[titch]

i am losing the battle against caterpillars, depite having net, the butterflies get through it!!
I cant afford mesh, nor enough fleece to cover them all, so now will have to resort to some kind of spray.

Have found organic ones on the internet, it says it contains pyretherin (sp?), will this kill bees?  

or can anyone recommend something - i didnt want to spray at all, wanted to be organic, but at this rate will have nothing left -

thanks

[Trillium]

This will sound gross, but it really does work. Hopefully you have a blender (whizzer) of some sort, or can borrow an old one.

Gather  about a dozen of those caterpillars, toss them into the  blender with some water, a few cloves of garlic and a good squirt of dishwashing liquid. Whizz until quite liquified. Strain into a spray bottle and spray. Repeat after each rainfall.

The soap will make the solution stick to the leaves, the garlic is repellant to other pests, and caterpillars will not touch areas that contain dead bodies or parts of their own kind. When I used to kill tomato hornworms, I'd simply snip the bodies in half and leave them to drip. Other hornworms would avoid those areas. Same with caterpillars.

[Knoblauch]

The same can't be said about slugs.  I cut a slug in half and next night another slug was feasting upon its entrails.  Also saw one eating a Weinberg snail that had died after a child caught it in a pan and left it in the sun.

[Trillium]

Slugs are a creature of a peculiar nature. Caterpillars are more predictable.

[titch]

Thanks trillium - it does sound gross, but willing to give it a go.
I dont want to spray, feel we ingest enuogh chemicals without me adding to it.
Better do the blending when the family arent around though!!

[yummy]

I have the same problem on my kale and calabrese now. Arrived to find butterflies had gotten through the netting and were busy laying their eggs on my plants. :twisted:  Just spent a good hour inspecting them and picking off the eggs. Only found 3 live caterpillars though.

I will do it again next weekend. If I find live ones again then I will give your solution a try.

[Rowan]

We were greeted by this today at the plot.



Forgot about mushing them up, will be doing that next time and sprayaing our cabbage with them...

[yummy]

Just had a thought. I can't mush em live. Is that so quick they don't really know about it? Or is there are better way to kill em first before mushing? I don't usually mush live things  :oops:

[SalJ1980]

If you put them in a blender as Trillium suggests, they won't know a thing!

[sclarke624]

The blend them method sounds really good.  So time consuming and back breaking inspecting every leaf.  Calabrese that is enviromeshed not so bad, but didn't do others.

[woodburner]

I've had the blighters flitting all over mine (still in pots  :oops: ) but no sign of eggs or caterpillars  :? Touch wood - dashes out to check again
Any ideas how come?

[titch]

you must be lucky Woodburner, if you find out why they are ignoring yours do let us know  
i have picked up some marigolds, going to plant them in the beds too see if that works.  
Plan next year to grow nasturtiums as a sacrificial plant - and save up for some mesh.

[sclarke624]

I have marigolds with mine didn't make a difference, Looks pretty though.  Another thing with squashing them is that I keep damaging the leaves when doing it.

[titch]

i damaged quite a few leaves when squashing too.

its been raining here for days now - at least that keeps the pesky butterflies away - but me also - cant get out there to check for more pillars