Natural Pest Control: Caterpillars, Aphids, Cabbageworms, Root Fly, Pigeons
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- Caterpillars carnaged your cabbages? Pigeons nibbled your veggie plot? Then you're yet another victim of a brassica massacre! There's nothing worse than the sinking feeling you get when you go out to your precious garden only to discover that pesky pigeons and creepy crawlies have eaten your dinner before you even had a chance to harvest it. We hear your cry for help! Never fear, Ben is here with his top tips for natural pest control.
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Ben simply and brilliantly explains all you need to know.
I'm a 60 + year old rookie veg gardener, and thoroughly enjoy Ben's short no waffle posts. A big thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Same here- another big thumbs up for the "no waffle" presentation and an additional one for the puns and wit!
Thanks so much guys, it's thoroughly appreciated. :-)
Ditto 😀
Ditto!
Oh! - Ingenious that water pipe box contraption! Always thought these were expensive gardening center buys but it isn't! - Mind Blown!
same. loved that idea. i have an insect net that i haven't used bc I didn't have anything to net it over. bamboo sticks I have, but it wouldn't work because it will rip it. the upside down bottle is such genius, i'm going to do that this year.
For those of us with long growing seasons, growing brassica overwinter mitigates most of the pest damage from butterflies.
Thanks for the great information Ben. I had a “brassica massacre “ of my own when the neighbours pet sheep “Jack” jumped the fence. Unfortunately he was smart enough to pull the netting off and munch the plants down to the ground!
Not much you can do about sheep I suspect, sadly!
What a nuisance! Jack be nimble and quick!
Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?
Or would the neighbour have worked out that you had lamb for dinner and his sheep disappeared
on a serious note an electric fence would stop the sheep.
Just a warning on barrier nets. Birds can get tangled in them.
Thanks Ben. I’ve just started veggie gardening and I’m learning heaps from your channel 🙏🏻😊
Super stuff - thanks for watching. :-)
No matter how many videos I watch I just keep learning something new from Ben. Love the bamboo corners with water pipe bent over the top for a temporary poly tunnel, excellent as always.
Thanks so much. Happy gardening! :-)
this is a perfect example of an author that knows what he's doing. Right on cue, full of useful tips, onwards and upwards!...
Thanks so much! :-)
Thank you Ben! I love the water bottle tip.
I am already using tule for some of my pots but I am holding it in place with clothes pins.
Thanks Ben, you are the best gardener on TH-cam in my opinion, so happy I have subscribed. You have given me hope, my brussel sprouts, cabbage and Cauliflower got massacred last year but this video has given me hope and I have sown some cabbages and Cauliflower.
That's great to hear Marian. Hope you enjoy a great crop this time round, and thanks for subscribing.
Gosh, I so look forward to watching your enthusiasm for your gardening Ben, and absolutely welcome your invaluable advice. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom ☺️
You're very welcome - thank you for watching!
I had a brassica massacre and I watched this way before. I've never had an issue before. I don't have pigeons I have lots of squirrels and rabbits. Every year one learns more and if you continue to ignore issues, you should not be gardening. Ty for your vids, one who feels like they know everything still learns. I'm in Wisconsin so my season is very short. Marigolds are also a great companion who deters pests. Ty again.
Thanks Heidi. Gardeners are always learning!
Thanks for the timely reminder Ben , I planted my Brassicas yesterday then found the netting had a hole in it so onto Amazon to order more.👍
I've lost all my broccoli and cauliflower in the last two months. When I pulled them up they had very little roots . Grubs!!! But after watching this video maybe it was the flies you where talking about. The stocks of the plants got very soft and then they died. I'll give the netting a go. Thanks for all you do. Fingers crossed on the new plants I just planted.
Yes, it sounds like cabbage root maggot/fly. Netting them should help.
@@GrowVeg thank you
Great advice, thank you. Bird feeding also helps keeping the birds out off the greens. In wintertime birds sometimes nibble on my salads or other greens. Now i have no problems on the salads because of feeding them. 😊💚🌱🐞
Smart move Christiane.
I give my waste feed from my budgies to the wild birds being up to 15 ring neck doves and they have never eaten by plants.
and they have never eaten my plants. and I forgot about the thirty sparrows that also eat the seed rather than my plants
Great video yet again, thank you. I have to net literally everything in my garden until they start to flower. ! But it’s peace of mind!
