The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Cabbage worms

Cabbage worm caterpillarI picked off our first cabbage worms yesterday.  Cabbage worms (which are actually caterpillars, not worms) are the larvae of cabbage moths (which are actually butterflies, not moths.)

With such messed up entomological etymology, it's no wonder I call cabbage worms "bad bugs."  They can be pretty devastating to cabbage and broccoli leaves, too.

Some organic farmers spray Bt to deal with cabbage worms, just like we do for squash vine borers.  Unless you have a huge garden, though, that seems like overkill to me.  The caterpillars are big and easy to pick off, so I just handpick them and give them to the chickens, where they are very well received.


Learn to keep bugs at bayRead other posts about Organic Insect Control:





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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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