those little green caterpillers all through my broccolli are so gross! how do you deal with them?

either pick them off or use a Bt aka Dipel aka thuricide (beneficial bacteria) to control them.

Suzanne,
Are they considered "Cabbage Looper's" that
Dan's talking about???

Very curious??

Just use some netting. Build a frame over your broccolli and cover it with anti bird netting. Stop the butterflies getting at your broccolli in the first place that way they cannot lay any eggs, hence no caterpillers. Works a treat. I've been doing this for years. No need for nasty sprays or anything and you get completely undamaged bug free brassicas.

This will work but some people will not like to do this. Last year I went into my garage and picked all the spider egg sacks I could find. I put them in my garden and in no time I had ALOT of spiders in there. Great thing was ANY bugs that tried to eat the plants got eaten by the spiders so no problems with apids,worms,bugs.

The spiders did`nt usually bother the bees so I was well. Who says you have to use poisons to control the pests. With SOOOOOO many spiders I did get a few frogs though but no biggee.

All good ideas. Yes, Weezie, most likely they're cabbage loopers. Larva of the cabbage white butterfly. The Bt, thuricide, that buglady mentioned is not a traditional "poison." It's a bacteria, and only affects caterpillars...very safe to use...usually found at any garden center.

I have gotttttt to take a closer look..
I was just researching them, and I know I have the butterfly part, I've got pictures of them all acrossed the radish's I let go to flower... and
I saw no green worm.. *and the pictures I see,
which are magnified of course, the greeen worms have hairs on them.*

The one's I see, devouring my columbines,
do not appear to be hairy... but I will have to look closer I guess..

It's a shame, those butterflies were alot of fun..
I loved watching them, they'd flit up and down, and go crazy over those flowers.. and there were several pairs too, and they'd play together...
Hmmmmmmmmmphhhhhhhhh!!!

Weezie...I always let a few things go to the worms...I like to have all the butterflies I can!

You know the funny thing is, I didn't know what those butterflies were, and didn't mind them at all, like I said, they were pretty and so full of life and fun..

But, if it's them, *which I'm still debating now
after looking at the hairy catapillars, mine are glossy smooth* as to what's eating *or stripping*
my Columbines clean... *not the flowers, just the leaves...*

And I have several colors of columbines, and I just don't want to have them all gone...
because they really only produce one set of good flowers before the greenworms get them...

I'm guesssing those could be skippers. There are tons of different skippers...they'rs smallish, and sort of angular shaped, and flap their wings very rapidly.
Can you pick off all but a few? or do you have too many columbines?

This is only one area where one color is....


I've got to have at least, 11 other sections, of other colors, that they get on to too...

I'd be like this at the end of the day, when I try to pick them all off...

I don't have any problem of them flowering and re~seeding, that is for sure.. but the plant just looks so bad and I feel so bad for it too...
(Leaf minors' get after the leaves first too,
so the one's that the leaf minor don't chew, the greenworm does... )
*I literally do do it too..*

Weezie, this could be the culprit...it lives in your area, and eats wild(?) columbine. I don't know why they specified wild...I thought a columbine was a columbine, just different colors.

http://images.google.com/images?q=columbine+duskywing&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

Ohhhhhhhhhh, sure, I'd have to see this at dinner time...
Thanks Dave..
I'll get to it after supper, I dyin' to see..
I did skip read very quickly, but I didn't see any pictures of the green culprit...
*all butterflies*

I will be back to this one...

Those little worms aren't to bad.

I was eating some of my broccoli 2 years ago, I was eating it raw with a little Ranch dressing, and it was after my second or third piece I noticed the worms.

I stopped and went into the kitchen and washed the rest of it REAL good. I didn't tell my wife about it.

She had already finished her pieces.

The worms I had were green, the same color as the broccoli.

They are hard to see, so any more I wash it really good, and cut the heads up real good so I can see in to it.

Yep, the one's on my Columbines' blend right in.
you don't even know they are there really,
until half the plant is gone.. like one day it's there, the next day they are gone..

And my mom gets those ornamental cabbages and they get them too... and those look like mine,
only maybe a bit bigger, but hey, the leaves on the cabbage is bigger...so, makes 'em grow more,
I guess...

Just read your post, Pat. Sounds like you got your protein!

Hey with enough Ranch Dressing anything taste good!!!