You should immediately telephone the butterfly police and report them. The butterfly police will come and arrest all of them.

And call the squirrel police too.

This is simply outrageous that they should be bothering you.

Oh man, that's terrible!

Here is what I do, it takes time, but it works. The white butterflies are the ones that lay the eggs which hatch into the nasty green caterpillars who eat all the cabbage and broccoli etc. Take a few hours and literally comb through every leaf and squish every egg attached to the undersides of the leaves (they are very small eggs and easy to miss). Also squish every little green caterpillar, if they are already present. If you do this maybe twice a week for a few weeks, you can keep them under control. After the initial cleaning, you only have to take a quick peak once a week if you see any holes in the leaves and smoosh the caterpillars that are doing the damage.

For the aphids, my methods is thus. I take my hose sprayer attachment, set it to something that will spray a nice hard stream of water, but not damage the plant (not the shower setting, it's too gentle). Hold the affected leaf in my hand, splayed out, so it's supported by my palm on one side, and spray the aphids off. Do not try to spray the aphids off without supporting the leaf, because it can break under the water pressure, and also if not supported the leaf will flap around and most of the aphids will still be stuck to the leaf. This is time consuming, and it must be done daily for a few days until you're sure you got them all. But it works and requires no chemicals.

Don't worry, just keep on top of it, it's when we let it go on too long that the populations grow too large to control.

Hi Angela,
The white butterflies are quite likely the cabbage white butterfly, which is particularly attracted to members of the brassica family. They lay individual, slightly elongated yellow eggs, usually on the underside of the leaves. Of course without seeing them I can't know for sure. Check your cabbages and any other brassicas for eggs. If you've just started noticing them then probably not many caterpillars have hatched yet.

The thing to use for caterpillar pests (cabbage white, looper, budworm etc) once you already have them is Bt. Row covers also work very well to protect brassica crops but you have to use them from the beginning. Too late for that here, it sounds like. One brand name for Bt is Dipel. It *only* affects caterpillars, so won't harm beneficial or benign insects in your garden, your pets, children, wildlife other than butterfiles etc. It is very effective, but you will have to continue to use it regularly (approx every 7-14 days) while the moths are laying. You want to get the larvae when they are small. If the weather is warm the eggs will hatch quicker and the larvae will grow more quickly so you'll need to spray maybe every 7 days. In fall when the weather is cooler, you can spray with a longer interval. Once you get to know what to look for you can just check your plants and know whether or not it's time. If you really want to get an idea of what they look like in different stages, you could do a little since experiment - collect some eggs, put them in a container and when they hatch keep feeding them.

When you plant your next brassica crop you could also explore row covers. There have been numerous discussions on this board about what set-ups people use.

As for aphids...yup, they are really hard to eradicate totally! Every aphid can produce little aphids all on its own, so it only takes one survivor to start a whole new population!

About the best thing you can do to lower your stress level about aphids on your cabbages is just...accept that you will never have a garden that is totally pest free. Often plants can tolerate quite a bit of damage without harm. Obviously you don't want leafminers in your spinach, but something like a few holes in a tomato leaf are of no concern. And frankly, a garden with *no* pests is a garden so saturated in toxic compounds that you wouldn't want to eat out of it anyway.

My approach with aphids is just to keep the populations down by using the water-spray on the hose to wash infestations off as I notice them. If there is a big infestation on the outer leaves of your cabbages, just pull the infested leaves off and bin them, then give the rest of the cabbage a spray with water to wash any others off. If you feel you just absolutely must apply something, look into getting some ladybugs. The larvae and adults eat aphids, you can buy them and have them shipped to you to be released in the garden. They certainly can work effectively to reduce an aphid infestation. Not dirt cheap, but again, a fun science experiment.

Trap crops are also an option to think about for the future. I find that both cabbage white butterflies and some aphid species (not so much the one on your cabbages though IME) have a preference for nasturtiums, which also happen to look nice in the garden, require no care, self seed like crazy, and are even edible (but wash the aphids and caterpillars off first ; )). I also try to create an environment that is friendly to beneficial insects by having nectar sources available year round (alyssum, calendula, coriander, cornflowers, thyme, false queen anne's lace, cosmos, borage etc) and keeping pesticide use minimal and very targeted.

@gardenawgie - LOL!! i'm so 'green' that i sound ignorant, huh? roflol...

@capitalistbaby - your ideas are great and thanks for not making me feel like an idiot.

@ausbirch - to my rescue again - my hero! please know how much of a great help you've already been to me. this information is, to me, quite valuable, thank you!

due to my own health issues, i don't want to use ANY sort of chemical AT ALL! if there's a way to at least. what do you think of those homeopathic remedies like the tea i've seen around the boards, or the garlic/pepper mixtures, etc..?

thanks again!

warmest regards,

angela

Angella

You still have not said what kind of butterflies.

You have not said what you are growing in your garden.

I apologize. I just have this thing for people who can not give any information and still expect an intelligent answer. Unfortunatily I can not guess what your answer is when you give no information on your problem. Like most people you seem to think we are all your next door neighbor who are over at your house everyday and know everything about your life and garden. Unfortunately we know nothing except what you said in this thread which is next to nothing.

Actually I thought you were pulling our leg about being frustrated with butterflies because most people pay big money to get butterfies to come into their backyard. I am still not sure what side you are on. Do you jump up and down with joy because you have lots of butterflies??? most people do.

You said little in your first posting and nothing in your second posting. You really make it impossible to help you or you really never wanted help but were only bragging about all the butterflies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Butterfly Information

Let the lady bugs loose, set out some praying mantises, and I've heard those large flies actually eat the nonbeneficial bugs in your garden, plus those horribly ugly pincher tipped black beetles, the long ones that look really scary, are definitely a beneficial. I just learned a few days ago not to kill them.

