My Foolproof Way to Get Rid of Cabbage Worms for GOOD!
Hey all - Kevin back again with another annoying pest prevention guide! This time we're dealing with cabbage worms...
If you're like me, you're seeing holes on your kale, cabbage, brassicas, and more. Cabbage worms eat much more than just cabbage. They can even munch on radishes!
Needless to say, they're super annoying. They're either the Pieris rapae or Pieris brassicae species, and look like small to medium white moths with a black spot in their adult stage of life.
While there are many methods to kill cabbage worms, the most effective by far is using bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki. It's a natural bacteria that poisons the stomachs of the caterpillars, tricking them into thinking that they're not hungry.
They will sit on the leaves at not eat anything until they die.
When you apply bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (or BT for short), make sure to get EVERY part of the leaf surface. You want your leaves to be completely covered in the mixture. Remember, a caterpillar must eat leaf tissue that is covered in BT in order to be infected, poisoned, and killed.
Apply every 5-7 days until you no longer see any adult white moths, or any caterpillars. Make sure you completely disrupt the life cycle so no new caterpillars make it to the adult stage. If you can do this, you ensure that you've completely stopped them from reproducing and your cabbage worm problem should be GONE for good.
I hope this was helpful for you - let me know in the comments if you have any other questions or comments...I've done just about every method to get rid of these guys, so I can share a lot more!
The inspiration for this post today comes from these Steemers:
- @libertyteeth - Gotten a lot out of their posts lately, a nice mix of art, gardening, and more.
- @ctrl-alt-nwo - As an aspiring homesteader, the daily farm posts from this account are wonderful.
Thanks For Reading!
This video originally appeared on my YouTube account Monday, September 19, at 9am., however the accompanying text is written solely for Steemit. If you'd like a deeper dive into other ways to kill cabbage worms, feel free to check out my blog post on Epic Gardening.
If this is your first time reading my writing, thank you!
My name is Kevin and I run a website called Epic Gardening, where it is my goal to teach 1,000,000 people how to garden. Now that I've found Steemit, I'm going all in on this community and sharing as much as I can here. You'll find me writing about gardening, business, health, and philosophy - I can't seem to stick to one topic :P
Thanks and happy Steeming,
Kevin
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I've just been feeding the caterpillars to the chooks.
Do you think the bacteria will wash off okay before you eat the plant? I do kind of wonder if it would have a similar effect on us.
It doesn't, and it's useless after a few days. You still do have to be careful to wash well just because...well...there was a bug infestation anyways!
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I accept! Edited in the tag dude :)
~ Kevin
this will be a nomination for the actual OCD daily post, not a resteem ;) keep using it though. maybe we will pick another up
Roger that!
I have definitely had these little bugs in my garden. It is and organic spray then. I have never heard of it ...will have to check it out! TY helpful post!
Blessings,
Melissa
They're super annoying - hope BT helps you get rid of them!
Thank you!
Melissa