Environmentally Responsible Gardening & Landscaping in the Low Desert Cabbage Looper in the Low Desert
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Description:The larvae are pale green caterpillars up to one and one half inches long with several white stripes down their backs. Unlike army worms, they have two pairs of abdominal prolegs. As they crawl, they arch their backs making a "looping" movement for which they are named. The adults are brown and gray moths with a wingspan of one and a half inches. They have silver spots on their upper wings, towards the center of the wing. Eggs are laid individually on the undersides of older leaves, they are dome-shaped with ridges.
Damage:They eat irregular holes in leaves, most often older leaves on beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, collards, kale, lettuce, peas, potatoes, radishes, tomatoes, and turnips. They also bore holes in lettuce and cabbage heads.
Monitoring:Look on the underside of leaves for loopers themselves and for their fecal matter, small black pellets.
Management:Remove by hand. Apply Bacillus thuringiensis, an organic pesticide which disrupts their gut and causes them to starve to death. Watch for signs that natural predators are managing the population. Trichogramma, Hyposoter, Copidosoma, and birds all prey upon loopers. When parasitized by the wasp Copidosoma truncatellum, loopers curl into an "S" shape after spinning a cocoon and fail to pupate. Numerous beneficial small wasps will emerge from each parasitized looper.
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 Photograph from "Pests of the Garden and Small Farm: A Grower's Guide to Using Less Pesticide" by Mary Louise Flint, University of California Publication 3332
Drawing from "Pests of the West" by Whitney Cranshaw.
Photograph from "Pests of the Garden and Small Farm: A Grower's Guide to Using Less Pesticide" by Mary Louise Flint, University of California Publication 3332 Photograph from "Pests of the Garden and Small Farm: A Grower's Guide to Using Less Pesticide" by Mary Louise Flint, University of California Publication 3332 |
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