Uh-oh. I’ve heard about these, and this morning I found two of them on one of my baby cabbage plants:
I was pretty sure it was a cabbage worm, and a quick diagnosis through the U of M “What insect is this?” tool confirmed my guess. The Extension service has a great info sheet on cabbage worms. I carefully checked each of my cabbage plants and this was the only one with worms on it. Nevertheless, I did a little searching about some organic controls for these things, and it seems a garlic spray is fairly effective.
It’s sorta rainy so I didn’t spray any on tonight. I think I will in the morning. If I can’t find any more of the little critters, does this mean it was isolated to one plant? Could they be hiding somewhere else? I’m going to keep very close eye on my cabbages over the next few days.
June 17, 2011 at 7:27 am
Those guys attacked our brussels sprouts with no mercy last summer. We found success with a mixture of baking flour and cayenne pepper powder. Dust the plants, and reapply any time it rains or your watering washes it away.
Good luck. Robert