Damn it.
Cabbage worms are the bane of my gardening life. They wait until I have hope for show quality cabbage plants then they show up over night like a silent herd of cabbage eating zombies from a Veggie Tales horror flick to dash my dreams. I was just beginning to fantasize about my ahhh-mazing cabbages being featured on The Vicory Garden. Dann it. I hate cabbage worms.
When I walked in the garden last night the cabbages, with the exception of a couple big bites taken by some traveling turtles, were flawless. After lunch today I went out and noticed a few outter leaves covered in pin holes.
I squished all I could find, but I know my efforts amounted to no more than a waste of my time. But they're damn near invisible on the leaves, so...
So I got the food grade diatomaceous earth out of the garage and dusted them with a splatter screen as an applicator.
I read that I could also dust them with corn meal. It's supposed to expand and kill them when they eat it. I guess it's worth a try since I have about 100 pounds of it.
Advice?
I know I'm not the only one that battles these things. How do you deal with them? Keep in mind that I can't use anything chemical because I have bees about 30 feet from the garden.
worms are a bitch, around here in canada another real pain in my ass is spider mites and aphids, but their fairly easy to fix, i just buy a bulk box of lady bugs and set free in my garden.
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I usually miss them until they're big enough for chicken feed! Having huge problems with aphids too this year. The ladybirds sorted them out on the sweetcorn, but can't seem to hang on to the leaves of the broccoli.
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I haven't yet had too much trouble with aphids. Knock on wood! I gave up on broccoli a couple years ago. I've usually have about a 50% success rate with it, and I don't really have room for it. I'll give it another go when we get a bigger piece of property.
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Last year I managed to keep them away for a long time using a garlic-based spray. You can find the recipe on my blog.
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Hey, thanks for the tip. Followed!
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I hate them 😭. I do the same as you, squash and cover with DE. I’ve heard the only real way to keep them away is fine netting, I haven’t done this yet though.
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I guess I'll have to look into the netting. These things drive me crazy! 😲
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I hope that diatomaceous earth works for you. We get them really bad here too and other then covering the plants with a fine mesh I am not sure what to do.
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Darn it. I really dislike them too, I struggled for years. It won't help you with this planting but you could try and use a fine mesh bug netting next time.
The moment my cabbages are planted I cover them in netting, tuck it into the soil and so far it's been a miracle solution. They can't get in there no matter how hard they try. Here's something I wrote about it on my website that better explains what I am talking about.
https://www.walkerland.ca/organic-gardening-insect-barriers/
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Just be aware that DE also kills the beneficial insects too...
I was just thinking (probably jinxed myself) that I had not seen a cabbage butterfly yet. We were seeing them in march last year....
I used to have an awful time with all kinds of pests. But since I started balancing my soil, the pressure has decreased dramatically. I used to use Agribon row cover but have not had to use it since 2011....
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