Caterpillars

[john1066]

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?

[boxtops]

My neighbour just waits then picks the caterpillars off by hand - as most are under the leaves, sprays might not reach them.

[Chaffinch]

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 :)

[carlton23]

Never use pesticides on food.

[johnk]

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.

[rabbitygirl]

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.

[TonyV]

If you can add some nicotine to rabbitsgirl solution - will make it more active if you want to use a home brew method