Cabbage white butterfly patrol. Photo / Paul Thompson
Be on the look-out for cabbage white butterflies. These common summer visitors are now on the wing and looking for your cabbages, kale, broccoli, rocket, mizuna, radishes, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, turnips, swedes and cauliflowers to lay their eggs on.
Take them out with a badminton racket before they get a
chance to lay and their hungry caterpillars turn plant leaves to holey Swiss cheese.
The small, yellow, bullet shaped eggs are laid on the underside of leaves and hatch into tiny green caterpillars. These can simply be rubbed off as you come across them. Caterpillars usually hang out in the shade on the underside of leaves where they feed on the soft leaf tissue, weakening the host plant.
Dusting plants with household flour has the effect of suffocating them - even if your neighbours might think you're confusing gardening with baking.
The other option is to pick them off as you see them, or just rub them on the leaf till they burst if they are small.
