Gardeners vs Cabbage Moth: The battle is real

Hinterland Homesteading with Racheal Pascoe

It is a really wonderful time in the garden right now. I have been busy planting out garden beds with lots of winter veggies. I try to grow some from seed, but I did lose some to the wet weather this year, they just rotted. So, whenever I am out and about, I pop into any nursery or hardware store to see what seedlings they have. I endeavour to buy heritage or heirloom seedlings when I can.

I am excited about growing the brassicas - broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower etc again this year. Do you know who else is excited about us growing all of these delicious veggies? The dreaded Cabbage Moth! Each year at home here we wage war on these guys.

Cabbage moths are those little white/creamy coloured guys flitting around your garden. All they want to do is lay eggs on your plants, so they can hatch as tiny army of green caterpillars, who will eat your veggies before you do!

Stowaways

When you buy a punnet of seedlings, plant them out and then discover 2 days later they already have tiny green caterpillars on them, it can be very disappointing. How on earth have the cabbage moths found the tiny plants already? Well, it is very possible you brought home the seedlings with the eggs already on the back of the leaves! Horrifying thought hey? (inspect all seedlings before planting out) 

What can we do?

Cabbage moths are an absolute pest and there really isn’t any surefire way to control them, other than with vigilance in the garden. Here are some ideas, but if you research it yourself, you will find even more possible solutions.

Inspection and squashing

This is by far the most cost effective method. When you are in the garden, inspect the back of the leaves of plants. You are looking for clusters of tiny white/yellow round eggs. Squash them on sight! Or you might find evidence of feeding, which will be holes in leaves. Look for the hungry caterpillars, they won’t be far away.

Netting is a great option

Keeping brassicas under nets is a really successful way of growing veggies to picking stage, without the moths getting to them. Netting is an investment in your garden. At home here, I try to net a couple more beds each year.

Decoy Moths

Here at home in the veggie patch, we have had success with strings of fishing line, which have tiny fake plastic moths tied to it. Yes, you read right! Cabbage moths do most of their moving around at night. If they are flying over a garden and see that there are already moths there, they will move on. No, I didn’t just make this up. Hee hee. You can research it more yourself. I cut a rough moth shape out of white plastic and tie it along the fishing line. I always have a couple of these lines up in the garden and it has certainly made a difference. Now, I don’t have statistical data to impress you with, but we have noticed less moths in our veggie patch the last couple of years which is terrific. I think for a low cost, chemical free solution, it is certainly worth a go. Recycle some plastic packaging to make the moths and use a fairly thick fishing line, so it is strong.

Happy gardening everyone!