Thursday, September 3, 2009

Wildlife: Cabbage Moth Larvae

Our Broccoli has been going extremely well and has grown lushously. Each morning we find some little green residents however. Cabbage Moth Larvae...fat, green and juicy (the chooks go nuts for these things)


Cabbage Moth's are greyish and small and around 10mm across. They lay their eggs on the underside of leaves (mainly cabbages he says stating the bleeding obvious). The larvae of caterpillars hatch from the eggs and then feed on the leaves so it’s the caterpillar which does the damage. The green-brown smooth textured grubs start eating the outer leaves before moving to the inner heart of the cabbage. We pick them off as soon as we find them before they tunnel into the heart of the plants. Plants favoured by cabbage moth apparently include cabbage, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Chinese cabbage, celery, beetroot, rocket and watercress.

They might look cute but left unchecked they are very destructive. Additional protein for the chooks is always welcome though.

Jayson



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