[egg]

I have lost most of my cabbage and cauliflower plants to various types of caterpillars and have tried companion planing and removing them. I dont like spraying but there must be some way to control them, any ideas, please?

[titch]

removing them and not letting the eggs hatch seem to be the only way...............unless someone else has other ideas 

you could net them off, with very fine mesh or debris (scaffold) netting - but will have to remove all the critters first

soemone else will be along in a bit with maybe more ideas

[Yorkie]

Titch is right, at this stage in the season it will have to be handpicking the caterpillars off (they really hide in the crevices) and squashing the eggs.  It will, in all likelihood, be the cabbage white butterfly which will have done the most damage.

Next year, do get some mesh or netting with less than 7mm holes - it's probably a bit late this year, rather like shutting the stable door after the proverbial horse has bolted 
 Ensure that the netting is in place as soon as the plants are outdoors and leave it on all season.  Make sure that it is wide enough to cover the plants and still reach the ground.

[egg]

There seem to be more than cabbage white some small white caterpillars and some green ones. The clumps of eggs I have sorted but there are some single ones around too! I dont remember my Dad having this problem as badly! I will get netting for next year.

[maxie]

There seems to be a lot of cabbage whites about this year.

[viettaclark]

I netted cabbage and kale seedlings with a double thick layer of 5mm mesh and blow me! the lovely white fluttery things had got UNDER and I spent this morning squashing eggs and colonies of various sized caterpillars before I could plant out! Probably missed some so I'm now totally demented, what with blight, carrot fly, slugs, pigeons, mice, slugs, squirrels, slugs and cats.
So listen to the wisdom of Yorkie and make sure all netting touches the ground and is pegged down!!!
Yes, there are more this year, probably because everyone's trying to grow their own so there's lots of food!

[8doubles]

The local wasps are keeping my brassicas clear of caterpillars , loads of eggs but as soon as they hatch they`re gone.
Quite a few parasitic ichneumen (sp?) wasps laying their eggs in them as well. Horrible way to go even for a caterpillar , eaten from the inside out .

[viettaclark]

Amazing how nature sorts out over-populations! I was inundated with blackfly in June....then along came the ladybirds. Haven't seen too many wasps in the garden yet but don't some of the smaller birds eat caterpillars?

[mumofstig]

Birds don't eat whitefly caterpillars as they taste unpleasant,  nature's defence mechanism for them, so even if you pick them off..don't just put them somewhere else as they will find their way back. Not pleasant but you have to squish

[8doubles]

I think the birds will eat the lesser cabbage white caterpillars , the green ones. I will try the next one i find on the chooks , as you say they spit the yellow/black ones out.

[AlotArds]

I wash the leaves with washing up liquid, it seems to work for a while - l also get the hose right into the leaves to wash away anything missed by the finger and thumb.

Mesh next year

[tinlizzy]

My sprouts have been attacked by caterpillars, there are no leaves left, will there be any sprouts or do I pull them up?  The caterpillars have crossed a 4' grass path climbed the house wall and left behind yellowish furry blobs, which look like eggs, but do caterpillars lay eggs, if not what are they? 

[8doubles]

I think the blobs are the parasitic wasp larvae , they break out of the caterpillar and make a cocoon to pupate, not nice but keeps the cabbage white numbers down.

[egg]

I have just checked my veg. and I also have some hairy black caterpillers and some hairy brown ones. Any idea what they are? They seem to be on my lemon balm and sage.

[andreadon]

i went round to the garden o nthe weekend and my entire patch of kale and savoy cabbage had been RAVISHED by caterpillars.  they were everywhere! 
it really did look like the chickens had got to them: the "branches" were completely stripped.

i had to leave them as  they were, because there were too many caterpillars to remove by hand and there wasn't enough veg to be worth salvaging.

i've never seen so many in my life!

(i didn't bother with netting because i was only growing them for the chickens and didn't think there would be so many) i think the patch was too close to the compost heap. (not sure why this would make a difference, but have more cabbage elsewhere with very few caterpillars on)