[plum crumble]

Yes, and I have been driven to it by the Cabbage White butterfly.......grrrrrrrrrrrr. Have just spent 4 hours on the Lottie, smashing caterpillers off my poor stripped brussels, then cutting in half any remaining ones with scissors. I can't begin to describe the grim pleasure as I watched their green innards oozing out!.  . I am going back this evening to finish off any others that have emerged to check where their mates have got to. GRRRRRRRR. And the morning started so well - I made 15 jars of plum jam........
A QUESTION: will my sprouts still grow without much foliage left on the plants???

[Cazzy]

Oh I hope so, the leaves on mine are the same, they'd put a good swiss cheese to shame.

I'm gonna give your scissor method a go, I have issues with squishing even with gloves on.

[veggirl]

I can't bear squishing caterpillars, but they fly really well into the next field!

[DD.]

Where they will turn into butterflies & fly back!

[pushrod]

The foliage will probably grow back on the sprouts.

[SnooziSuzi]

I just picked mine off and chucked them onto the weed control matting for the birds to get at.  I just kept on top of brushing the eggs off, squishing the tiny ones and chucking the bigguns none have come back yet.

True that they might come back next year but I'll just do the same again.

werks for me!

[DD.]

Mine's under debris netting.

I've have to do nothing.

[plum crumble]

yeah - I have just taken delivery of some debris netting! Have learnt about that a little late for this crop, but will be ok I hope for my spring cabbages which I am about to plant out.  I am not sure I have ever seen such a bad caterpillar problem. Probably I was feeling too smug about beating the pigeons - but my original netting still allowed the little cabbage white bu***rs in!  Thanks for responding everyone!! Now, where's that wine glass...

[DD.]

You won't regret it.

Apart from keeping pigeons & butterfly off, it also seems to provide a bit of shading that brassicas like.

[scabs]

I didn't net my brassicas at all and guess what... they look like net curtains! No excuses, as an optimistic newbie, I thought I'd 'probably get away with it'. 

Note to self. NETTING!

That said, the hearts of my cabbages are fine and delicious and I have some rather nice caulis forming, so the cabbage whites, slugs and pigeons didn't get everything! 

[Mike.white]

Is it just me or is it worse this year for caterpillars??

[scabs]

There was a mass (and I mean hundreds) of the most beautiful caterpillers I've ever seen on my plot a few weeks back, they were yellow and black striped and munching down on a big patch of weeds. In a moment of madness I decided to leave them be - thankfully, they didn't migrate to my nearby soft fruit patch.

I looked them up and they were the caterpiller of the Cinnabar Moth.

They feed on ragwort (poisonous) and, no surprise here, are distasteful to predators...

Can we consider this particular caterpiller the gardener's friend, then?

[maxie]

Heres a word of warning for anyone leaving these to the birds,they dont like them,even next doors chickens wont eat them.
Get em squashed,they dont half stink mind 

[hightide]

Not sure about the debris netting, okay for pigeons and cabbage whites, but I think the experts are right - 7mm netting!
I lost half a row of cauliflowers to aphids, the debris netting kept out the ladybirds and the hoverflies, the few ladybirds under the net just couldn't keep up.

[peterjf]

free invite to my plot to all nasty catterpillar haters lol