White butterflies

White butterflies, the scourge of the summer garden. Everywhere I turn there is one flitting and fluttering, swooping down to drink the nectar of a flower before laying its eggs on anything green and leafy. Then the armies of green caterpillars appear, munching leaves and growing their fat bodies and forming their fuzzy white cocoons in nook and leaf and crevice.

You can spray, or dust, or squash, or, apparently, you can trick. I read recently that white butterflies are territorial, and can be fooled if you make a fake butterfly and stick it in the garden. Then they think that someone else is fluttering in that spot, and will take off over the fence and lay their eggs on your neighbour's cabbages.

I made my butterflies using a craft punch, and punched them from an empty cream cheese container. Then I glued them to a bamboo skewer.

They looked so pretty when I put them in a vase while the glue dried. I think they would make a pretty centrepiece for a summer gathering.

This geranium was looking quite sad after being feasted on by caterpillars all through winter. I've squashed all the buggers now, so it should be easy to see if the decoys work here. And if not, at least they make a nice decoration.