This caterpillar is a light green one with yellowish stripes. It loops as it walks, hence the name. The adult is a brownish night-flying moth with a silver spot in the middle of each wing. Eggs are greeish white, round, and laid singly on leaves. I've come home from vacation to find my only broccoli plant devoured by one of these guys. My husband didn't notice because he's not a gardener. Needless to say, they came to a nice little death with a pair of scissors. My broccoli picked back up and grew, only to get nearly eaten overnight by another one a month later. Maybe if I can keep the worms off, I'll have some broccoli this fall.
Vulnerable plants include cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, collards, cauliflower, lima (They've chowed on mine.) and green beans, rutabegas, turnips, celery, kale, amaranths, kohlrabi, lettuce, radiches, parsley, and Chinese cabbage.
The best control is Bt every 2 weeks until they are under control. Stop spraying when cabbage heads form. Other options include traps of celery or amaranths nearby to catch them in the act.
Natural sprays include bug juice (made by crushing other loopers, liquefying them with water, straining, and spraying. Hot pepper spray by grinding peppers, mix with 1 pint of water, strain and spray twice, 2-3 days apart. Make sure it gets on the loopers. If you only have a few, a nice pair of scissors will make mincemeat out of them. If you see eggs, get a glove on your hand, and rub the leaves gently to scrape and squish them. If you have alot of them, spray or dust with Bt, use pyrethrum, rotenone, or diatemous earth after they hatch.
Other methods include growing resistant varieties if available. Examples include Abbot, Cobb #5, Green Winter, Rioverdi, Savoy, and Savoy Cheiftain cabbages. Red cabbages like Red Danish, Mammoth Red Rock, and Red Acre are resistant somewhat. Loopers prefer green as opposed to the red varieties.
Marigolds seem to reduce cabbage pests, but the heads may be smaller. I'm not sure why that is. The looper is repelled by garlic in some instances, hot peppers, hyssop, onions, rosemary, sage, tansy, and thyme. Research has NOT confirmed the value of these interplantings.
Weeds host a variety of beneficial insects that prey on loopers, so you could keep a patch naturalized nearby. Lacewings, ladybugs, and the trichogamma wasps are just a few predators. Crop rotation every 3-5 yrs at a distance of 10 ft keeps the hibernating worms from finding your plants every year.
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