for the longest time I was watching this Madam Batterfly the American Pie fly high in the sky but lately she's been making a mess in my garden...My Garden!

I said..."Bitch, what have I done to you?"

...yes I am angry.

every morning for a month now, i have been gathering those nasty soft, wiggly things she has been depositing on my Dinosaur Kales, Mints, Tomatoes, Artichokes and I even found one on my Fig leaves...Figs, you want to eat my FIGS? >:x



I crashed these suckers every morning and I enjoyed them, because they did harm my eatable garden...you eat my food I kill yu.

And you ate my food..........
     

But they kept coming back stronger and more of 'em...
I started to think harder...had to find the sours. 
...And I found the sours. I saw her coming every morning on the dot. Punctual...She must have been English, now that I think of her...with a smile.
So, this morning I was drinking my coffee, as usual and waiting for Madam Butterfly.
And there she was... at exactly 10:30 AM... flapping her beautiful white wings with a single black dot "...come on..Come closer...sit on the D Kales...I dare you..." closer she started to fly and , sure enough, launches herself on my food...

BAM! My hands met each other in the air over my Dinosaur Kales. One slap and she was in between my 10 brothers!
"There, die Bitch!"
It was all over.

 

Buh Bye Miss American Pie.. ( so goes the song...) hehe.

Enjoy!

Aaron

I've been having the same cabbage worm problem. Now the Jap beetles are chewing the grapes and the Kiwi leaves to pieces. What to do?

I am not sure... maybe some one with a good experience can help  ;/
One thing for sure... I am NOT using pesticides.

BT unless you are too proud to bow to it.  It will solve your problemas!

Suzi

I'm not poisoning my children
... I rather get rid of the DKale and boring Artichoke than poison my eatable garden

Suzi is right about BT however it may not save your plants this late in the game.  It is more effective if used right at the start.  I suggest going to Johnny's select seed (use commercial if you have a lot of stuff) and ordering Remay fabric for row covers.  It creates a physical barrier between your plants and the bugs.  I used it for all my cabbage, kale, broccoli ect.  I use it at the start of the season for egg plant to give it a head start.  I heard there has been some good results with clay powder which I think Johnny's also sells but I don't remembers what all it's been used on and tried on.  The clay was kaolin or something like that.  It was a while ago that I looked into it.  Any rate I had pretty nice veggies using those methods but once in a while I still had to hand pick worms and then my chameleons got treats.

I tried one of those pheromone traps for Japanese beetles and it lured them in from miles around. I got more beetles every year while I was using it. I finally started brushing them off into a dish of water then letting the chickens bob for beetles. Doing that and every year I had less, it got to where I hardly saw any. These days I don't have chickens so I put soap in the water and it drowns them quicker. You need to walk around once a day and check their favorite plants. Morning or evening is best, in the heat of the day they are more likely to fly up and away. Put the dish under the leaves they are on and gently brush your other hand over them. they'll tuck in and drop, planning to burrow out of sight in the mulch, or fly just before they hit the ground. Once in the water they can't fly out.

The most benificial thing that can be applied to a plant is the gardeners shadow. You should be checking things out every day anyway, just take a bowl of water around with you when you do and your Japanese beetle problem will go away without the use of any toxic chemicals.

well, the core of the D Kales are still alive and kicking.. i'll have new leaves in a week probably, but how do I keep them is the question
Mint grows back fast too...

I assume you know that BT (bacillus thuringiens) is a natural bacteria found in the soil which kills the worms.  It is approved for use in organic gardening.  Again this would be for the worms not the beetles.  I think the clay is harmless but seems to confuse the insects.  Of course the draw back is you need to reapply after every rain.

I don't think I have beetles, just those green caterpillars from Cabbage Butterfly.  Good to know BT is organically approved.

