To move all of the Caterpillars back?

[MimiSunshine]

We have a garden that's mostly lawn and a couple of shrubs.
my OH has planted some veg (we've no idea what we're doing and if we've planted the right things at the right time) He has just discovered about 15 caterpillar on his sprouts happily munching away (phnar phnar).
So has picked them all off and moved them to a plant that didn't flower.

I quite like the little buggers as they're bright green and quite cute. The chances of those sprouts landing on our plates is slim to none anyway so WIBU to sneakly move them all back and let them carry on the feast*? My excuse is we wanted wildlife (the only bloody bird interested in the bird feeder is a big fat wood pigeon) and this is wildlife.

*he has already caught me eyeing them up and guessed my intentions so keeps popping out to check up on them so I'd have to be quick / stealthy (any tips on how to go about it subtly welcome)

They're probably cabbage butterfly caterpillars and they'll be building cocoons pretty soon. Your sprouts will probably survive in the long run. Don't harvest your sprouts till they've had a frosting, btw.

Yes move them back! As I say to dh - we can buy sprouts from tesco for a pound whereas these caterpillars & subsequent butterflies can't so need to eat our grown ones! Xxxx

YABVVVVVU and I say this as someone who is waging war with the little green buggers myself. I cannot express enough how annoyed I would be if someone put them back, if it was the other way round people would be telling you to LTB. Any tips OldLady?

Well I managed to find about 6 of them, I thought OH was upstairs and out of the way so ran across to the veg and had just dropped them on to the sprouts when I heard "what are you doing?" Very loudly and somewhat amused behind me, there was no hiding my guilt as I shrieked and jumped about a foot in the air.
He says he'll just remove them again (and they have decimated the sprouts) but for now, the caterpillars are back

This is NOT the way to grow veg you daft bat!

But Float62 they look so cute

For caterpiller-killing, float? My knowledge comes from the days when my dad did a lot of growing, so whatever he used is probably illegal now. Sorry.

LaurieFairyCake your post really made me chuckle. Apparently I'm trouble but he knew that anyway and the daft thing is he gets a load of veg free most weeks any way from one if his customers anyway

I always plant double what I need, so they can take half if needed, that way I don't feel aggrieved when they eat anything.

Butterflies and moths numbers are dropping rapidly.

If you have children get them to name them then he cannot deprive them of food, and look up alternative food for the type of caterpillar.

Mimi honestly they can look really gross if there's loads of them, though the butterflies are lovely. If this was on another thread, say "relationships", peeps would be psychologically trawling through the whole situation finding all sorts of things far more horrid than a 'gross of caterpillars', or whatever a gathering, hoard, flock of the the LG(fg)Bs are called. OldLady, I know what you mean, all my books say- gas em. First year trying brassicas, we live and learn.

We don't have kids but he knows I'm a soft touch so he just shrugged after i put them back.
Float It's a good job this is a) not in relationships and b) only light lighted

Yes! Save the caterpillars!

Seriously yabvu! Have a look on my profile. There is a picture from last year where the caterpillars decimated my vegetable patch. We could hear the bastards munching.

That said, even if your dh moves them off, chances are they will ind their own way back so don't bother with the effort of moving them yourself.

We have no pak choi because none of us had the heart to kill the caterpillars.

I have decreed that next year we will only grow stuff that grows underground to avoid the but they're lovely issues...

YABU though.