Appears to be being eaten by something. saw green caterpillar like insect on leaves of brussel sprout young plant. Other plants doing fairly well.See holes in a few other leaves,but somethings descimating my Brussell Sprout plants. Please help.
Odds are you have cabbage looper. An Organic treatment is to spray with Bt
I don't know where you are but here in New Zealand that green caterpillar is from the white butterfly. Under the leaf you will find an egg attached. Here, we dust the plant with a product called deris dust and that kills the caterpillar soon after hatching. The white butterfly lands on cabbages too but they don't like lettuce. If you boil a lettuce and strain off the juice, you can spray your brussell spouts with the juice and that should keep the butterfly away. Only draw back is that if you water the garden or it rains you have to spray again once the plant has dried.
Sounds like an infestation of cabbage loopers. If you are not squeamish you can pick them off daily. Bt (dipel) applied daily will also keep them in check. This pesticide will kill only the caterpillers and nothing else. I was told years ago by an organic inspector, inspecting my farm, that rye flour sprinkled on the leaves while still wet with dew (so the flour sticks) will kill the caterpillers. They eat the flour and explode. I have tried this and it does indeed work. Row covers on hoops put up as soon as the seed/seedlings go in the ground are also very effective. This has been my main strategy for keeping these pests of my brassicas for over a decade.
My mom has deer and badgers that have completely eaten the leaves from her broccoli. The leaves (with the exception of the woody stem) are completely gone. They don't seem to be eating the broccoli florets, though, and they seem to be leaving the tomatoes and peppers alone.
