Most gardeners want their cabbage to grow. How to handle carefully grown crops from pests, which treatment is more effective? Unfortunately, not only we love cabbage, but also multiple midges, fleas, caterpillars, butterflies, which seem to be just waiting for the spreading outlets in our gardens to gnaw not only holes, but also to completely eat our crop.
Noticing traces of pests, each of us thought about how to save cabbage, how to process it, how to destroy slugs, caterpillars, cruciferous fleas and other uninvited guests. In this matter, many years of experience of experienced gardeners and gardeners will be useful to us. Let's find out what kind of enemies our cabbage has in the garden, consider methods and techniques for combating harmful insects.
Most parasites damage the crop at all stages of cabbage growth and development. In specialized stores, we can always buy a reliable chemical product for processing vegetables on the beds. But first, you should learn about more environmentally friendly ways to protect.
Pests and control of cabbage
Cruciferous flea
If you notice a scattering of small holes on the leaves of cabbage, it is most likely that a cruciferous flea visited your garden. This small pest is difficult to notice because of its size, but gluttony can only be surprised, especially when she likes young leaves. The enemy is painted black with a silver tint, quickly moves in leaps, actively multiplies. During the day, a cruciferous flea eats food volumes exceeding its weight three times. If measures are not taken in time, the cabbage leaves will turn into a sieve and the crop will die.
Cruciferous flea on cabbage seedlings, photo:
Ways to combat the pest:
- You can periodically sprinkle cabbage beds with wood ash or a mixture of ash with chopped tobacco leaves. This method is pretty good, but after every rain, fog or dew in the morning, all the actions will have to be repeated again.
- Cruciferous flea on cabbage does not like harsh smells, eucalyptus or fir oil (15-20 drops per 10 liters of water) has a good deterrent effect. For the same reason, gardeners recommend planting garlic between rows of cabbage, moreover, it is sown in the first place, and then cabbage.
- A very simple, but no less effective way to do this is vinegar diluted in water. This method gives very good results. You can irrigate the beds with such a solution using a spray gun. Take 2 tablespoons of 9% vinegar, dilute in 10 liters of water, irrigate the cabbage after sunset (to avoid burns). According to reviews, sometimes one spray is enough.
- Chicken manure, diluted in water and infused for 24 hours, will not only be a means to expel the pest, but also an excellent natural fertilizer for your crop. For 10 liters of water, 150-200 g of the bird's vital product is enough.
- You can also cover young cabbage with special covering material for beds, thus creating an obstacle to the access of cruciferous fleas. After the cabbage gains strength and grows, the leaf can be removed.
Like most other cabbage parasites, the cruciferous flea does not like the aroma of herbs. Plant basil, dill, mint, sage, rosemary or parsley near the cabbage - these plants will not only scare away the pests, but also attract their enemies (birdworms, rider beetles, ladybugs).
Butterfly Cabbage and Cabbage Gray Scoop
The harmless-looking butterfly cabbage is actually almost the most dangerous enemy of cabbage crops.
Cabbage gray scoop, more like a nocturnal moth, acts similarly.
These butterflies are capable of laying innumerable eggs, from which caterpillars subsequently hatch, destroying entire cabbage plantations. It is necessary to deal with the butterfly cabbage and cabbage scoop in a complex manner, try not just one protection method, but several at once.
Cabbage butterfly caterpillars, photo:
Caterpillars of cabbage scoops, photo:
Spraying the beds with a soap and ash solution gives good results: laundry soap (1 cup) and wood ash (2 tablespoons) grated on a fine grater must be diluted in 10 liters of water.
Onion peel, infused for two or three days, gives a good deterrent effect and at the same time serves as fertilizer for cabbage. A pound of husk should be poured with 4 liters of boiling water, insist the specified time, you can also add a tablespoon of finely grated tar soap - it will only get better. The resulting infusion should produce irrigation of beds approximately every 4-5 days.
You can additionally sprinkle the young seedlings with ordinary baking soda, but not too much.
The pests of cabbage (most of them) are afraid of wasps, because they really like to feast on their larvae, eggs. This feature can be beaten with the benefit for the harvest - for sure in your pantry you will find a couple of cans of stagnant jam, which can be diluted and watered cabbage to attract wasps. Insects immediately learn the smell of sweet treats and flock to the beds, and there it is up to them - pest larvae will also go well under the jam. For lack of jam, you can make a thick sugar syrup (water with sugar).
