Cabbage white butterflies are invasive, especially in North American and many other regions of the world.
Cabbage white butterflies originated from Europe/Eurasia and causes significant damage as a pest to kale, cabbage, broccoli and other brassicas through their caterpillar
Cabbage white butterflies were introduced accidentally to North America around the 1860s.
The caterpillars called cabbage worms voraciously eat cultivated plants in the mustard or Brassica family, which leads to crop loss for gardeners as well as farmers.
Humans have also inadvertently helped cabbage white butterflies spread globally, making them one of the most abundant butterflies in many regions of the world.
Cabbage white butterflies are a major pest for turnips, Brussels sprouts, kale, cauliflower and broccoli and the adult cabbage white butterflies are also pretty and can act as pollinators, but their caterpillars are more of the destructive culprits.
The length of time that it takes for a cabbage white caterpillar to become a butterfly is between 3 weeks to 6 weeks total to go from egg to adult, and the caterpillar stage of the cabbage white caterpillar lass around 2 weeks to 3 weeks, of feeding and growing and the pupa or chrysalis stage lasts around 1 to 2 weeks.
Although this can also vary with temperature and warmer weather speeds up the development of the cabbage white caterpillar into a butterfly and cooler temperatures can slow down the time it takes for the cabbage white caterpillar to become a butterfly.
The cabbage white caterpillar also known as the cabbage white butterfly is also called the pieris rapae which is a small-to-medium-sized butterfly species of the whites-and-yellows family Pieridae.
It's also known in Europe as the small white, in North America and the United Kingdom as the cabbage white or cabbage butterfly, on several continents as the small cabbage white, and in New Zealand as the white butterfly.
And because of the isothiocyanates the cabbage white caterpillars are also inedible for many predators.
The cabbage white caterpillars themselves are immune to the substances.
For humans, the substances are only toxic in large amounts.
Touching (and possibly even eating) the cabbage white caterpillars is as harmless as eating cabbage.
As the name "cabbage white caterpillar and cabbage white butterfly" implies, cabbage is a common host plant; however, the cabbage white will also lay its eggs on members of the mustard family.
The roster of other plants that serve as a host for this butterfly in Georgia includes wild mustard, turnips, cauliflower, broccoli and nasturtiums.
The Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris rapae) is very common and can be found in central Canada and the United States into northwest Mexico.
As soon as you spot cabbage white butterflies flying around in your garden, it is time to start looking carefully at your crops to see whether you can spot where they have laid their eggs.
Look over all your brassicas, checking for the clusters of eggs on the undersides of all the leaves.
As it turns out the cabbage white butterfly is territorial.
So having a fake plastic white butterfly near you brassica crops will deter any real white butterflies from laying their eggs on your plants.
Cabbage Whites are often among the first butterflies to emerge in spring.
Male cabbage white butterflies typically search for mates by patrolling the same small areas day after day.
They also gather on wet roads or muddy areas to take moisture and minerals.