What’s worse?
Posted on July 8th, 2009 – 9:47 AMBy Jaime Chismar
Quick! What insect frustrates you most in the garden, cabbage moths or potato beetles?
Me? It’s cabbage moths, hands down.
At first, I was charmed by the little white moths flying around my community garden. Now I am frustrated at all the slimy green grubs getting a free meal off my brussels sprouts. Pulling one or two worms doesn’t make my stomach churn. But, after pulling one or two dozen, I start to get a little queasy.
I also start to feel guilty about all the death and destruction. If only I could turn my lazy cats into super garden pest assassins. (Note: House centipedes freak them out.)
So, what is a gardener to do with an infestation of cabbage moths? It’s too late for row covers. (Do they even make row covers big enough for brussels sprouts?) And, I don’t want to be a bad neighbor at the community garden and spray my plants with pesticides. Is hand picking my only option?
Ew.
153 Responses to "What’s worse?"
I have no suggestions, other than I was charmed to see a sparrow struggling with a huge green grub on the sidewalk recently! Hopefully it was off one of your plants.
I need to vent about my current problem - squirrels burying things in the freshly dug earth around small new plants, and unearthing them. Varmints!
Chicken wire! Anneesha. I had squirrels and chip munks digging up my gardens. It may not help this year but, lay chicken wire down (maybe adjusting the hole size with a wire cutter) and plant in between the wire. Cover with mulch and you’d never know it was there. It works in the pots on my deck also. Hope that helps. I don’t have anything on slugs except I’ve heard they like beer and are drawn to it if you put it in a shallow dish like an upside down frizbee. Or.. you could drink it and forget about the bugs?
Make a game of it, like Principle Skinner would say. See how many you can pick off in 15 minutes. Then see if you can beat that number!!
Or put out beer death traps for them. It only takes 2 ounces, and what you do with the remaining 1.5 gallons is up to you.
Hate. Squirrels.
They were obsessed with my pansies this year. Every morning they’d dig them up. Every morning, I’d replant them. Eventually, the pansies got sick of our tug of war and died.
Aphids drive me crazy as well as those Japanese beetles which have just returned to my garden (as of yesterday).
Potato beetles. The larvae are super gross: little oddly-shaped pieces of slimy yuckness. At least this pest is slow-moving enough I can pick them off. I also usually have a sacrifical datura I lure them with.
Hmmm, if I had a ton of cabbage moth larvae, I think I’d get cheap surgical gloves to pick them off. The thought of touching their soft, squishy bodies totally creeps me out. I’d fling them to the ground and stomp on them. I think drowning in water and dishsoap also works.
You could also try using chopsticks to pick them off, which would require some dexterity, but at least you wouldn’t have to touch them at all! 
BT powder - Bacillus thuringiensis
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a naturally occurring bacterial disease of insects looks like talcum - applied like you would if it were talcum powder and they die over night.
I’m also struggling with cabbage moths. My pretty red and green ones look so pathetic with all the holes in their leaves, if they have leaves at all. Sorry that I don’t have any suggestions, but thought it might be comforting to know you weren’t alone!
I have used a kill-all pesticide to kill the moths. They were infesting everything. It’s the best way once they’ve taken up residence. You can make a less harmful, albeit still chemical, pesticide in a spray bottle from liquid hand soap and water.
-Billy “Better Living Through Chemistry” D.
You can also let your cats know that they’re not alone — the house centipedes freak me out, too.
SLUGS! I have had some success using coffee grounds to keep them away. I blogged about it
http://greenadventuresofacitygirl.blogspot.com/2009/06/city-girl-vs-slugs.html
and
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5783332557197976942&postID=2992829849612612372
A friend of mine also suggested putting some crushed eggshells around the topsoil. The slugs can’t get thru it w/o getting cut.
Also, regarding squirrels, some simple netting kept high above the garden using garden stakes has worked wonders for me! You can see a picture here.
http://greenadventuresofacitygirl.blogspot.com/2009/06/square-foot-gardening-101.html
Please send me your ladybugs so they can eat the aphids that Will Not Die on my peppers. Ahhhh!
stupid cabbage moths! when they first started i could find their caterpillars and pick them off, now all i find are holes, holes and MORE HOLES, and no grubs. is there a time of day i’m more likely to find these stinkers?
i picked up some BT at my local nursery and intend to give my poor holey brussel sprouts a good dousing.
Something infested almost all of my spinach this year. Last year it produced for 2/3 of the summer before the plants became too stalky to stand up anymore. This year, barely got one harvesting out of it and even that was pretty slim pickins… most of the leaves had these lil worms that had burrowed inside them and were eating them from the inside out… they looked like tissue after that. Sick! I don’t know what they are but I was so mad that I yanked all the spinach out and just gave up.
I have no pity on any imported species of bug/insect. I got one of those dusting pumper things and filled it with BT. Dusting with it gives me the fun of walking around pointing it at the suspects and quietly ( so the neighbors don’t know I have lost my mind ) saying “take this you slimeball” PUFF, dusted to death!
This technique also works on those gross little aphids, squirt with soapy water, and they get ternimal diarrhea, dry up and die.
Now sqirrels, on the other hand, are a menace to any gardening. I usually plant any small new stuff with pea brush around it as they don’t seem as likely to dig it up if they get poked in the nose/butt. Odd peices of hardware cloth or chicken wire placed around the new transplant usually works too.
