May 28, 2012 - Broccoli Pest

My hands off approach to pest control this season has lead to some pretty catastrophic damage to the broccoli and cauliflower plants.  Some of the plants are completely defoliated and others are noticeably stunted.  I've finally identified the culprit as the Small Cabbage Butterfly. 

And here's a caterpillar feasting away on the underside of the leaf.  There are also dozens of small eggs on nearly every leaf and the small white adult butterflies are fairly common around the field and garden.

 

It may be too late to do much for these plants, but I'm going to try and scrape off any eggs I see and squash the caterpillars.  The three cauliflower plants I have in containers on the deck have no signs of damage.