Comments on: Green Worms In Your Broccoli? Me too!

By: Steve Wade

Steve Wade — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:51:08 +0000

I have the same problem-I used some warm soapy water and it seemed to kill them off within a few minutes, but there were more back the next day-I’m not 100% convinced about Bacillus Thuringiensis, yet.

By: Lisa Sperry

Lisa Sperry — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:52:13 +0000

I was blanching broccoli to make soup a couple of weeks ago and noticed them in the hot water. Ick….are they harmful if ingested? They seem to be hard to see at first.

By: Toni

Toni — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:53:06 +0000

Thisis my first year of planting move then tomatoe, peppers, and basil. I have put in peas, broccoli, potatoes & watermelon. After reading these articals I am going to keep a very close eye on these darn worms and bug. Thak you all for your help.
With the prices of food these days it’s hard to keep up. I will be keeping some of what I have planted for my family but the rest will go to my food pantry that I am adminstrator of.

By: Anna

Anna — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:37:50 +0000

Guess what I found on my broccoli today. I was too late with the cedar chips! I thougth I had time but I guess I was wrong. I rubbed off the little tikes and spray them with some sort of garlic spray.

If the spray does not work, I will try your soap idea.

I also found a baby slug in broad daylight, which is really weird since I only find them at night. I hate slugs. I do not know why they are around except for frogs to eat them!

By: Mandy

Mandy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:44:53 +0000

Hi Anna,
Fantastic idea about using cedar chips in a bowl around your broccoli! Let us know if it works. I am actually going to post a few more alternatives to commercial pesticides and the hot pepper spray is one of them. It works great for ants as well.
Thanks for the tips and I hope you will stop by often.

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:15:22 +0000

I actually have this problem every year. I see the white moths floating away and I know I am going to have trouble. I used a product from Whole Foods then I used BT to stop them. My friend told me this year to use a red pepper spray will keep the moths away. I have seen this mixture on the web.

I am going to try a bowl of cedar mulch near the plants since cedar repells moths. My neighbor uses organic cedar mulch and she swears the moths won’t come near her broccoli. I was a little worried using mulch around my veggies even if they said it was organic, so I am trying a bowl with the mulch. We will see if it works this year…Anna http://www.green-talk.com

By: Mandy

Mandy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:58:15 +0000

Hi Sunbuddha,
Thanks for stopping by! What I did was everyday first thing in the morning and at dusk I would pick them off for about a week. If at the end of the week you are still finding quite a few then keep doing it until you only find one or two. Now I go out about 3 times a week and inspect the leaves. Sometime I will find couple sometimes I won’t find any. Be sure to look on the underside of the leaves.
I found this method is very effective and not too time consuming.
However if you don’t have time to investigate that often or if you aren’t finding the picking method effective, there are a couple of other things you can try.
Mix about 2 tbsp of biodegradable soap with water in a squirt bottle. Spray on the top and underside of the leaves. This will kill the larvae. Be careful however because soap sprays have been know to burn plants if you apply too much.
Also Neem Oil is effective at keeping them away.
There is also something called Bacillus Thuringiensis, or BT. You can get it in a spray called Dipel.
I’ve never used it, so I can’t tell it works or not. I don’t know a whole lot about it, but I do know that a lot of organic gardeners recommend it. I would be careful when used around earthworms.
Good luck and I hope you will stop by again.