Garden pest help please!

Hello,

I am new to the forum, square foot gardening, well gardening period really!

My family built and planted a raised bed square foot garden for the first time this year in our suburban backyard in Harrisburg, PA. We are having terribkle trouble with pests in the garden and are trying to garden as organically as possible. Our Collard greens, Broccoli, Cauliflower and cabbage has been hit pretty hard by little green caterpillars which I looked up online and are one of the three types of cabbage worm. We have lots of cabbage white butterflies flickering around, but our caterpillars do not appear velvety. Anyway hubby is going to get BT spray tonight. We bought an insecticidal spray but used it up really fast, I am ordering some soap online to mix my own.

We have another caterpillar we have found in our lettuce and up in the head of our cauliflower I picked today. These guys are much larger than the little green ones I have found on the bottom of the leaves. I have not been able to identifly this pest online. The closest pictures look like a cutworm or armyworn but with no longitudenal lines. I have a few pictures but am not sure how to post them. Any help or advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks-Shannon

Try Diatomateous Earth or DE. You can get it at Tractor Supply, Agway, Lowes, etc. To use it, as it is a powder, find some kinda container to dispence it.

I used an old large pepper shaker for Sams, put the DE in and sprinkled it all over the plants and ground. It is organic and they die within 24 hours.

Had some pill bugs which live below the surface and eat the bottom of the stems off so I watered everything, then applied the DE, and reapplied 3 days later and it has been almost 3 weeks and no bugs.

Give it a shot as it is organic and cannot hurt anything to my knowledge. Good luch and keep me posted

scrappinshannon to the forum.

Here is the instructions for posting a picture from your computer. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t129-how-to-post-a-picture-located-on-your-computer

I got a concentrated bottle of (BT) named Thuricide. One table spoon to the gallon in a pump sprayer. It does not immediately kill ALL catapillar type critters but it does stop them from ever eating again; thereby killing them, and stopping the damage they cause. Did I mention "IT IS Organic". You have to use up each batch within 24 hrs, and reapply after a good rain.