Aaron, I agree with Suzi and Schaplin, BT is the solution to your problem. Not toxic to anything but the caterpillars, and works quickly. Should be able to find it in any home/ garden store under various brand names. On a side note, we have been using BT for squash vine borers, which is also a type of moth/ caterpillar. We inject it using a large livestock type syringe directly into the stem of the plant. This is the first year we have had our squash not collapse and die in a matter of days after starting production. I only use organic gardening methods, so I was excited to find that this works so well.

Mike in Hanover, VA

Thanks for the info everybody, I do appreciate it. I'll see into it.

i have had success using wood ashes against cabbage butterflies. i just sprinkle ashes liberally over crops.
i see no need for poisons or even BT.

good against slugs too.

I beter start putting up the BBQ and burn some Oak Logs

Aaron, you may know, but some cheap fly traps helps tremendously. You B. looks like a moth. there will be more. Hang some fly traps.

Grasa, I thought this one was a Cabbage Butterfly...no?

@Enigma, what an interesting concept, my 4.5 year old doughtier would definitely love to help me with this project.:)

Sorry to hear about your damages, Aaron.  I use Food Grade Deatomateous Earth in my garden. You can dust leaves and soil with it and caterpillars or moths do not  like it . It kills them, not right away thou.  It is safe for humans and makes great trace minerals supplement. We used to put it into our smoothies :) You can buy it in big bags at feed stores. It has to be Food Grade DE.  We also feed it to our chickens and quails for keeping them healthier.

I recently started to grow perennial Kale tree, from cuttings that I got on Ebay. It looks like Kale, tastes like Kale, but grows up to 10 ' high and produces Kale leaves continually.  Mine is still about 1' tall since I just started it recently, but I am very excited to see it growing even in our hot summer.  If you like Kale, I bet you will enjoy growing a Kale tree :)  I wish I knew how to post pictures, so I could post my baby Kale bush to show you... Hopefully on the weekends my hubby can show me how because he is the one who changed things on this computer and I can not yet figure things out :) There are red and green varieties out there. My red cuttings did not make it, but green took off.  Also Moringa tree and Chaya bush trees are great perennials, almost year round salad greens.  These are amazing plants and grow fast and produce lots of food and the greatest thing also - bugs do not bother them :)  Hope it helps :)
Blessings,
Katerina

Katerina, you beat me to it! Yes, DE works well for them, and many other insect pesties. Here is an inexpensive applicator for it. It's called a Pest Pistol, $10 on Amazon with free shipping from the supplier, so no need to get more stuff to qualify for free shipping. I got a Pest Pistol years back, I eventually upgraded to the Dustin Mizer, I can easily dust my whole garden with DE if I need in less than 10 minutes with the Mizer.



I have discovered over the last two years though that Paper Wasps are a great helper for green catipillars though, they hunt them and feed them to their young. These things patrol my cabbage and broccoli all day.

Watch out for the other cabbage loopers, brown moths that fly at night, those are more aggressive feeders.  I always see them at night and in commercial greenhouses some people use bug zappers to fry them, they do work well, especially if you put a bucket of soapy water under them in case they just get stunned and not killed.

Good thread! lots of things to try here.

harsh title.. lol 

Wow... so much good info , thanks evybody.
Ok, seems like I have great choices now...Im going to shop after school.
@Pete, LOL I was in a bad mood!

Weekly sprays of bt will kill them, if it gets hot every 4 days is better as the sun kills bt, best to spray in the evening when sun is not too strong.  Cheap, effective and they turn black which for me is satisfying.  Thinking about it now some people I know put up bat boxes and bats will clean them up too if you can get them to roost and don't mind having a spot that is full of their guano.

I had not clue they had something like that... Out I go to shop for Dust Mizer :) That will make my spraying so much easier !! Thank you cis4elk for great info.

Cabbage moths and web worms are always a problem on my kale, collards, cabbage. My solution has always been squishing eggs and caterpillars by hand. I've been less diligent this year. Floating covers are a good non-chemical solution.