If your cabbages, broccoli or any brassicas plants start showing holes, more likely than not you have a caterpillar to blame! I have found a couple of Pieris Rapae Butterfly caterpillars in my garden last year and I had the feeling they were at it again. And I was right!!
How to recognize caterpillar damage: You will start seeing small holes in the leaves. The holes will grow bigger and if you are not careful, a whole plant can be consumed in a matter of days.
How to get rid of them naturally: As soon as you observe the damage, inspect the plant and look for the caterpillar(s). They are small and green (and cute may I say). You need to look under every leaf. Sometimes you will be lucky and find them straight away. Sometimes you will need to look for a while, but do not despair, you will find them. Once you do, you can carefully remove them by hand (I do not like to kill them as the butterflies are beautiful). I normally keep the caterpillar in a jar until it becomes a butterfly and then let it go!!! read the story of our little super butterfly here.
Today, I found the caterpillar already in the pupa stage - so I carefully removed the leaf with the pupa and put it in my jar - soon we will have a new butterfly!
I put the pupa in a glass jar at home - a week later we had a beautiful butterfly!!!
Pieris Rapae Butterfly caterpillars in my garden last year and I had the feeling they were at it again. Earths Best Pest Control Service
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