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Posted by officerdibber (U13913369) on Sunday, 22nd August 2010
I have just had to throw away 4 cauli's as they were absolutely riddled with caterpillars.
It has been pointed out to me by my oh, that if I stopped feeding the birds in my garden then they would go after the grubs and thus eliminate the caterpillar problem.
Your comments and advice on this would much appreciated
I feed the birds,and a robin still comes to visit me when I dig and eats little grubs.
The pigeons come to the bird table and still nibble my greens.
But I have never seen a bird eat one cabbage white caterpillar-maybe they do not taste that special?
I pick all the caterpillars off my brassicas, and chuck them into a bucket of water (to stop them crawling out) and then tip the entire contents onto the bird table.
I can draw the following conclusions...
1. Our birds hate cabbage white caterpillars.
2. Caterpillars can either hold their breath or scuba dive. Still not sure which.
3. They have the homing instincts of a pidgeon!
If you've ever smelt cabbage white caterpillars, you might know why the birds avoid them! Yick! I think we'll have to rely on other methods of caterpillar disposal for those guys...
All you have to do to stop caterpillars eating your veg is do as i do and make a small frame fitted with fine mesh (garden centre has rolls of the stuff and cover the cauli ect,
All the sun/ rain/ ect can get through this mesh but caterpillars and unwanted animals can't.
Thanks for the comments.
The cauli's smelt awful and on closer inspection the caterpillers were right inside the curds, all nice and warm and snuggly.
I tried putting mesh over them last year but a couple of the birds got caught and died, I didn't want to go through that again so I took the risk this year.
Next year I might try growing something different, the butterflies don't seem to like curly kale so maybe that is my best option.
The caterpillars pick up the hot mustardy taste from the cabbage etc. and this is a natural defence against birds eating them as the birds don't like the taste. Ain't nature great!
Caz
Couple of years ago I caught wasps attacking the caterpillars on the cabbages.
Birds will only eat caterpillars if they are the kind of bird that eat them and even if they get fed they`ll still eat them.
I had the same problem this year and am not growing them again next year.
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