Green Caterpillars

Regarding cooking bok choy.  I would suggest that you stir fry with oil and garlic OR it can be used in soups as a green.  The baby bok choy you get in most restaurants is the smaller variety (and is my favorite).

ONION green caterpillars:  Are these from the white cabbage moth?  Advice, welcome.  While I'm waiting for someone to reply, I am going back out side and cut all of the onion leaves down below infected areas.  Then spray with BT.  At casual glance, I thought the cat found a corn stalk substitute. . .   With my glasses on    

If so it is the larva of the Julia Skipper.

Try this website for caterpillar ID.  These are found in Texas.  You might find a similar web page for CA butterfly larva.

I though BT was preferred for caterpillers and worms.  Am I wrong?

Kay

Kay, You are right. BT for caterpillars. I was not thinking when I typed. I'm going to correct it in my post so new gardeners won't be mislead.

I bought what I thought was a bolt of +100" bridal tulle.  I started covering my frames against the white butterfly and it is only 72"!  Dang.  I saw one 2 days ago and I didn't want my nursery starts to be infested with green caterpillars.   If I cut the legs of my new frames to 18", it will work, but all that work out the window.  I'll go the route of lots of small binder clips.

I sewed my tulle together to make it wider.

I'm thinking about taking the 2 pieces for the 2 x 8 to the alterations lady I use. Zip. Shouldn't cost but a few dollars.

Old sewing machine broke about 4-5 years ago. Boy did I put a lot of miles on that puppy, most of my clothes, drapes, suits, crafts. I was pretty good if I don't say so.

I was given an OLD Singer sewing machine from a lady that died at 102 years. Fascinating thing in excellent condition. I also bought a cheap ($300?) new machine but I haven't had time to learn to use it. In addition, my eyesight is getting bad so I don't know how much sewing I would ever do again.

I think I have some problem with a moth/caterpillar on my Banana Peppers and Okra leaves
I started noticing holes in my pepper leaves that were inside the garage under grow lights. I found a small (less than 1/8" long) crawling around underneath my Pepper leaf. They've gotten on 3 pepper plants and 1 okra plant. Funny thing is my plants that were already outside have had no bug problems. The plants that were indoors have the bug problems??!! I haven't found any eggs or anything underneath the leaves?

I was going to plant out all of my other pepper plants but since they have worms do you think that I would be "infecting" my other plants that are healthy in the garden?

I'll post some pictures later today when I get home. The worm I found last night was killed but if i find another one I will snap a pic. 

thanks!

what happens if you don't put them out?

Pests are something you have to get used to. They are a part of the gardening world. You have to get to know them, hunt for them, pick them off, treat them. ALL THE TIME!

Please post a photo.

Marie forwarded this to me:
https://www.growveg.com/guides/cabbage-white-butterflies-how-to-avoid-a-brassica-massacre/

Thanks for the link sanderson.

I've been seeing the white butterflies in my garden. I've been too lazy to cover up the brassicas so I expect some caterpillar damage. I do have some BT that I can use.

Yesterday I spent most of the day prepping the winter harvest for freezing.  One good thing about par boiling is that things like this immediately float to the top!!  Green cabbage caterpillar and chrysalis.

trolleydriver wrote:Thanks for the link sanderson.

I've been seeing the white butterflies in my garden. I've been too lazy to cover up the brassicas so I expect some caterpillar damage. I do have some BT that I can use.

All summer I see these critters flying around, frolicking in the air having a great old time. Never knew what they were until I started SFG, and really never cared. Now I have this netting up, they have no access to any of my plants. Soon I am going to plan to do my other beds and worry about pollination later on. My main concern will be convenience in accessing my bed area.

The above photo made me  laugh. I just looked at it, it makes me think of a raised bed tank..If I cold have wheels on it, mount a water cannon, I would be able to shoot down those flying critters trying to get into the beds.

sanderson ... no need to remove those critters ... they just add more protein to the meal. 

  I was late getting the tulle up so I'm pleased that this was all.  Really strange but I also found 2 red wigglers on the fresh greens.  We had a rain the day before I harvested and was surprised at how many worms were climbing out of tomato buckets and the beds. I haven't noticed that before.

I need to do a better job of bunching the brassicas in one box, the cover it.

The dreaded white cabbage butterflies have been visiting my SFG and have deposited tons of eggs on the cabbages. I have some Safer's BTK Concentrate. However, when I read the toxicology, precautions and first aid information for BTK, I am reluctant to use it. Things like "Avoid contact with skin, eyes and clothing. Avoid breathing dust/spray mist. Wear long-sleeved shirt, waterproof gloves ...." etc., etc.  Then "If on skin or clothing: Take off contaminated clothing. Rinse skin immediately ..." etc., etc.