Another way to deal with cabbage was spied on one of the forums: on the bed with cabbage, place a few chopsticks-pegs with an egg shell on them. The authors of this original method are sure that the white butterflies of the cabbage will not sit on the cabbage to lay eggs, believing that the place is already taken. It is hard to say whether butterflies think so or not, but this method helps.
Aphid on the cabbage
Photo of aphids on a cabbage leaf:
Sweets are loved not only by wasps, but also by ants, before using the sweet bait for wasps, it is worth considering that ants will also come running for a treat. Thus, an additional problem arises here - aphids, which are very friendly with ants (they secrete a sweet substance that ants love). No wonder seasoned gardeners say: they saw a cluster of ants near the plants - check for the presence of aphids.
Aphids more prefer young cabbage leaves, which, after meeting with it, are covered with black dots, are wrapped, cabbage does not develop further. These pests nest in groups and suck life sap from the plant. Aphid on cabbage - how to process the beds? Here, again, you need to use several methods at once.
- You can prepare a mixture of wood ash, grated soap and tobacco, as described above, but also add to the composition 1 tablespoon of dry mustard. Proportions: 1 tablespoon of soap and mustard, 250 g of tobacco and ash, mix the ingredients, pour 10 l of boiling water, leave for 24 hours, strain through gauze before use. The resulting composition should be irrigated cabbage beds, preferably in the evening, after sunset.
- Cabbage aphid is afraid of onions, its pungent smell, the method of preparing infusion of onion husks described above. A more “tough” option is to take 800 g of onion, cut each onion into 4 parts (do not peel), pour a bucket of boiling water, then simmer on the fire for 2 hours, then dilute one to one with water, then use by spraying. In this way, you can use garlic.
- Sprinkling cabbage heads with wood ash - renew after each watering, as well as after rain.
- To plant nearby herbs or flowers - marigolds, nasturtium, feverfew.
Marigolds between rows of cabbage, photo:
Snails and slugs
When evening comes or after rain, slugs and snails crawl out to enjoy your crop. They are attracted by moisture, which is stored for a long time at the base of cabbage rosettes. Here you can advise ammonia diluted in water (50 ml per 5 l), which should be watered on top of each head of cabbage. A similar procedure, carried out several times, provides a persistent deterrent effect for these pests.
Traces of the activity of snails and slugs, photo:
The old "grandfather" method, which has not lost its relevance today - on cabbage beds, dig in different places in containers with yeast diluted in water or fermented kvass and beer. For these purposes, it is very convenient to use plastic bottles cut to half. Such an “aroma” will attract gastropods, and they will not be able to get out of the tank.
Cabbage leaf beetle
Another contender for your harvest. This small bug is even beautiful - black with a bronze tint.
Grows the edges of cabbage leaves and makes holes in them. Its activity is activated by the end of spring, it makes its way to the base of the head of cabbage, gnaws at itself a cell in which it lays eggs. After a while, larvae hatch from the eggs, which are sent directly to the ground, from where, after 10-12 days, adults come out. A new generation of beetles is immediately taken for food, as a result of their actions cabbage rosettes become like a sieve, the crop perishes.
To combat them, the same solution of tobacco and ash is used, as well as most of the methods described above for controlling caterpillars of the butterfly cabbage and cabbage scoops.
If you do not take into account the popular methods of protection, then a very good result in the fight against cabbage leaf beetle gives the chemical preparations "Actellik", "Karate".
Stalking Crypto-Worm (Weevil)
The stalked secretive hunter is another pest of cabbage.
Weevil gnaws tunnels in a head of cabbage right down to the very roots. I couldn’t take a photo of the damage of the head of cabbage by a secretive stalk of a cabbage (fortunately, I don’t have it). Below on the left photo you can see the puncture place in the stalk of kohlrabi cabbage made by a secretive tiller, and the stem damaged by the weevil larva.
The activity of the pest is aimed at sucking life juices from cabbage, which is why its growth is significantly slowed down, subsequently it dies.