Peace of mind counts for a lot Deirdre.
Great ideas! Thank you for all your advice and knowledge behind your videos. This is truly helpful for myself who is a wannabe gardener.
If you grow one plant. You aren't a wannabe, you're doing it just fine
GROW GROW GROW
Enjoy the whole process of growing - it's life affirming and fantastically good for you all round! :-)
I bought the gauzy IKEA curtains and use those to cover my strawberry beds years ago. Recently I used bird netting and the darn birds land on the netting and peck at the strawberries. So it's back to using the gauzy curtains! And to keep birds from getting caught up in it I hang strips of tin foil and anything that rattles to warn them off.
Great idea. Sounds like the gauzy curtains are just the ticket!
Window sheers work great also! Good idea on the gauzy curtains!
Best channel on gardening ever! Love your motivation and inspiration! Thank you❤
Thanks so much Pati - really appreciate your support. :-)
Thank you, Ben! I was on a "search and destroy" mission in my lupin flowers just yesterday 😂 it's my first year planting anything so I was shocked by how much the catapillars loved my flowers. Thank goodness, they didn't touch any of the veggies! Thank you so much for this video! Saving all the tips for the next year of gardening! ❤️❤️
Glad your veggies are safe!
Net curtains, for the charity shop Job done,👌
Netting is the best solution. It's quick, efficient, and instantly effective. Planting deterrent plants requires the time and resources for them to grow. Thank you for the vid.
Yes, I think with brassicas netting or insect mesh is much the easiest solution!
Thanks Ben! I look forward to your boost of positivity each week. I love brassicas - especially broccoli - but stopped trying to grow them because of the pests but also because I was never able to get the actual broccoli flower to grow. Maybe you can do a video on that someday! I’m in northern Virginia, USA so it might just be too hot here..
They do love it cool, so that may be the issue. Mine are just about to reach the point of harvest - they've grown so quickly. But it hasn't been too hot.
Grow them as a fall crop. Take your average first frost date and count backwards using the days to harvest on the seed packet. Start them a week or two before the calculated and transplant them out when they're ready. Keep them covered with mesh but the bugs here in the US are not as aggressive later in the season. Don't worry about frost-a light kiss won't hurt them and will even sweeten them up. Good luck and happy gardening.
What pests are you getting? There is new science uncovering what pests cause problems and why.
Most insect pressure is a sign of poor photosynthetic efficiency ergo poor health/ stress.
Learning how BRIX can indicate the potential for insect pressure is worth investigating I feel. How to increase the BRIX levels of our plants is the skill that will help us avoid having to insert added materials, energy and inputs
Que bonitoooo! Me encanta como lo tiene de bien organizado,
Thanks so much Ben, you are always a ton of help!😊
Thanks Jill. :-)
I appreciate your suggestions. Last year we tried tulle, as it was cheaper by the yard than netting. However, it is so flimsy, the squirrels and chipmunks tore right through it, and it often snagged, ending in a holey mess that had to be discarded. We try to avoid plastic here, so that was frustrating. By the end of the season, we simply went back to the thicker netting, though still plastic, will last a few more seasons. Rabbits can squeeze through a hole of 1" or more. For squirrels and chipmunks you need a full hooped enclosure or a box with 1/2" netting. We cut down branches and trim them to use as hoops instead of plastic or purchased materials. Most of your building materials can be gleaned from smaller trees in the woodlot, and round wood is your friend, lasts decades rather than bought lumber, which lasts a year or two.
Well done on doing so much to avoid plastic. I think any plastic in any covering you use is worth it if it helps you get more of a crop.
I have most of my plants covered in Tulle! Birds get their feet caught in the bird netting, which is why it's used in some countries to capture them. Unfortunately, the birds can lose their legs or end up so trapped that they die in it.
I agree and that's what I don't want either. I find if you go for the slightly better quality netting (the black one that Ben showed in the video), then that should minimise the problem over really cheap netting though.
I triex bird netting last year, not knowing this and a bird had its neck broke. I tossed it out. It was horrible.
Thanks for the suggestion about using tulle as insect netting. I had worried about the cost and availability of the "real" stuff. Genius!
War!!!!!
Many don't know about true battles.
Protect the garden!!!!
Absolutely!!!
