Last year when I spotted large numbers of Cabbage Whites flying around, I didn't pay much attention to them at first, as I had (fortunately, as it turned out) decided not to grow any brassica crops. Now the caterpillars are flitting around the snow peas because the white flowers look like butterflies. Sowing indoors is a good way to get cabbages off to an early or more reliable start, out of reach of slugs and snails. Not only will it save you a lot of time and effort, it usually lasts much longer so will also save you money in the long run. It would be worth checking the plants regularly for caterpillars just to make sure that butterflies haven't managed to lay their eggs through the holes.

Housed in a discreet green box, it was easy to set up and very effective at keeping pigeons away from our spring cabbages – only 14% had been pecked to pieces by the end of the trial. For each of these covers, I place them over hoops that span my raised beds and weight down the covers so they won’t blow off on a breezy day.The main purpose of insect-proof mesh is to keep insects such as cabbage white butterfly and flea beetle off crops.

Reduced labor costs: Cabbage netting can help reduce the need for labor-intensive manual pest control methods, such as hand-picking insects from the plants. Despite the likelihood of total annihilation, I am growing nasturtiums again – hopefully their presence will distract the butterflies from trying to squeeze in under my netting and I'll enjoy a good crop of broccoli later this summer!And I realise that an exact answer is impossible, but as I mentioned in an earlier post my Brussel's are now pushing up against the netting I have. Butterfly netting protects brassicas in particular from cabbage white butterflies which lay eggs on brassicas and the resulting caterpillars can devastate a crop. Cabbage Bird Netting will protect your crops from birds, and you can grow your products sufficiently with your hard work. This soft butterfly netting will stop cabbage white butterflies and birds ruining your vegetables, especially brassica plants, like cabbage and kale. Ultra-fine insect netting is for the smaller insect pests which damage your vegetables including flea beetle, allium leaf miner and whitefly damage.

Keep any cabbage family plants covered with netting, and the butterflies should seek out the nasturtiums instead and not try too hard to get at your brassicas. Crop rotation should be practised, as some invertebrates can getthrough the mesh and might persist until the following year, ready to multiply when the same crop is planted and the mesh replaced. Cabbages do best in a sunny spot with moist, alkaline soil that has had plenty of well-rotted organic matter, such as garden compost, added. The pea plants generally don’t reach 6 feet but this is so that the plant tends to stay inside the cage and not poke through and out. Cabbage Whites produce two broods per year (three in a favourable summer), so make sure to install the netting in spring and don't remove it until autumn.The result is that I've been spending an inordinate amount of time rubbing off eggs and hand-picking caterpillars - which I guess would be the traditional method. Strawberries – once in fruit I drape bird netting over bamboo canes and bottles just high enough to clear the plants.

Isolate crops from insect: Cabbage netting is used to isolate cabbage to avoid plant pollution and plant destruction from insects. If you've seen any pests or beneficial insects in your garden in the past few days please report them to The Big Bug Hunt and help create a warning system to alert you when bugs are heading your way. Environmentally friendly: Cabbage netting is a non-toxic and environmentally friendly alternative to pesticides and other chemical treatments.

Covering fruit and vegetable crops with Enviromesh® enables you to grow healthy fruit and vegetables free from insect damage. It’s a good idea to harvest every other cabbage along the row initially, to let the remainder grow larger. Assembling instantly and folding away just as quickly , these covers can be deployed the moment you see a cabbage white in the garden. It turns out that the Small Cabbage White butterfly, while undoubtedly a pest, is nothing compared to its big brother, the unimaginatively-named Large Cabbage White.