I have tiny worms & eggs? eating My purple cabbage?? Help

Please suggest what I can do to save the purple cabbage......thank You

I found a website (couldn't tell you what now) that suggested picking off the insect and the best form of insect control is a farmer's shadow. =) It just takes time, which we all don't have a lot of. If you could see and catch the insect, that's what I would do. Especially the worms. I'm sure they are easy to catch. Good luck. I'd love to grow cabbage.

Spray with BT! It's organic and does the trick.

What is BT? :) Thanks

Deb

Sounds like your cabbages have been infested by the cabbage white butterfly which has laid it's eggs, these have hatched into the caterpillars and feed on the cabbage, they don't care what colour the cabbages are, they just desecrate the whole crop IF you don't either pick those caterpillars off, destroy the eggs which are found in clusters on underside of leaves, or knock them off with a strong burst from the water hose.
It may be easier to cut off the infected leaves and either drown the bugs or burn them.
To deter these pests in future years, look out for the white butterfly about May time and lay fleece over the tiny cabbages before the eggs are laid, this helps to prevent such an infestation, hope this helps out. Good luck, Weenel.

BT is Bacillus thuringiensis...it's a bacteria that will kill things like caterpillars, mosquito larvae, etc but won't kill other types of insects.

Hi Ecrane, WeeNel here, is this stuff sold as a spray, a powder or what, I have never heard of it here and would love to find out about it as we also have the same problems with our Brassicas and some years the whole crop is eaten within weeks if left un-controlled.
Thanks in advance. WeeNel.

WeeNel, Bt is very popular here and has been around quite a long time. I believe you also have it but you'll need to find it by a brand name. "Dipel" is a powdered form. "Thuricide" is the liquid form. Those two are for caterpillars.

There are other strains for different pests, be they mosquito larvae or potato beetles.

Lastly, Bt has no effect on warm blooded animals and best of all no secondary effect on birds (for example) that may eat a worm/caterpillar infected w/the Bt pathogen.

Shoe

There are many brands--Mix with water and spray. Can prob'ly get it ready to use, but I'm too cheap to do that!

WeeNell, here is some info for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis