I was admiring the broccoli in my garden. This year the broccoli looks really healthy, with large stalks and big green leaves. At least, until I noticed after the rain storm we had yesterday, that suddenly many big leaves were half-eaten or completely gone! Then I saw it…I got worms! Tons of little broccoli worms all over our kale and broccoli. Uggh! I don’t have Bt spray. So, I grabbed my garden tweezers, and a little cup of water with dish soap and went to work. Pulling them off and dropping them in the cup of soapy water. After a while of searching, hunched over in my garden, pulling worms with tweezers off my plants, I must have looked like Rick Moranis in “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”. I just wish I could have made that apparatus he had so I could lay flat.
Broccoli worms are common, and I’ve had them before. Its been so dry this summer, they seem to have come with the rain. The worms are really one of three common types: cabbage worms, cabbage loopers and diamondback worms. I have cabbage worms. The worms are the larvae of white butterflies, brown moths and gray moths, respectively. Which is why, when I see moths floating about in my garden I go nuts. Usually I try to hit them with the hose – but its no use. I can’t be out there all day. I guess it’s time to add Bt spray to my collection of garden solutions. Bt spray makes the worm sick, and is safe for humans, pets, and plants. It can be found at most home centers. I prefer instant satisfaction – I’m a worm hunter.
When you see irregular shapes and holes chewed away in your leaves, look carefully! You may have worms!
