green worms eating my sugar snap pea leaves

Comment by grrlscout on December 1, 2009 at 1:43pm

I get those too. I think they're cabbage loopers.

Other than picking them off by hand, I'm had also been spraying the leave with bT.

My latest strategy is to spread out some diatomaceous earth atop the soil and plants. Hoping that will help.

Comment by Chris Byers on December 1, 2009 at 2:57pm

I am with grrlscout, picking them by hand is often pretty easy and most of the time does not take too much effort. You do not have to get rid of all of them and it is easy to locate where to look for them, next to the freshes chomped on leaves. They do not move very fast or generally very far from their last meal. Look under the leaves during the day, they will tend to hide from the birds. If picking is not to your liking and bT does not control them use wettable sulfur, There is no insect that has ever develop any kind of resistance to this organic insect control. Also it is very good for the soil here, lowering the ph of your soil will also help prevent having uncontrolled insect problems make the plants stronger and they will use less water.
Try picking them first, it is the least invasive control.

Comment by cory dunnington on December 1, 2009 at 7:12pm

thanks I've been picking I need chickens....

Comment by Barbara Middleton on December 7, 2009 at 7:32pm

My husband and I have been having problems too. He is also handpicking the worms, but he really enjoys (maybe too much?) throwing them against the block wall when he finds one! I am just reading a homemade solutions type book and they said that during the time that the moths are trying to lay eggs, put a very light curtain type material over the plants, especially those in that cabbage family, as they cannot land and lay eggs. I think I missed that window of opportunity this year because we certainly had a good hatch of worms! Anyone know when the laying time might be?

Comment by Chris Byers on December 7, 2009 at 9:21pm

When you see "butterflies" flitting about your plants they are laying eggs. Would have been one or two months ago, depends on conditions and the exact variety.

Comment by cory dunnington on December 7, 2009 at 10:02pm

I never saw any butterflies, the plants are a month old. I have been picking them off, but for everyone I pick 5 more sprout out

Comment by Chris Byers on December 8, 2009 at 8:53am

You would not have to see many, only one of two would be able to lay all the eggs you could pick and it only takes them a few minutes to get the job done.
Insects have been here for hundreds of millions of years, they are very good at what they do. Evading being eaten is one of the special tricks they have, often it is by not being noticed, the other key is by laying lots of eggs.
Also because they are most likely one of the 35,000 member family of Geometridae moth It is most likely they played their game of laying eggs at night when you would not have been a likely to have seen them. I misused the term butterflies in my earlier post, sorry.

The eggs would have been layed on the underside of the leaves and you really have to look for them to find them. If you want to kill them all at once using bT or sulfur spray are you best two organic options. If you turns leaves over you may be able to find egg clusters and just kind of smear them over and rids you of new hatches. The predators are mostly wasps and they are hard to come by in the garden this time of year.

So keep at it, garden has it's moments, this is just one of those.

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