I really don’t want to turn this blog into a list of plant pests on my allotment, but the lepidopteran onslaught I am having to repel at the moment is absolutely outrageous. The first thing I do when I go to the allotment now is check the cabbages to pick off the caterpillars. No matter how many I picked off on my previous visit there are always more to keep me busy. So I’m become even more vigilant and trying to get to the eggs before they hatch out.

These yellow eggs have been laid by the large cabbage white butterfly (Pieris brassicae). They were quite easy to find as they had been laid on the upper side of the leaf. That’s right! The butterflies are getting so cocky they are laying their eggs in full view! Interestingly I have only found these eggs on the broccoli and not on the cabbages.

Just a few plants along the row and I came across these wiggling wrigglers.

They look like they have recently hatched out. Large cabbage white caterpillars eat their egg cases after they hatch which explains why there are none present on the photo. Luckily I got to these before they did any real damage.

Seeing all of the white butterflies at the allotment today it looks as though I’ll be picking and scraping the brassica leaves for a good while yet.