Category Archives: Insect Decline

Last night the Horticultural Media Association of Australia (HMAA) awards night (the ‘Laurels’) were held on Facebook Live. This article “Nullius in verba” won the Laurel in the Technical Category. The article was originally published in 2018 in Hort Journal Australia. Here it is again in its entirety, with some external links that should appear in blue.

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Scientific facts often get lost among all the opinions, ‘alternative facts’, hyberbole, and ‘fake news’ of the digital age. This month’s Pest Files is dedicated to separating the facts from the myths.

Let’s start with something simple – the cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae) whose caterpillars are voracious munchers of brassica plants (kale, cabbage, broccoli, etc.). Many gardening magazines and blogs, and even some radio and TV gardening shows, reckon female P. rapae won’t lay their eggs when other females are present. The theory is that these butterflies are territorial and will avoid each other so there is little or no competition between their offspring. To protect your crop all you have to do is place a plastic white butterfly mimic amongst your brassica plants – or so the story goes.

Continue reading Nullius in verba→