An excellent video! Love your fun playing with words. I am very familiar with brassica massacres, unfortunately.
An all-too-familiar experience!
These videos are like a Bible for me , thank you so much Ben for your wisdom and always great budget friendly tips !
So pleased you're finding them helpful Jessica. :-)
First year gardening. After the slug onslaught earlier this year I've just gone out to my garden to see a brassica buffet occurring. I'm livid!
I empathise - mine are under attack now too!
Great advice. Thanks much.
Last year I fought and lost to the cabbage moths/worms despite BT, neem oil, etc. My daughter & I used your brassica protection plan this fall 2022 with the bamboo canes, turned over plastic bottles to support fine insect netting.... and it's working splendidly!! Thank you, from Georgia, USA I took pics to post but I don't see how to post them.
So pleased you've had success with this Donna, that's great news!
Good idea about their use in the compost heap! I do collect the masses of snails we have and make sure I take them quite far away as I know tests have been done and they are able to return to the same spot if you just remove them to close by! Interesting to hear about the RHS trial of snail and slug barriers!
Big thanks to this video Ben! So many of these pests have been progressively showing up on our farm in southern Ontario Canada… now have some resolutions for this upcoming week :)
Great stuff - hope you manage to get the upper hand on them again.
BT is available in Ontario and my experience with it has been fantastic for any kind of worm or caterpillar. Will be extra careful not to spray anything else.
I’m a novice gardener and planted brassicas first time in my new allotment. I think I’m already experiencing brassica massacre as all my brassicas been eaten by birds and a few left over leaves are ridden with pests 😞 But thank you very much for this very useful video. This will help me next time
Sorry to hear of your loss. Such a shame! Next time you will have a fantastic crop hopefully.
Thanks Ben for the good advice. I really enjoy your channel and look forward to your new videos. Cheers.
Thanks so much for watching. :-)
Hi Ben, I recently bought a vegepod from the Chelsea Flower Show, which has a domed lid for maximum light, with some sort of mesh that nothing can get through. It's the medium vegepod and is a metre square with about 36 inches of growing space either way. As I had already planted my other vegetables I've sown some turnips, kohl rabi and cauliflower, although I will only be able to get 2 or 3 cauliflowers squeezed in. It also has a water reservoir below the soil so you can go on holiday for up to 2 weeks. I'll keep you posted on how I get on. This is so exciting!
That's really super to hear Julia. Very best of luck with it and keep me posted. :-)
Thanks Ben! I have some leftover netting from my Halloween costume. I'm going to use that on my Brassicas this season. 😊
Another great video Ben. Yes pests want their share of our vegetables. Good advice & tips how to deal with the pests.
They usually get their share as well David!
Love your channel so much generous info for home gardeners. Have learnt so much and thank you for giving so many alternatives.
That’s great to hear. Thank you for watching. :-)
Ben try using scaffold netting it's cheap and you can ask scaffold workers for there old netting
Great idea, thanks! :-)
Thank you
Higgledy piggledy😂 love it. Getting pumped up for this upcoming growing season!
Great stuff Kurt!
Enjoy watching keep us smiling !
Thanks Ben to help with the brassica massacre - we've got pigeon attack at the moment.
Thanks Ben.. You showed me a couple of options I hadn't thought of.
So pleased the video was helpful. 😀
Thank you great video. I also use crushed egg shells sprinkled around B.plants in a circle to cut back on snails & slugs.
And if the worst happens, I head out at night with a torch & salt shaker. Once finding slugs or snails, I salt them. When you go back next morning they are all dead & dryed up. Hope I dont come back as a snail 🤗
Haha indeed Nicky! Maybe beer traps are a happier way to despatch them?!
A Brassica-Massacre!? Amazing
Hitting up fabric stores at the end of holidays is a great way to get deals on tulle by the yard. It's polyester, comes in all sorts of colors, and easy to work with. It can also be less than $1 a yard if you guy it on those post holiday sales. Makes great covers and barriers.
Smart move!
Great tip!
Brassica family: member of the family of vegetables that includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, and turnups. Also called cruciferous vegetable.
Thank you SIR for your information. 👋
Thanks Ben! White and yellow butterfly caterpillars always feast on my brassicas. I will protect some of them this year and leave some for their dinner because my husband love butterflies. 😊❤️🙏
That sounds like a fair compromise.
you could collect the caterpillars into a jar and then feed them and watch them turn into butterflies
Thank you Mr Ben : )
I've also used net curtains from the Op Shops.
Thank you for the great suggestions! Happy gardening!😀😀😀😀😀😀
Wonderful! Ty!🧚♀️
Good advice 👍
Tip, make sure you garden on a garden complex. Your neighbour's will get the insects, you'll just have a couple aphids and mayhaps a dove or two.
Update on my tomato, it's growing strong and I even have the beginnings of a couple little ones. Super proud plant papa right now
Great work!
Thanks so much for this great knowledgeable tidbit.😊👌🌱🐛
Thank you Ben. Fantastic video.
Dressmakers toole works for cover as well. Easy to buy by the yard and relatively inexpensive.
You just said that in the video lol! Watch first, reply after. Lol
No worries Catie - great minds think alike! :-)
So informative!!!
brassica massica explains it perfectly @!!I have never heard of garlic mustard in Australia..sounds nice!! great video!
Cheers Melanie. :-)
I know that many people double net the brassicas though - pests can lay eggs on the netting next to the plants and they get through that way.
This year my worst pest was grasshoppers.They came in a swarm and stayed all summer to eat their way through my whole garden. I covered crops with tile and to my horror the next morning there were huge holes in the netting where they had eaten that too .Next year I must have a plan in place. Window screen netting? I’ve never had this problem before, maybe they won’t come back. Gardening is always a learning process.
Oh wow, that sounds like a challenging summer you’ve had. Hopefully there visit is a one off!
My Broccoli and Cauliflower was decimated and was feeling defeated this afternoon. My marigolds are still too young to help. Anyway thanks for video, next time will employ all the tactics given
Next time you'll be armed with the knowledge to defeat the pests/thwart them. :-)
Very informative video Ben thank you. You really are a know it all.🤣 Joking aside you do explain very well and know your stuff.
Great stuff
Wonderful information as always. Thank you!
Great video Ben 😍 I didn’t know brassicas had soooo many pests! At least they do go out of season eventually. Will definitely try the collars. Do you just wash the whitefly off the Kale if they get in? It’s the main reason I’m nervous to grow it again.
If they get in it can be hard to get rid of them. You could certainly try blasting them off with a strong jet of water. If they get your kale then the winter cold usually finishes them off so the kale can grow away unmolested.
Great information generally, however, where I am in Victoria, Australia netting bigger than 5mm x 5mm is illegal, to protect wildlife from getting tangled in it. So people should check the laws in their area and/or consider only using 5mm x 5mm or less to protect the wildlife.
Very good point Belinda, thanks for bringing that up.
Brilliant tips and advice, as ever Ben.👌
Thanks Priscilla. :-)
I was so discouraged that so much of my hard work was eaten up. Gardening is something you watch daily.
Thank you for the cardboard idea. I had planted marigolds but they the worms got them Anyways. I’ve sprinkled some spices on the leaves to stop them from continuing. We shall see. I want organic vs what’s available yo me in our stores here in the USA. Not sure what’s really organic that is labeled that way. At least I know what’s on my plants.
Hope you manage to keep those marigolds safe. :-)
Another huge nugget of valuable info
Top man ! ( you should write a book😉)
On (another) of piste but related matter... The slugs are getting a bit rowdy in my back garden 😂
Thanks so much! Have you seen our slug-busting video? th-cam.com/video/VJvUwkFZeOM/w-d-xo.html
@@GrowVeg if it’s the beer traps then yes..... there’s now a big slime trail to the local kebab house , I think they’ve gone!
thank you
I’ve used insect net for yrs for brassica. Works well for me.
Thank you for the idea of using bamboo or rebar with tubes to create an arch, or simply put water bottles over the sticks to create a corner that the thulle will not tear on!
Great ideas, thank you!
Like the bottles!
Always love the videos
Thank you for the detailed video Ben. I am a newbie with Brassica's and currently have a bit of everything growing. My current problem is the cabbage aphids that are attacking my small red cabbage plants. I keep blasting them with a jet of water but they keep coming back. I'm afraid that those little plants are not going to make it. I planted a fair amount of companion plants i.e calendula, nasturtium and camomile but I didn't know that I could use the other herbs. Thanks again! My next step is to set up hoop houses for netting
You could try making a white oil spray for the aphids. Mix vegetable cooking oil with mild dishwashing soap at 2:1 (easiest to just put it in a jar with lid and shake). Add 1 tablespoon to a litre of water in a spray bottle. Best applied late in the afternoon on a still day.
