Cabbage moths are one of the most common insects you will see in your backyard. Even without a garden, these moths will likely be found in every backyard, fluttering around looking for their favourite plants (brassica, hence the name cabbage moth!)
What are cabbage moths and cabbage worms?
Cabbage moths are a small, white day-time flying moth. They have one dot on the outside of each of their wings and quickly fly around the garden, not stopping for long. These moths lay eggs, generally on the underside of leaves, that hatch into cabbage worms. These worms are masters at camouflage and blend in perfectly with the leaves of their host plant.
How to Identify Cabbage Moths & Their Damage
Cabbage moths are simple to identify as they are a daytime flying moth with white wings. They lay eggs on the underside of leaves that are small and a pale yellow. Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars come out to eat the leaves of your plants. The caterpillars are small and green and blend in with the leaf colour perfectly.
The easiest way to know you have cabbage moths is when you see damage on your plants. These caterpillars eat the leaves of their host plants and once you see the damage you can look for the worms.
Another way to identify that you have cabbage worms is when you see their frass (or poop) on the plant. It often collects in the bottom of the leaves where it connects to the stem of the plant.
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Commonly Affected Plants
As described in their name, cabbage moths mainly target plants in the brassica family such as; broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts and kale.
Life Cycle of the Cabbage Moth
Cabbage moths live for around 5 days in adult form. They lay their eggs, which hatch into caterpillars that do the most damage on your plants. Once the caterpillar are finished their cycle, they pupate until they become an adult moth.
How to Control Cabbage Worms
As home gardeners, we generally don’t grow gardens that are at the same scale as farms. Therefore, we believe there is no space for pesticides of any kind in the home garden. Cabbage worms can cause some major damage to plants, but if you keep on top of maintenance, or properly protect your plants, you can mitigate their damage.
Check for Eggs
You can see cabbage moth eggs on the underside of leaves. It can be difficult to do this on large, tightly grown plants such as cabbage, however it is possible to do this on other plants such as broccoli and kale.
The eggs are small, and a pale yellow. When you find the eggs, wipe them off. The only item to note is that lady bug eggs are also yellow, so be mindful of this as you look for eggs, because you will want to keep lady bugs in your garden since they are the good ones!
Continue growing your garden knowledge
- How to Protect Your Plants from Cucumber Beetles
- How to Grow Cucumbers From Seed to Harvest
- What the Calgary Water Main Break Can Teach Us In Our Gardens
- Drowning in Kale? Here are 9 Ways to Use Your Harvest!
- How to Grow Bush Beans from Seed to Harvest
Remove Cabbage Worms from Affected Plants
Damage on the leaves is an indicator that worms are present. Damage can look like holes in the leaves, or the edges have been eaten. Check both the underside of the leaves, and the top of them for caterpillars since they will be on both sides. Look slowly, as these caterpillars are very camouflaged. When you find the worms you can pick them off and throw them away or squish them.
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How to Prevent Cabbage Moths
The best way to prevent cabbage moths and cabbage worm damage is to cover your brassica with insect netting. Since brassica plants don’t require pollination to produce food, you can keep them covered from the time of planting to harvesting.
Insect netting can be installed using hoops or even on top of bamboo sticks that have been placed in the garden. The most important thing to be aware of is to make sure the netting isn’t resting directly on the plants, as the moth can still lay eggs through the netting.
This solution is particularly good for cabbage, since these plants tend to have tightly compacted leaves, making it difficult to remove eggs and worms. It also helps prevent worms from getting into the florets of broccoli and cauliflower, which is extremely difficult to clean out after harvest.
We have two recommendations for you, one from West Coast Seeds and another from William Dam.
