As soon as the brassicas and kale start growing in the early spring or fall garden, the dreaded cabbage moth and her cabbage worms make their appearance. Getting rid of cabbage worms can be a non-stop battle, but over the years, I’ve discovered some helpful natural tips that fit almost everyone’s gardening style. And if you happen to have backyard chickens, they may benefit from your gung-ho, get-rid-of-worms attitude.

Getting Rid of Cabbage Worms

I take a live and let live attitude with some bugs in the garden, as long as they remember who’s in charge. However, cabbage moths and the worms that hatch from the eggs they lay can decimate greens and brassicas. And when I say decimate, I mean they can take a perfectly healthy leaf and devour it. My kids are cheering for the cabbage worms to eat up all of our kale, but not on my watch. Here’s one of our broccoli leaves that had recently become a snack for cabbage worms. If left unchecked, they would easily consume this entire leaf and others that were on the same plant.

Over the years, I’ve tried many methods for getting rid of cabbage worms. Here are the ones that I’ve found to be most helpful, and one that we’ve just started trying, so I’ll have to let you know how it goes. I do try to keep my gardening as organic as possible, so no Sevin dust or other chemical bug killers will be found in my list. To each his own in the garden, but with kiddos picking and eating freely from the garden, I want to keep things as clean as possible.

Methods for Getting Rid of Cabbage Worms

1. Seek and Destroy– As the name implies, this simply means going out, checking under leaves and in the base of plants, and picking off worms and eggs. It’s about as fun as it sounds, but interestingly enough, some kids LOVE it. I have a jar of soapy water handy and the worms get placed in the jar. If you happen to have chickens, put the picked-off worms in a little container, and then feed them to your little chickies. Obviously, there’s nothing you have to purchase for this method, but you do have to be vigilant about checking your plants.
2. Flour– A pantry staple and also an effective worm killer. Dust flour on leaves where you see worms present, and they will eat the flour. The flour dries them out, especially in combination with the warm sun, and boom, they’re dead. I have repeatedly used this method in the past, and while it is effective, it did tend to discolor the leaves of my plant. This isn’t a huge issue for cauliflower, broccoli, and brussels sprouts, but for kale and other plants where the leaf is eaten, I prefer to use something else. For application, take an old plastic jar, punch holes in the lid, fill it with flour, and then shake onto leaves. Very simple!                                                                                                                 
3. BT (Bacillus Thuricide)- Though I tend to think that names I cannot pronounce are automatically harmful chemicals, BT is actually a bacteria that is harmful to cabbage worms and other invasive worms. It does not harm humans or other beneficial insects. I first learned about BT from several garden Youtubers (is that a word?) whose channels I enjoy and trust. MIGardener and Epicgardening both practice organic gardening techniques and use BT sprayed on the leaves of plants to battle cabbage worms. The worms eat the BT off of the leaves and once in their system, the BT develops toxins inside the worm. This toxin causes the worms to stop eating and then eventually die. For application, use a garden spray bottle and follow the mixing ratio on the bottle. Plants will need to be sprayed every few weeks to keep the BT on the leaves. 
4. Cabbage Moth Decoys– So, this is the newest technique I’ve discovered, and we’re just now trying it out in the garden. While seek-and-destroy, flour, and BT all solve the problem of getting the worms off your plants, this method tries to prevent the cabbage moths from laying eggs in the first place. I ran across this post on The Good Seed Company blog, all about how cabbage moths are territorial. This means, they don’t like to lay eggs where other cabbage moths are already present and “working.” The decoy, which can be printed from their page here, are hung on string and dangle near your brassicas and greens. Ideally, the moths will see these paper moths and choose to go elsewhere. It’s an interesting concept that I’m totally excited to see work. Time will tell, and I’ll update this post to see how they perform. I’ve already placed some in my Salad Container Garden to keep the moths away from the kale growing there. So far, no worms or eggs. (And since I’m a homeschooler, I did use my laminator to make these paper moths a bit more weather resistant.)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

So now you have four different tactics to combat the dreaded cabbage moth and cabbage worms. I’d love to know if you have any other techniques for getting rid of or preventing these plant-loving eaters. If someone could develop some ant decoys… I’d really be in garden heaven. Have a great week and happy gardening!