Planting vegetables like cabbages and broccoli usually attracts the cabbage white butterfly. Protect your patch without using sprays with these great ideas.
We have really been getting into the vegetable gardening this summer. It has been great to be able to go and get some fresh carrots or a cucumber from the garden whenever we need them. We have also been enjoying home grown beetroot, garlic and peas.
A few weeks ago I planted some broccoli seeds and was successful in getting two nice healthy plants. I have never grown broccoli before so only having two plants will allow me to get some practice at growing them. I planted them out into the vegie garden a couple of weeks ago but lately I have noticed the leaves were being eaten by cabbage white butterfly larvae.
I knew that brassica plants such as cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts were susceptible to the white butterfly. That had been one reason why my family had avoided growing them in the past!
Actually I can’t believe that I am even trying to grow broccoli! As a kid I HATED it. In fact it was only once I got into my thirties that I started to enjoy eating it! Now we eat a fair bit of it so I thought it would be fun to have a go at growing it.
Since I got into gardening I have enjoyed watching Gardening Australia to see what hints and tips they have. A few months ago I saw a story about an organic farmer called Diana Bickford who was growing vegetables. She was using white plastic butterfly cut-outs to deter the cabbage white butterfly.
This is a fake Cabbage White Butterfly that I made to try and deter the actual butterflies.
As it turns out the cabbage white butterfly is territorial. So having a fake plastic white butterfly near you brassica crops will deter any real white butterflies from laying their eggs on your plants. This was something that I was keen to try with my broccoli plants.
Up till now I have been picking off the green caterpillars as I see them but that is very tedious and once the broccoli gets a flower head they will be harder to find.
So I have just made up some plastic white butterflies and I have them hanging from pieces of wire just above the broccoli plants.
The plastic butterflies were made using a template that I found online (sorry the link is gone now!). I printed out the butterflies and laminated them so that they would survive some summer sun and getting wet.
I prefer to avoid using any chemicals on the caterpillars because most insect sprays will kill off the good insects along with the bad ones. I have also read that there are natural predators like wasps and spiders that might eat the caterpillars.
We have seen a few small wasps working away around our garden so I hope that they help us out by eating a few of the white butterfly caterpillars!
If you are like me and want to avoid sprays; here are some other suggested ways to deter cabbage white butterfly.
Non-Chemical Control of Cabbage White Butterfly
- placing eggshells around plants
- picking off caterpillars
- putting netting over plants
- planting nasturtiums nearby (attracts them away from your crops)
- interesting idea is to sprinkle the damp foliage with household flour so that the caterpillars get clogged up and fall off
If you would like more information on controlling cabbage white butterfly I can recommend the following link:
POD easy edible gardening website: CABBAGE WHITE BUTTERFLIES
I can’t wait to see if the fake butterflies do the trick!
Save
Hi, I'm Kaylene, and I'm a keen gardener,budding baker and wannabe DIYer!
Did the plastic butterflies work ?
Hi Joel
I think they did help to decrease the number of white butterflies visiting my plants but I still had to pick off quite a few caterpillars. I will update this post soon because I actually solved the white butterfly problem by draping some shade cloth over the broccoli (still grew really well). In the end it was the aphids that did the most damage to my harvest and I am still working on how to best combat them!
I use coffee grounds and a weak brew to control them.
After making a pot of coffee run the grounds though again to make a watered down brew. Allow to cool and poor it into an empty spray bottle. Keep the grounds and any future grounds and place under your cabbage plants.
Spray your plants after each rainfall. (I don’t, but it is suggested you do)
Haven’t had any problems with anything getting at my cabbage plants!
Thanks for the tip Daphne, I will give it a try!
Try to use asyrup made of water and pepper and sprinkle the plants…
Thanks for the suggestion Cacio!
I’ve heard that if you plant rosemary or mint near cabages or broccoli plants that they stay away too! Does anyone knows or have tried this before?
I haven’t heard about that idea Angela. I’ll have to give it a try next time I have some broccoli plants growing. I have a pot of mint that I could place next to them!
Cabbage/Tomato moths take over our balcony garden every year. Despite the large rosemary plant in the same pot, they devouring every bit of herb plants they can – including the mint!
Oh they are so annoying aren’t they Heather! I don’t have them eating my herbs though thank goodness!
I know this article is a couple of years old, however, I must say I heard about the fake white butterflies several years ago and tried it last year and this year.
As I understand, the white butterflies come in pairs, so I cut out rough butterfly shapes from the white plastic ice cream lid and hot glued them to some lengths of galvanised wire.. enough so they stick up above your brassicas even at full growth size and put them two per garden bed.
I have watched those butterflies flit down, hover around my garden beds, get to the fake butterflies and then fly away for the last two years. I have had no caterpillars. Proof enough for me.
Now, if I could only control the snails and slugs as easily…
Wow I’ll have to try doing what you did Craig! I have had some hit and miss results with the decoy butterflies. I have mine hanging from some wire by a piece of cotton. That was supposed to simulate the butterflies moving but they do tend to get tangled up a bit. Next time I will try your method, thanks for sharing your success story!