Caterpillars Caterpillars Caterpillars

Dear Caterpillars,
Please stop eating my cabbage. And tell your nasty slug friends to get lost while you're at it.
Sincerely,

The Budding Horticulturist

The Caterpillars Have Cometh

For weeks now, something has been eating my cabbage. I've sat out there and watched and watched and watched, but not until today did I manage to catch the culprit.

A big, fat, green, fuzzy caterpillar has been eating my cabbage.

I removed the plants with the most damage. Maybe that was a drastic move. But it seems to me that now I have one or two caterpillars, but in a few days or weeks I will have dozens more. There are still lots of caterpillars-to-be all laid up in the remaining cabbage.

I'm glad I've found what is eating my plants. But I'm going to have to do some research on how I can get rid of these guys without harming my plants. I'd like to do it without using chemicals if possible.

Argh.

UPDATE:
Site for identifying caterpillars:
http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk/america/index.htm

When we control pests naturally we take advantage of the checks and balances nature has already had in place for millions of years. For instance, if you have lots of holes in your cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower leaves and regularly see lovely white butterflies hovering around them, it's likely the Imported Cabbage Butterfly is rearing her children on your precious crops. The natural controls for the small, green caterpillars that are doing the damage can be to plant a few parsley, cilantro (coriander), celery, or carrot plants close to the affected plants and allow them to bloom. The nectar and pollen rich flowers of these plants will draw a wonderful little beneficial insect called Trichogramma to the area. The adult female Trichogramma will lay eggs on or in the caterpillars and once the larvae hatch they eat the caterpillar from the inside out. Another one of Nature's tools is a bacterium that paralyzes the caterpillar. Bt or Bacillus thuringiensis specifically attacks many caterpillar species and is a very effective and commonplace product in most garden centers. If you want to speed up the predation of your pest caterpillar population you can purchase Trichogramma from many nurseries and online insectaries. Trichogramma work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep your plants free of caterpillar pests.

- "Vegetable Garden Pest Control"
by Don Trotter
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/01/010903m.cfm

Solutions

I recently posted on an organic gardening online community about the recent goings ons in my garden and asked if the others had had similar problems. Here are some of the responses:

-YES!
In fact seedlings are the fave choice for crows and that family.
Squirrels and other birds seem to be convinced that under that little plant is something the need.
I have an eggplant that has been dug up many times by the same damn squirrel!
Good luck and let us know if you come up with something.

-omg yes. I live in an apartment, and there is a small tree near my balcony where birds hang out. when I am home I periodically run out there and shoo them away. Especially the crows/whatever the giant black birds that hang out on my porch are.

If you hang CDs outside that helps deter them, but you have to periodically switch out what you keep out there to scare them away otherwise they get used to it and start back up.

-Hang a house and let a wren be your seedlings' guardian. I have heard they are very territorial and 'do not tolerate' birds and other animals in their area. I saw this tip in a forum about protecting a berry patch, and I thought it might help you.

-Several kinds of birds do this, most notably corvids (ravens, crows, magpies, and jays). I have to cover many of my beds until the seedlings have grown enough to be well-rooted, to keep the jays from pulling them all out just for fun. Starlings are notorious as well, and will usually eat what they pull. Sparrows also pull and eat a lot of seedlings sometimes; peas are a favorite target.

Bird netting is your best bet - just keep the birds off long enough for the plants to get bigger and well-anchored. Flash tape sometimes works, sometimes not. Corvids in particular are quite bold and will quickly adapt to most scare tactics.

from http://community.livejournal.com/organic_garden/

RAVAGED

Something terrible has happened.

Some creature has made a meal of my mint! And in the process assaulted my healthiest pea plant.

The incident occurred between 8:30am and 9:00am Eastern Time.

When I arrived on the scene, I first noticed the pea plants toppled over in their tray. The tallest pea plant had been snapped in half at the stem. Four leaves were lost as a result.

However, the fledgling mint seedlings bore the brunt of the attack. Six of the twelve young plants were lost as a result. Evidence suggests the suspect perched on the pea plants as it devoured the mint alive.

No other plants were harmed.

The suspect remains at large.

Any tips may be reported through this website.