Cabbageworms on broccoli

It was inevitable, my broccoli has cabbage worms!

My question now would be is it better to find and squish all eggs and worms, and then cover with garden fabric to prevent more moths laying eggs? Or since they have already laid down eggs and infested the area, they might be in the soil and I should spray something. What do I spray that's safe?

I'm gardening in self-watering containers, so it's easy to find the eggs and squish new worms, but I'm having to do it every day, and I'm just getting tired of it. What can I do that works?

i have the same problem but i still harvest for consumption, I do however wash them well by dipping them in hot water with salt then rinsing them well with cold water to make sure that i get rid of all the bugs. Belle

Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a sure way to rid your brassicas of loopers and cabbage worms. It is approved for "organic" growers.

One radical way I found to get rid of bugs in pot plants was to submerge the tub in water for three days. It drowned the bugs. Any longer, and it would have killed the plant too. But my plants survived - free of bugs!

I agree with Farmerdill. BT, a naturally occurring bacteria, works very quickly and it only works on bugs in the caterpillar stage so beneficials are safe. You can get in a dust or liquid and even use it on the day you harvest. It's nice to have an organic method that works so well.

Organic approved, but you do need to carefull. I t will take out any moth or butterfly larva, so you don't want to use around a butterfly garden.

I had read that 1 oz (2 TBS) of Blackstrap Molasses in a gallon of water used as a foliar spray deters the White Cabbage Moth. I decided to try it after finding worms on my cabbage and broccoli. I killed all the worms I could find and started spraying. It was interesting to see the moths fly around the plants but not land. The problem is that one must spray after every rain but I never found another worm the rest of the summer until recently because I was away and didn't spray. Now that the Brussel Sprouts are getting ready to "sprout" I will start again with the spraying. This will not work against worms already on the plants but will keep the moths from laying future eggs, it appears!

The BT worked! I will do another application soon (about 2 weeks after my first spray of it) as I think it eventually will wear away or wash off. Thanks so much for the suggestions!