Caterpillars This Year??

[lilacben]

caterpillars this year? I cannot believe how many leaves have bean eaten on my plants this year?...one plant has just the center vein only left on each stem?..... can someone please tell me the best way to deal with them please.?

[mazie]

Hand pick them off...which is a pain. The worse culprits are the small ones which take a lot of finding. No one understands my dislike of butterflies

[lilacben]

But I cant even see any ...just a bear stem!.....is there a spray or anything I can use.?

[Tilly2]

Birds will deal with them, lilacben.

[mazie]

No spray I'm afraid. They will be really small green ones

[Jennykenny]

I find that spraying the plants with a mild solution of washing up liquid and water helps.

[Old_Geezer]

Does it have to be caterpillars ? I have plants looking like stalks, and some eaten totally. Never seen a caterpillar on them. Been blaming the slugs & snails.

[murraymints]

with jenny..a weak solution of washing up liquid does the trick ...otherwise handpick..and SQUASH !

[lilacben]

no it doesn't hAve to be caterpillers ..but haven't seen anything on them and then they are gone lol .xx will try soapy water . thankyou

[melv16]

In the past I've used derris dust. I don't know if you can still get it. BTW, it's the year of the slug in my garden and allotment, I'm on my second carton of slug pellets :-(