: sabrina cooper | August 25, 2008 at 11:58 AM
It's hard for me to know which of these moths to squash, but your pictures showed me a lot. Thanks.
Joy
Posted by: Joy Williams | August 29, 2008 at 04:42 AM
I planted lettuce for the first time a few weeks ago. To my horror, I have been seeing one of these guys every few days. Sure enough, my baby lettuces are being chompied to bits! I have become one with BT, but I'd like to stop the problem before it starts. Gotta get to the thrift store and find a raquet...
Posted by: Jenna | November 12, 2008 at 05:15 PM