Is it possible to rid your garden of the voracious cabbage white butterflies? - 9Chérie - New

Why bother growing winter vegetables now when voracious cabbage white butterflies will undoubtedly decimate your young crop?

Well, for one, take advantage of the longer daylight hours and warmer weather to strengthen your seedlings before planting them.

But many gardeners question the logic of planting early winter vegetables because of the white butterflies, their caterpillars and their eggs.

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These annoying creatures cause a lot of damage to houseplants. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

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And even if you keep them in boxes indoors, away from targets or under cover, they still have a chance of accessing your plants, says Kath Irvine, a regular NZ Gardener contributor .

He has written extensively about cabbage moth control and says his original method was to crush the caterpillars and discard the eggs.

But as his family and garden grew, he realized that this prolific pest needed more than just digital control and turned to Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) spray, a simple and effective means of control.

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A cabbage plant after a cabbage white butterfly has eaten it. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Watch out for the green caterpillars to stop the butterflies as quickly as possible. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

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Spraying is necessary to completely cover the foliage, and in a day or two all the caterpillars will be brown and hanging like balls under the leaves, he says. However, he later changed his mind about spraying and stopped using Bt because of concerns about the diversity of his garden and particularly its impact on other insects.

Kath recommends checking seedlings regularly for creamy, spherical eggs or green caterpillars, even if netting is used.

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Kath also attracts natural predators to her open garden, such as parasitic wasps and even paper wasps, by growing lots of companion plants for a year-round supply of nectar and pollen, as they prey on the caterpillars. (However, note that these can also target monarchs.)

The other option, of course, is to wait until late fall and early winter, when the cold causes the butterflies to disappear.

This story originally appeared on Stuff and was written by William Hansby. Read the original here.

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