doesn't have a place in the Chinese calendar, perhaps it should this year. Or at least a month in someone's calendar. Or maybe two months. It's been a big pain in my garden since about mid-June.
Ok so I'm told it's not a moth, it's a butterfly, (Pieris rapae) that was accidentally imported to Canada from Europe, but that doesn't endear it to me in any way.
It's white and fluttery with black-tipped wings and a telltale black spot on the upper part of the forewing. It flaps about my garden on a sunny day looking like a scrap of tissue and alights to lay its evil eggs which are tiny and which, I have lately discovered- through bitter experience - they also like to lay on juvenile radish leaves:
and, I learn to my horror, any other cruciferous plant - which includes wallflower, alyssum, or plants of the turnip, cress or mustard variety. In only a few (3-7) days their hungry little worms eat and grow and grow and eat until they pupate and start the cycle all over again, repeating at about monthly intervals throughout the summer. Heat and rain are their enemies, and so is diatomaceous earth (good luck shaking that onto a leaf in windy Victoria), Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis) and Neem oil. And me, of course.
After I finish celebrating the Year of the Cabbage Moth, I'll carry on with Year of the Slug and Year of the Bird. Check out this poor strawberry:
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