Yes, it may be best to keep everything under insect mesh - it seems to be the way with brassicas!
@@crankybanshee3809 cooking oil is expensive now a days, luckily I won't need too much. I will definitely try this today. Thanks
@@GrowVeg Last week the wind snapped off some of my cabbages at the base. Even with an advanced engineering degree I doubt I could build a secure enough net structure to withstand my coastal conditions in Oz. :)
I live in the UK (Northern Ireland) and had serious issues with coddling caterpillars until now. I know BT in the UK is not sold to amateur gardeners but it is available on eBay or Amazon. I grew tired of searching for them every day in between my berry bushes and two small citrus trees. They were eating not only foliage but fruits too, leaving dead cores on raspberries or burrowing deep in lemons and oranges. Because size varies and goes from a couple mil to a couple cm it was a losing battle. No more, BT is really effective.
I don't understand why it is not available in the UK while at the same time nasty chemicals which kill indiscriminately all the bugs are available for everybody.
Yes, I do wonder the same - doesn't add up!
Great video. Thank you. Looking forward to your next video. 👍
Such good info
Love your videos! Encouraging and informative. Thank you.
Thanks Connie.
Thanks again
Planted 3 gooseberry bushes a few years back, last year they were decimated by sawfly larvae.
Planted a load of poached egg plants..... Perfect for attracting hover flies that have eaten all the sawflys.
Also get chickens for catapiller control
Poached egg plants are fab. :-)
I was giving up on brassicas.... Thank you! Just purchased a bunch of Tulle for a song. Love the idea you can wash it and put it away
Great stuff - so pleased you're going to give brassicas another go. :-)
Hi Ben, thank you very much for your top tips 👍
And thank you for watching Yanee. :-)
Since i grow and dry chillies, i spray with a capsasum emmulsion almost every time I'm out in the garden. Nothing likes it, not even white fly, or rodents. And my sacrificial Fennel in the corner has been an aphid magnet, followed by ladybirds, aka the slaughter hourse 🙂
I'd leave seed/feed for the birds, but here in Canada the squirrels are just too smart to allow that to happen.
mix the seed with black pepper & chilli powder.
@@carolinejackson9405 Haha......thats almost evil. Haha. I'll try it.
Honestly I think anything that I can do that passive is the best thing we can do! get the allotment to work for me.
Absolutely! :-)
Excellent tips. Thanks
4:19 lost me lolol. My American ears could not comprehend
Probably another daft question for you, Ben!… is there a downside to just covering all your edible crops with the fine white mesh? It would exclude good insects as well - but are they needed if the baddies can’t get in either? I’d imagine anything that needs pollinating would need to be in the same bed.
What do you reckon?
Thanks as always xx Lorna
You could certainly do that. But, as you say, anything that needs to be pollinated would need to remain open. For covering I'd really only prioritise brassicas and probably carrots too (against carrot fly).
@@GrowVeg thanks Ben, you’re the best!
@@GrowVeg and leeks ;-)
Thanks so much for this video! I learned so much! Alhamdulillaah. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Great to hear that. Thanks for watching. :-)
We have been on a double edge sword here it’s been so wet and cold we barely have any cabbage whites about but the same cold and wet is stunting our growing season. But hubby built me a huge brassica house 😂😂. Peas and brassicas loving the cool wet. Thank you for sharing 🐝 safe
That's very kind of your hubby!
My 2023 summer crop of cauliflowers were ravaged not by caterpillars or birds, but slugs! I took such care in covering them with a fine mesh and they thrived until the rain/sun/rain started! I had to scrap the whole harvest as slugs were in between the leaves and curds, I have no idea where they came from! Unfortunately these pests were not mentioned in this video, any tips welcome for next year!
I feel your pain! This happened to my cabbages too. Really it's just a question of keeping on top of slug populations to stop them getting away like this, but a wet summer certainly makes this tougher!
Gotta love this blows channel for his puns 😂 brassica massacre, gotta use that one 👍🏻
It's a good 'un!