The crypto-beetle beetle appears in April - in the south, and by the end of May in the middle zone of Russia, lays its eggs closer to the stems, from which the voracious larvae hatch with a characteristic feature - a large yellow head. To protect the vegetable you need to stock up on birch tar. Tar bred with water. And this solution should produce regular irrigation of beds (every three days).
If the situation with the secretive hunter has gone far, then chemical compounds will come to the rescue - the same Actellik or Fosbetsid.
At first, young cabbage bushes can be covered with material for plants.
Crucifer bug
Cruciferous bug - a real disaster for cabbage beds and plantations. Adult individuals (as well as their larvae) make holes in the leaves, feed on vegetable juice. We all know the soldier - this is a crucifer bug, his brothers with a similar color also belong to this category.
As a prophylaxis for the appearance of this pest, a thorough cleaning of all plant debris with the onset of autumn (it is better to burn them), since they winter on them. The saliva of a cruciferous bug contains a destructive enzyme for the plant - in the place of the leaf where it gnawed a hole, the tissues become dead over time. It is noteworthy that with the onset of heat and drought, the bug becomes only more active, and its population increases.
Tobacco dust, infusion of onion husks, garlic broth - all these tools are good for fighting cruciferous bugs.
Rapeseed file
There is another pest in cabbage. Very voracious pest. This is a rapeseed filer.
On the left is a rapeseed sawfly fly, and on the right are the rapeseed sawfly larvae. It is not entirely correct to call rapeseed sawfly larvae caterpillars. This is a false caterpillar. Their difference from caterpillars is the presence of 6 pairs of legs on the abdomen.
The fly, sawing the edge of the cabbage leaf from below, lays eggs, from which false caterpillars appear. Their length is from 16 to 18 mm. Wrinkled skin is dotted with several small papillae. Recently hatched larvae range in color from pale gray to greenish. Older larvae change color, becoming dark green, almost black.
Young larvae eat out the bottom of the leaves or make holes in them (economic damage is negligible), while older larvae, dark in color, almost completely eat leaves, leaving only streaks from them.
Gardeners to combat rape sawfly successfully apply a decoction of tomato tops.
Protection of cabbage from a sawfly: every two weeks you should sprinkle cabbage rosettes (in the seedling stage) with a protective mixture: naphthalene (1 part), sand and wood ash (5 parts). You can also use hydrated lime (20 parts) and creolin (1 part).
If you find a cabbage sawfly in your garden, then do not think that it will not appear next season. Be sure to destroy the remains of the crop in autumn when harvesting tops, remove weeds on time, plant cabbage early, be sure to loosen the ground, as the new generation comes from there.
The chemicals "Actellic", "Fosbetsid", a suspension of DDT (0.5%) will also help you in the fight against this parasite.
Processing cabbage with a protective mixture, photo:
Chemical means of protecting cabbage from pests are used mainly when the invasion of pests has become critical. For large cabbage plantations, chemical protection is also used - Fury, Kemifos, Bankol, Iskra-M.
Methods of application and proportions of dilution of insecticides are always described on the package, for example 1 ml of Fury is diluted in 10 liters of water, 2 liters of solution will be enough to process 100 m² of territory. The maximum number of procedures is 2 times, at least 25 days from the last irrigation should take place before harvesting.
It is worth mentioning one non-traditional method of protecting cabbage crops from aphids and cruciferous fleas - this is a flea shampoo for our four-legged pets. Surprisingly, the fact - 3 tablespoons of shampoo (the cheapest one is suitable), diluted in a bucket of water and applied to cabbage sockets by irrigation perfectly expels pests. Try this method too, at least too active chemicals and poisons will certainly not be part of the care product for a living creature. Procedures against parasites should be carried out 1 time in 7-10 days.
Summing up, it must be said that pests not only spoil and destroy our crops, but also are carriers of various diseases. Comprehensive measures in this case give the best result, as for folk remedies, they can be combined even with chemical procedures (if the situation is aggravated). Preventive measures are also of great importance. Still, try to get by with alternative methods of protecting cabbage, because chemistry is chemistry, and you and your family will eat this popular vegetable.
May your cabbage be fruitful and healthy. And how to process this culture from pests, how to protect it - you now know.