Hi, I have lurked but not yet posted, so, howdy, I’m the pea eating kid that DebW speaks of often. I do not have issues with the small and annoying pests as you all will full sized yards do, but I will say my annoying pest is the skunk that lives under my deck and eats my chives and kale plants (yes mom they are still alive) I also seem to have a lack of bees.
Ok, this may be a direction many people wouldn’t go, but it worked very well for me. Take a bunch of cigarette butts (not ashes), soak them in a bottle of water overnight, strain the mix, then use use it as an insecticide. It kills aphids too. By the time you harvest it’s pretty much all washed off. Thge biggest problem is finding a smoker nowadays!
To Farmer guy: Cigarette butts might not be the best thing to spray on plants in the Solanaceae family (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, etc) as it may cause tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). They say plants can get the virus by simply touching the leaves with a smoker’s hands. It’s an interesting idea though–if cigarettes can kill humans, they probably kill other things too!
I must be blessed - the cabbage worms have not found the broccoli under the lilac bushes. Last year, however..I sprayed them with water, then sprinkled them with salt, both the worms and the plants. The worms went away! I also have lots of robins around. Maybe they eat them too.
Is it so important? Thanks for this, seriously.
Have a good day.
This is fantastic!
Sincerely yours.
I’ll be back!
Thanks or bringing this up.
Hmmm…,
Thanks again.
No idea.
let go to blogging 
Damn!
let go to blogging
This is fantastic!
Thanks for sharing your ideas i really appreciate it!
Don’t work too hard!
Good times!
Oh my God, yours site is excellent! Look mine:
Bye now
Very well written!
Where do you think you’re going today?
I sincerely salute you.
Thank you for this article.
Too bad with all the spam on this site 
I totally agree with your points.
Nice try!
Get outta here!
Loved your post.
Thank you for sharing.
This place is a freaking spamfest…
Thanks for sharing your ideas i really appreciate it!
All the best.
Amazing work!
Great comments.
Good work.
This place is a freaking spamfest…
Please let us know.
Have a nice day
Nice one.
I’m impressed!!!
Nice to have met you Saturday =)
Excellent job!
Incredible site!
Hats off to you.
Thanks or bringing this up.
Is it so important?
Thanks for the laugh!
Thank you for good job!
OK,
Great photos.
WOW! These are really great pics!
Thanks for this, seriously.
See ya!
cheers
Your post seem a little cynical, how come ?
Simple superb.
Yo, nigga!
You great webmaster!
Happy New Year!
Best Regards.
The post is good but I don’t really agree with all of it.
Hello,
I know it!
WOW! These are really great pics!
Great photos.
Oh my God, yours site is excellent! Look mine:
I’ll try it.
I know it!
Best wishes!
Hopefully I’ll be back soon!
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the comment!
You’re totally right, I totally agree.
Keep us posted and good luck!!
data results worldwide climatic leading troposphere apple
Hope it works out for you.
Thanks for this, seriously.
Yo, nigga!
Used to be one a week!
its really informative post from you.
You should have done this long time ago.
Thanks for the laugh!
let go to blogging
Thanks for this, seriously.
Used to be one a week!
Why not just ask them?
Cool,
I sincerely salute you.
Anyway, see you soon!
I sincerely salute you.
Let me see what I can do.
Good,
Thanks for the post!
Im really happy to see all this…
Let me see what I can do.
Why not just ask them?
I’m sorry, but I disagree with you.
OK,
See ya!
What about
Loved your post.
Thanks for the laugh!
You had me to the very end… good job!
You’re totally right, I totally agree.
See ya!
Awesome collection!
You straightened up!
This is fantastic!
Hi,
I have no idea about this.
Im really happy to see all this…
Very well written!
Done.
Awesome collection!
Sorry!
Awesome! Good feeling to be all done!
Nice try!
Thank you for good job!
What about
Sorry!
Incredible site!
WOW!
Best wishes!
china found colleagues features pnas
turn gross simulations stance warm assessment cause
I want you, now!
I’ll make the contribution right away.
Awesome collection!
This place is a freaking spamfest…
Loved your post.
What about
Hope we meet again.
You great webmaster!
Nice to meet you!
Thanks for sharing your ideas i really appreciate it!
Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
Need more Greengirls? Follow along on Twitter:
Subscribe to Greengirls
Learn more about RSS
Garden resources
Categories
- Apples, Plums + Tree fruits (18)
- Asparagus (3)
- Beans + Peas (9)
- Bees (12)
- Beets, Carrots + Root veggies (7)
- Berries (10)
- Books + Resources (13)
- Chickens (13)
- Compost (7)
- Container gardening (7)
- Corn (2)
- Critters + vermin (27)
- Cucumbers + Melons (15)
- Farmer's Markets (1)
- Flowers + Grasses (27)
- Garlic (5)
- Greens + Lettuces (10)
- Herbs (6)
- Lawn care (12)
- Mulch (7)
- Mystery plants (9)
- Potatoes (9)
- Preserving (7)
- Rain gardens (2)
- Seed starting (16)
- Soil care (4)
- Squashes + gourds (1)
- Succulents (2)
- Tomatoes, Peppers + Eggplant (38)
- Tools, gloves, rain barrels + more (17)
- Transplanting (1)
- Tree + shrub care (4)
- Uncategorized (164)
- Water gardens (3)
- Weather woes (25)
- Weeds (13)
- Weekend to-dos (11)