The cabbage white and the cabbage looper moth. Also squirrels, but I'll get to them in a bit.
Its not really the flyers that do the damage its their hungry, hungry spawn that they deposit on your Brassica that do the damage. I'm told that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure so I looked into how to keep the flyers from laying there eggs on my plants. I wanted it to be non-chemical if I could. What I found was that these moths don't like to lay there eggs were other moths are. "Excellent" I thought, "I'll make decoys." This didn't turn out to be an original idea but I made my own and I'll let you know if they work for me.
Now the squirrels.
Photo by CaitieBeth
There is nothing in the world to deter a squirrel. People who put out bird feeders know this better then anyone. Making access harder just makes them want it more...
Your best bet it to leave something they like better around, really.
I also try to spook them. I have a small army of plastic snakes with sequin eyes that I put out in my garden. It seems lower the damage. You do have to move them around the garden every so often. I'm told there are smells that squirrels don't like, but my guess is I don't like them either. Also that I could put out blood or bonemeal to make them think there is a predator around. I might try that.
My pest patrol:
2 comments:
the squirrel has a positively gleeful expression on its face... I'm all for cute furry things, but can't they subsist on nuts and berries that would fall and clutter my yard, rather than yanking off the perfectly ripe tomato, eating half of it, and leaving the other half in the middle of the roof or yard to taunt me?!
you see that face, you know they do it b/c you can't stop them.
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