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19 Nov 14 antonia (Australia - temperate climate)

Hi, I companion planted my lettuce with strawberries/spinach/forage & beans, something is eating the lettuce. Very tiny holes in the leaves, I don't want to use a strong bug killer, what can I do?

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22 Jan 15 Gerrit Hendrik Schorel-Hlavka O.W.B. (Australia - temperate climate)

My wife complained about the same problem. I had a proper look and detected some 14 caterpillars. the took the colour of the leaves and so were hard to see. However, I had made a day earlier as picture of it and checking back I could see the caterpillars. I scraped them off (better not touch them) and used surface spray that kills them about instantly. Actually I now discovered different caterpillars at a tree and spaying on them a little bit of surface spray caused them to drop of-dead. Obviously no good say on vegies, so use a little tool to scrape them off. I have placed a netting around the vegie and no further caterpillars. Do keep in mind that removing the caterpillars may be the first step as eggs may have already been on the plant for others and so you need to keep an eye on it for a few days.

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