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Gardening

Nasturtiums

(31 Posts)
BlueBelle Mon 05-Aug-19 16:02:03

Too late fir this year but any advise on how to stop nasturtiums getting eaten to death by cabbage white caterpillars
I know we need to encourage butterflies but my gardens been inundated with cabbage whites and now my leafs are skeletonised by these caterpillars

downtoearth Thu 08-Aug-19 08:33:08

My 16 week old pup has care of demolishing mine grin

RosieLeah Thu 08-Aug-19 10:49:49

Nasturtiums attract earwigs...perhaps they are what is eating them? That's why you often see bamboo sticks with up-ended yogurt pots at the top, next to nasturtiums. The earwigs go inside and can then be disposed of.

H1954 Sat 10-Aug-19 00:17:39

I made some garlic pest spray and it works! Smells a bit but the blackfly on the runner beans didn't hang around long! The instructions are easy to find on the internet, it doesn't take long to make and it's organic too!

BlueBelle Sat 10-Aug-19 02:41:20

Definitely not earwigs ( do you know I haven’t seen an earwig for years) rosieleah it’s the cabbage white caterpillar I ve taken dozens off
Too late for this year but yes garlic spray is the way to go for next year I think

EllanVannin Sat 10-Aug-19 09:10:00

We had lots of nasturtiums at home and I can remember mum putting them in salads and fruit dishes even in the late 50's . I often ate the flowers just by picking the odd one off when I went past them-----didn't think about any crawlies.
They look lovely when there's a good show of them.