Australian garden insects with Denis Crawford
My latest YouTube video: “Control Cabbage White Butterflies with nets”. This is a follow-up to the previous video which dispelled the myth of controlling cabbage white butterfly with white plastic butterfly mimics.
In this video I show how easy it is to set up a net on a frame to protect some broccoli seedlings. I also talk about why there are so many cabbage white butterflies around at the moment.
My latest YouTube video: “Do white plastic butterflies deter Cabbage White Butterflies?”
There’s a theory that says Cabbage White Butterflies are territorial. So if we deploy plastic white butterflies near our brassica plants does that mean Cabbage White Butterfly females won’t lay eggs on those plants?
Sounds good because no eggs means our brassica vegetables won’t be damaged by Cabbage White Butterfly caterpillars.
But are Cabbage White Butterflies territorial? Do these plastic mimics actually work?
Check out my the video to find out!
Here is the LINK to the article “Mothbusters: testing a common myth about a small butterfly”.
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.
