Sprouts & Caterpillars

I know that this subject has been covered a few times, but I just wanted some of your thoughts as to whether I'm wasting my time or whether I have a chance:-

It is my first year of growing and although I made sure my sprouts were netted from the start, I did not realise the 7mm rule  The butterflies have managed to get through and I now have lots of caterpillars.

I'm squishing them daily at the moment and each evening when I get home from work there are more! They've had a real go at the leaves, but I'm trying to convinvce myself that by getting rid of them daily, I'll manage to keep it under control so that I can harvest some sprouts (which are forming nicely at the moment).

Am I fighting a losing battle or do I have a chance? Will the numbers start to slow down as we head into September?

Thanks Sunshineband - that's very encouraging.

I have both types of caterpillars. I've been rubbing off the eggs as I see them and finding the yellow and black caterpillars is a lot easier than finding the bright green ones which are very hard to see on the top young leaves of the sprouts!

I will go home this evening with a determined spring in my step to squish the little * 

I am in exactly the same position as you and I am now checking all of my brassicas daily.  The 10mm net didn't work for me unfortunately so that is another lesson learned for next year.  I started squishing them but now I carry around a bucket with a small amount of water in it and drop them into there.  Not as yucky as squishing and they appear to die as soon as they hit the water.

same here with cabbage,,hundreds ,,i used bugclear,,next day nothing , no sign of a catterpiller since