has anyone tried this?

[pshngo]

I live in so. cal. and see hundreds of adult cabbage worm butterflies flying around. they eat my tomatoes my broccoli, cabbage,peppers... you get the point. recently i had a couple on my broccoli and decided to smush a few on the underside of the leaves. I have been checking everyday for the past few weeks and haven't seen one caterpillar. does the butterfly sense/smell the smushed one on the leaves? maybe!

adult cabbage white butterfly

cabbage worm

 

[JCD]

It makes sense, would you go into a grocery store with a bunch of dead, squashed people around? I'm kidding but considering all the mixed scents from the crushed bug it does seem like it would be a deterrent to others, sort of a chemical sign saying "eat here die here".

JCD

 

[spongey600]

SAFER also has a concentrate that contains BT specific to Caterpillars, it works great and since it is natural it does not harm us animals or the enviroment. and can be used all the way up to when you harvest your veggies/fruit. my neighbor grow MJ and they were eating his nugs so let him use some and they dissapeared!

but hey, if smashing them and leaving some guts on the plant works then by all means smash away

 

[tjg911]

no i don't believe that deters the moths at all. i used to crush them and there were always more to come. BT will elminate the problem.

 

[pshngo]

thank you i will check into the BT.

 

[chsy83]

[sub]Some insects have been found to be repelled by the smell of crushed insects of the same species.[/sub]

 

[LGHT]

SAFER also has a concentrate that contains BT specific to Caterpillars, it works great and since it is natural it does not harm us animals or the enviroment.

I'm also in So Cal and I've smashed a few on one plant and found a couple more on the same plant a few days later so not sure if dead guts work as much as the SAFER spray with BT that i've had great success with in the past. I don't even wait until I see signs of them before spraying. I usually only spray once a few weeks after they go outside and then again only if I see signs of them.