To Dipel or not to Dipel?

We try so so so hard to keep pesticides of all kinds off of the plants, but sometimes we are faced with a dilemma. This time, we have a real threat to our brassica crop. Brassicas include, but are not limited to, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage. We try to keep a healthy crop of wild mustard around the farm in a futile attempt to distract to cabbage moths away from the brassica crop, maintain a healthy wild bird population to encourage predation of the loppers, and even pick off those cleverly camouflaged critters off the leaves daily. And, as I have said before, I don't even mind sharing...a little. But there comes a time when one party takes more than its fair share and action needs to be taken. I have reached my boiling point. Te cabbage loopers have officially taken more than their fair share.

There are many products on the market to take care of such pests. There are several that are OMRI certified, meaning they can be applied in organic production, according to the label. Despite their certification, some OMRI certified products damage aquatic wildlife and beneficial insects. BT (bacillus thurogenesis) seems to be the safest and most efficient way of saving the brassica crop. I went back and forth about whether to use the product but as I decided and picked off loopers daily, it became apparent that I would lose the entire crop unless I did something drastic.

So I drove to the garden store and bought some BT, brand name Dipel. While I was applying the product, I was trying to decide whether it was necessary or if I had time to come up with a better plan. One walk down the row let me know I was definitely out of time. I did however, see a beautiful thing. (I use the term "beautiful" very very very loosely here. Keep in mind I was building up rage for the cabbage loopers with every hole I saw chewed in the leaves, of which there were an innumerable amount.) A parasitic wasp was dragging a cabbage looper to the top of a leaf where it proceeded to voraciously harm the caterpillar. I of course wanted to then let nature take its course without interrupting, and considered halting my Dipel application process. That, and I wasn't sure what Dipel did to parasitic wasps. As I pondered, I decided to observe and come up with a plan. I alked down a row and counted the number of parasitic wasps versus caterpillars. Final score, parasitic wasps- 1, caterpillars- 27. I decided to spray.

If we were certified organic, we would be allowed to use this, as long as we kept a record of it, but would not be required to let the consumers of our products know. I am a firm believer in letting our customers know what we do with our produce and why. So my choice today was to Dipel. So far, we have used one application and may have to use more before we harvest. Definitely not ideal, but in my opinion, necessary. As a side note, no parasitic wasps were harmed during my application of Dipel.