There's the almighty mexican marigold, the most highly scented marigold, and it chases bugs away. Don't bother with the nursery types because they are bred for low scent. Apparently someone thought they smelled bad, so they developed a marigold with less smell, now the bugs laugh at them and land on top for a resting post.

Birds love butterflies! The birds will eat your berries, sunflowers, and collards, and even bite holes in your tomatoes, but they do eat butterflies.

Try companion planting flowers or herbs like garlic and onions, but don't plant them next to beans or peas. I don't know all your bugs, but you can write a list and search what plant will chase away what bug!

what do you think of those homeopathic remedies like the tea i've seen around the boards, or the garlic/pepper mixtures, etc..?

Hi Angela,
Good on you for asking questions and seeking info! Being keen and inquisitive is the way to go. : )

The only pesticides I personally use are Bt and occasionally a neem/pesticide oil mixture for spider mites. I try to attract and cultivate beneficial insects and keep my plants healthy to minimize the need to use anything at all, and I also use covers (netting curtains from IKEA actually : )) to keep the dreaded white butterflies off certain brassicas.

That said, I'm personally not a big fan of homemade 'organic sprays' (pepper, garlic, rhubarb leaf, homemade pyrethrin spray, nicotine spray etc) because they're not selective - they kill good, bad and benign organisms indiscriminately.

Sometimes that's not a big deal. For example, garlic spray for aphids - If you squirt it on the spot where the aphids are (the infested leaf, bud, whatever) you're not likely to cause carnage of much but aphids. But if you spray it all over the garden in the hope of preventing any aphid from ever landing, many organisms will be affected

Secondly, it's really hard to know how strong home made recipes are - to standardize for toxicity. The levels of capsaicin in peppers is highly variable, for example. Ditto for the concentration of pyrethrin in dried flowers, the amount of oxalic acid in rhubarb leaves, of active ingredients in garlic etc.

And then, there is very little rigorous research about toxicity, how much to apply, and safety for these home recipes. Just because something is growing in the garden or is commonly used in the house, doesn't mean it is without risks. Should there be a withholding period for pepper spray? Who knows? How strong was the spray? Who knows? For rhubarb spray I've seen a withholding period of 2 days given on one website, and several sites recommending it *never* be used on food crops, and that it never be left within the reach of children.

Common sense will keep most people out of trouble but some folks do seem to think that because it wasn't made by Monsanto it must be safe to splash around with abandon. I think it's up to every person to educate themselves and then make their own choices based on their own circumstances. What matters most IMO is how thoughtfully you use the pesticide, regardless of whether you made it yourself or bought it. I won't hesitate to use a home made spray if I feel it is the right tool for the job.

"There's the almighty mexican marigold, the most highly scented marigold, and it chases bugs away."

Tell us more. This sounds like the simplest, safest and easiest pest control available. I don't know why everyone is not using it.

Are there any bugs left in your garden? Does it drive away beneficials or only pests?

Jim

Simple safe solutions -

Cabbage butterflies: row covers & hand picking. This requires that you look under the leaves and wipe off the eggs or pinch off the caterpillars. A blast from the hose will also help.

Aphids: blast with the hose. They are weak things and will have trouble getting back onto your plants. Keep your nerve and await the lady bugs. I find they will turn up eventually if there's a good food source. Wasps eat aphids too. Some birds also eat them especially when they have young. Over here it's the blue, great and coal tits (sorry, but that's what we call them!). They are rather like your chickadees.

Try companion planting if you want but personally I view most of it as dubious unless there is proper research to back it up. Some of the stuff I read is disproved all the time in my own garden.

Last night I found aphids on some peppers I had under homemade cloches (bottom cut 1 gallon milk containers). I said oh well and began spraying all of my plants with a mixture of water and a tblsp of seaweed. I used a very cheap sprayer ($1 at WallyWorld). Now this morning I checked them as my normal routine and most of the aphids are lying on the black plastic mulch dead! I don't know if the seaweed solution did it or not. Do anyone else have an opinion about this? Hey give it a try it can't hurt.

Well a few minutes ago I saw my first ever ladybug nymph on the most effected pepper munching away. So if you want just leave it and maybe the ladybugs will find them and feast.

Hi Ladybugsmom, I'm in the Bay Area as well and really don't need to know what you've planted to know what bugs you're dealing with. Your white butterflies and aphids will hit just about everything around here.

I personally have not had success with companion plants, water sprays or ladybugs, not to dismiss those great suggestions. They work for many, but if they shouldn't work for you, here's an alternative:

I have two 2-gallon pump sprayers in my garden shed, one filled with a neem oil solution, the other with BT solution. BT is for the caterpillars (butterflies), neem is for the aphids (also helps with white powdery mildew and rust if you're in a foggy part of the Bay Area like me). It's best to use them proactively, meaning I start spraying my plants right from the start and keep up with it at regular intervals. Both of those products are certified organic and won't kill the good bugs. BT only works after the caterpillars have eaten some of your plants, so you'll get some holes in the beginning.

For me, this is what I've had to resort to so as not to lose my garden to bugs.

What I'm wondering is how you've escaped the slugs!

Is Bt always mixed with water? No powdering plants?

Just went through about half my cabbage and kale checking for worms. I thought it would take longer but was pretty quick. There were eggs on most leaves which were easy to squish, and a few caterpillars here and there. It's interesting what you find when you turn the leaf over. Some leaves had spider mites, which I would have never known about if I hadn't checked the underside. If you catch all the eggs before they hatch, then no worms to worry about... I think that is the easiest way to go. It seems like the moths lay them right out in the open, I never find them in some crevice, which makes them easier to spot.