Fall gardens are growing but watch out for those moths!!

By the end of September the fall garden should be well underway. If yours looks anything like ours here at the Davidson County Agriculture Center Demo Garden then you are very pleased up to this point. Yesterday I did my daily scout of the garden and to my surprise I found many eggs on the leaves of my cole crops laid by cabbage moths. Below is what the eggs of these moths look like. These eggs are generally laid on the underside of the leaves. I was surprised at the number of eggs present due to the fact that these moths are generally the most active in the spring. I have seen very few moths near the garden but it only takes one to totally devastate your crop. The two moths you need to look out for are shown below. The first one is the imported cabbage worm moth. These are noticed most commonly due to their white color. The second picture is of the cabbage looper moth.

These moths lay their eggs and when the eggs hatch the resulting worms eat the plants leaves until little is left.






The cabbage looper

The imported
cabbage worm




Infestation can be prevented by using row covers or by simply scouting your crop each day and rubbing out the eggs. These two measure are simple and easy on a small crop but for a bigger crop one my need to spray. The best way to control these worms is through use of bacillus thugensis or bt for short. This is a bacteria that infects the worms causing them to die. The bacteria is harmless to humans although one would not want to spray it on themselves. It can be purchased at most farm type stores under the name of Dipel or Thuricide. Dipel is generally sold as a powder and Thuricide is a concentrated liquid. These pesticides would need to be applied after each rain because the rain water will wash of the effective bacteria.

So if you see the moths, eggs or worms. Be ready to take action or you will end up with nothing more than a plant that is shot full of holes. Nobody said growing crops was easy but we have the means to deal with most problems so use them to the fullest!