Cabbage white butterfly

Aptly named "Brassica massacre"

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Cabbage white butterfly are attracted to brassicas growing in your plot of garden. This will likely include:

They will lay their eggs on the underside of leaves and, when hatched, the caterpillars can cause complete destruction of your crops if left unchecked.

I have a few simple ways of deterring them from your crops.

Identifying them

Identification of the problem is pretty straight forward because the butterflies are easy to spot flying around and the same group will stick around your garden or plot for a few weeks.

If you are not around during the day, then you may need to add “checking the underside of my plants” to your routine.

The butterflies will lay eggs on the underside of leaves and the clusters look like this:

Cabbage white butterfly eggs

Method 1: Squashing

This is the most straight forward method.

Squash and rub the cluster of eggs with your thumb, being careful not to damage the leaves of the plant.

Method 2: Garlic spray

Garlic contains it’s own protection against butterflies and caterpillars: Allicin

The garlic spray works best when you’re well prepared for the coming invasion and applying to plants pro-actively, before they are damaged. If you already have a caterpillar problem, tougher methods may be needed.

You’ll need:

  1. A litre of water
  2. Two bulbs of garlic
  3. A spray bottle
Garlic spray ingredients

Step 1: Boil the water

Boil the water in a pan. While this is boiling, you can do step 2.

Boil the water

Step 2: Crush the garlic

Break the two garlic bulbs into its cloves. With either a rolling pin, flat edge of a knife or a garlic crusher, crush the cloves into a bowl.

Crush garlic

Step 3: Add to boiling water

Once the water has boiled, turn the heat down and add the crushed garlic. Give it 10 minutes on a simmer.

Boiling garlic

Step 4: Let it cool

This will make your house smell like garlic for days, so put it outside to cool. Once cool, sieve out the garlic and transfer into a container with a lid (e.g. empty water bottle).

Transfer to container

Step 5: Spray affected plants

Add a drizzle (a couple of tablespoons) to a spray bottle and fill with water. Give it a shake and then spray onto the affected plants.

Add garlic to spray bottle

Do this on a day when it’s unlikely to rain so the plant has the most time to soak in the solution.

Repeat every two weeks.

Spray seedlings with garlic wash

Method 3: Invest in a pest spray

If you have a larger infestation or you find that the garlic spray is not affective, there is a large range of safe pest sprays which will help keep the problem under control.

Make sure that your chosen spray is specifically designed to tackle white butterly eggs, so as not to cause larger damage to the ecosystem of your plot.

Share your learnings

I hope this has helped you tackle these annoying pests.

I’d love to hear from you though. What pests affect you the most? Do you have any other ways of controlling cabbage white butterfly? Is there a certain brand of pest spray that works best for you?

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Article written on Aug 14, 2020
Updated Aug 14, 2020

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