How to Manage Pests

Loopers

Loopers are green with several white stripes down their backs. They arch their backs as they crawl, this looping movement giving them their name. The most common looper is the cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni.

Identification of species | Life cycle

Damage

Loopers eat irregular holes in leaves, most often older leaves. They may also bore holes in lettuce and cabbage heads or damage fruit.

Solutions

Handpick. Apply Bacillus thuringiensis or spinosad; they are effective against loopers, especially when caterpillars are small. Natural control by viral diseases, general predators, and parasites (Hyposoter, Copidosoma, Trichogramma) is often effective. Floating row covers can prevent egg laying.

Looper caterpillar

Feeding damage to cabbage