Yikes! Is anyone using this stuff?

I know ... I should have covered the plants with tulle. My bad.

Personally, I wouldn't use that stuff with all those warnings, TD. But I don't know anything about it.

Btw, the greens will 'toughen' up as they put out defenses against being eaten, but it will take some time. Meanwhile, start squishing.

trolleydriver wrote:The dreaded white cabbage butterflies have been visiting my SFG and have deposited tons of eggs on the cabbages. I have some Safer's BTK Concentrate. However, when I read the toxicology, precautions and first aid information for BTK, I am reluctant to use it. Things like "Avoid contact with skin, eyes and clothing. Avoid breathing dust/spray mist. Wear long-sleeved shirt, waterproof gloves ...." etc., etc.  Then "If on skin or clothing: Take off contaminated clothing. Rinse skin immediately ..." etc., etc.

Yikes! Is anyone using this stuff?

I know ... I should have covered the plants with tulle. My bad.

Avoid breathing and contact with eyes are pretty standard for most items...vinegar, soap, MM...
Reading this version: http://pr-rp.hc-sc.gc.ca/1_1/view_label?p_ukid=86974800
it sounds like the skin/clothing warnings are because there are sulfites in the mix, likely as a preservative, and they can act as a sensitizer. That means that you can have an allergic reaction to them plus it turns up your bodies allergic response to other things in the future:
http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/sensitizer.html 
So that's why they don't want it touching your skin, or transferring from your clothing to your skin later.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

trolleydriver wrote:The dreaded white cabbage butterflies have been visiting my SFG and have deposited tons of eggs on the cabbages. I have some Safer's BTK Concentrate. However, when I read the toxicology, precautions and first aid information for BTK, I am reluctant to use it. Things like "Avoid contact with skin, eyes and clothing. Avoid breathing dust/spray mist. Wear long-sleeved shirt, waterproof gloves ...." etc., etc.  Then "If on skin or clothing: Take off contaminated clothing. Rinse skin immediately ..." etc., etc.

Yikes! Is anyone using this stuff?

I know ... I should have covered the plants with tulle. My bad.

Avoid breathing and contact with eyes are pretty standard for most items...vinegar, soap, MM...
Reading this version: http://pr-rp.hc-sc.gc.ca/1_1/view_label?p_ukid=86974800
it sounds like the skin/clothing warnings are because there are sulfites in the mix, likely as a preservative, and they can act as a sensitizer. That means that you can have an allergic reaction to them plus it turns up your bodies allergic response to other things in the future:
http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/sensitizer.html 
So that's why they don't want it touching your skin, or transferring from your clothing to your skin later.

Thanks CC and Beetles.

I may just do the manual cleansing/squsihing and also let some of the caterpillars have their fill as in the past. The problem this year is that the cabbage plants are much smaller than other years and too much damage may finish them off.

This isn't a technical article but it answered my question about the "K" in BTK. I used it once (2013) and decided after that I would use tulle. Being on this Forum helped me learn about the tulle solution. http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2409/

A while ago , think it was here on ANSFG some one said that they had read that  cabbage white butterflies are territorial and tend not to  settle on  brassica that have  loads of imitation  butterflies waving about the vicinity in a gentle breeze. 

Well I drew my own slightly larger than the prepared  printable sheet some member put in the thread.  Drew mine from a colour photo so it was a perfect symmetrical image and enlarged them so they were about 2 inches across , coloured it and colour printed off several sheets of them. 


 I carefully cut them out and spot glued them back to back so they looked the same from each side  . 

  I have of these 20 back to back butterflies each in a sealed plastic sheet with a 3/16 hole punched almost central so when hung on a big wire hook & planted in the garden they actually waver about a bit.


 The good news is  :-    Since I put them in place I haven't seen a cabbage white butterfly in the garden ..... the bad news is this afternoon I got invaded by dozens of them.   ………………       they don't work in my gardens .

 Tomorrow I'm going to get up early & spray all young new brassica as I don't want a repeat of last years green lace net curtains I had for my cabbages .

I tried using those images of the cabbage moth several years ago, and they didn't impress the real cabbage moths at all.  But, I found that Bt does a great job of controlling the cabbage moth caterpillar.  Even more surprising, though, is this year I have not found a single cabbage moth caterpillar on any of the brassica family plants in my gardens -- don't know if that is because of my increased use of compost tea and EM-1 sprays, or not, but it has been great not having a single insect pest so far this year. I do have a bunch - found 5 so far - of the Black Swallowtail cats on the carrots, but they are welcome since they are part of the pollinator family that I welcome here. The Black Swallowtail cats eat a few leaves from the carrots, but don't do enough damage to worry about them.