Can you identify butterfly eggs on vegetable leaves?
Autumn is the season when butterflies lay their eggs on the leaves of our favorite plants (especially cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, rocket, etc).
When the eggs hatch, dozens of tiny gluttonous caterpillars emerge from inside them, which grow quickly eating the leaves, destroying the plants.
As a first step to protect our plants, we should destroy these butterfly eggs when we find them on or under the leaves before they become caterpillars.
Fortunately, identifying them is easy.
Butterfly eggs under a rocket leaf
The butterfly eggs are yellow or white in color and are all clustered together, one next to the other.
You can crush them with your fingers.
What happens if I don’t get there in time and I have caterpillars on the plants
If you don’t loath them, you can remove them one by one by hand and kill them.
Alternatively, you can spray your plants with Bacillus thuringiensis. It is an economical, organic and effective way of dealing with them. The caterpillars will eat the bacillus and in 1 to 2 days they will die.
There is also the method of chemical treatment, which is best to avoid as there are easy to use organic methods. After all, we grow our own vegetables to get clean food without drugs.
Which plants do butterflies prefer to lay their eggs
The favorite plants are broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Their large leaves are ideal food for caterpillars.
I have also found butterfly eggs under arugula (rocket), as you can see from the photos.
How do I know if there are caterpillars on my plants?
Believe me, you’ll figure it out!
You will see that the leaves will be eaten.
In the worst cases, only the nerves of the large leaves will be left.
Video – Hatching white butterfly eggs on cabbage leaves
In the video below you will see the cabbage white butterfly eggs hatch and the caterpillars emerge from them.
Enjoy!
Tags: BUTTERFLIES • BUTTERFLY EGGS • PLANT PROTECTION
