White cabbage butterfly and their offspring

[mogs]

Despite being covered with a green net and being sprayed with an all purpose anti maladie treatment, these butterflies and the caterpillars are destroying my brussel sprouts and the leaves which I like to cook as brussel tops.

A french friend advised me to use Savon Noir so my question is has anyone tried this and does it work?

This morning I've been picking off the caterpillars and tearing the leaves to remove the eggs, a delightful job NOT

[nomoss]

I think you should be cautious about what you spray on veggies you are going to eat.

I think the Cabbage whites may lay their eggs on the netting so that some of  the caterpillars fall onto the plants as they hatch. Flies do something similar to enable their larvae to access material through small gaps. Maybe a poly tunnel would be more effective.

Googling "kill caterpillars on cabbages" produces a myriad of results, of which I like [url]http://vomitingchicken.com/natural-ways-to-get-rid-of-those-nasty-cabbage-moths/[/url]

[Gardengirl]

My father, a very keen gardener, used to go out morning and evening to catch the little so & sos. He squashed them between his fingers, or if there were many of them, they would be dumped into a bucket of salt water. Leaves infested by eggs were ripped off. However, he didn't often resort to that as he started the hunt very early on, soon after they actually looked like proper little cabbages.

I couldn't be bothered to faff like that in my garden so I used to spray with my Ecover washing up water, and if I was fed up, I'd throw the bowlful over them. It worked OK, not many ruined cabbages - but they weren't French cabbage whites!