Printed Pesticide
Decoy Butterfly by vik
This is easily one of the most novel uses of a 3D printer in the last several months. Apparently cabbage white butterfly females won’t lay eggs near what appear to be other cabbage white butterflys. Vik’s solution was to print a white plastic butterfly, add two black spots with a marker, and stick near his plants.
A printed pesticide with no harmful side effects, no lasting chemicals, and reusable year after year! That it works by trickery is just an added bonus.
Are there any other insects or garden pests that could be deterred in a similar way?
Cabbage white butterflies are antisocial when they're laying their eggs. So if you stick up decoy butterflies, you can scare them off your crops. It's slightly oversize so it looks more intimidating to butterflies. Feel free to evolve the design.
Ignore butterflies attempting to mate with your decoy. They are stupid males and will not be laying eggs.
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| Tagged with | cabbage white butterfly, pesticide, printed pesticide, Thingiverse, vik | One comment |
One Comment so far
Allan Ecker
Note: Pesticide literally means “pest-killer” which is not what this does. I bring this up since most pesticides are actually pretty deadly to everything, including, say, Bees, which are kind of the opposite of pests…
Pest Deterrent?