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Caterpillars

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john1066 | 16:08 Wed 27th Apr 2011 | Gardening
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Is there a spray I can use to prevent Cabbage White butterflies from attacking my brassicas. Netting is the obvious answer, but is there a spray?
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My neighbour just waits then picks the caterpillars off by hand - as most are under the leaves, sprays might not reach them.
I pick of the eggs as soon as they appear (small whitish/yellow clusters), they squash very easily, and if done every couple of days not caterpillars at all.

If you use a pesticide, you risk killing helpful bugs, such as bumblebees, hoverflys, ladybirds etc, so please dont :)
Never use pesticides on food.
Caterpillars have a waxy protection which stops nearly everything you ca spray on them. I do as has been mentioned before and pick off caterpillars and eggs and this reduces damage to a bearable minimum.
I have had some good results with a spray of my own making - water, a little washing up liquid and a good squirt of garlic puree. It also killed the caterpillars if they got a chance to hatch.
An book of old garden tips suggests making a solution of sour milk and a little lemon juice (lemon juice in milk would probably sour it anyway!) and spoon it into the centre of each cabbage once a week.
So that will be my chosen method this year.... Ultimately, some kind of netting to keep the blighters off the brassicas in the first place is the best strategy.
If you can add some nicotine to rabbitsgirl solution - will make it more active if you want to use a home brew method

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Caterpillars

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