In the national cuisine of the Slavic peoples, cabbage is one of the main places. Vegetables are used to prepare first and second courses, they are salted, sour and pickled. Cabbage is grown on personal plots and large farm fields. In this article, we will figure out which pests are dangerous for cabbage and how to deal with them.
Common pests of cabbage
The culture has many pests that feed on its roots and juices, which stops the growth of the culture or leads to the death of the plant. The presence of some pests is clearly visible on the cabbage leaves, some species live in the soil or lead a nocturnal lifestyle. It is very important to determine in time which insects attacked the cabbage bed and quickly take protective measures.
Important! To prevent pests from cabbage, crops are planted in several rows along the perimeter of the bed, emitting a pungent odor that interrupts the aroma of cruciferous plants. It can be: garlic, onions, marigolds, sage, mint, tansy.
Cruciferous fleas
These are tiny shiny, high-jumping black beetles, 1-2 mm in size. Adult fleas feed on cabbage cells and juice. The invasion of cruciferous fleas is given by cabbage leaves, covered with small round holes, with a diameter of 1-2 mm. This leads to wilting and falling of leaves. Cruciferous flea larvae feed on cabbage roots, where they winter. Also, for wintering, adult insects choose heaps of plant debris, fallen leaves, tree bark, and a surface layer of soil.
In spring, fleas are selected from shelters and cruciferous plants are occupied. Prevention: it is recommended to destroy the remnants of cruciferous plants in the fall. After harvesting, the remains of cabbage are pulled out of the ground with the root and burned. During the summer season, it is necessary to regularly destroy cruciferous weeds. In the fight against pests, observance of crop rotation and spatial isolation between beds with crops belonging to the cruciferous family will help.
Cabbage fly
Cabbage and cabbage flies that fly in two stages in spring and summer are also harmful. The insect is very similar to a regular gray fly, the body color is dark gray, with three black transverse stripes on the back and one longitudinal strip on the stomach. The body length is 5-7 mm. The mass flight of the spring pest begins in mid-May, and the summer fly begins to fly from mid-June, when the average daily temperature does not fall below + 18 ° C.
The masonry of the female is attached to the petioles of cabbage leaves. From the eggs after seven days, white larvae with a length of 0.8 mm appear. The pest larvae eat the flesh of leaves, in the process of feeding they bite holes in heads of cabbage and pollute the heads of cabbage with excrement.
Cabbage White
These are day butterflies, with a wingspan of 4-5 cm, the color of the wings is white, several black dots are clearly visible on the wings. Massive flight of butterflies of the cabbage butterfly begins in early May. Insects during the warm season hatch two generations of offspring, in each clutch up to 200 eggs. The eggs are rounded and white, usually located on the underside of the leaf. The danger is the gluttonous caterpillar of the cabbage butterfly.
Important! Along with the cultivation of cabbage, you need to remember about the fight against blooming weeds that attract adult butterflies and are their home and source of food.
The length of the body of the caterpillar is about 35 mm, the body is painted in green or green-yellow color, there are light yellow stripes on the sides. They eat all the soft parts of the leaves, leaving only the leaf skeleton, in the process of feeding pollute cabbage heads. To combat cabbage whitewash biological methods of protection are used mainly.
Cabbage scoop
This is a nocturnal butterfly with brown or gray wings, with a span of 40-45 mm. Butterflies fly out at night, lay eggs on the leaves of cruciferous plants. Dangerous for cruciferous crops are caterpillars scoops. The body size of the caterpillar is from 25 to 60 mm, the color is from dark olive to gray-brown. Damage the underground and aboveground parts of cabbage. One caterpillar in 10 days can destroy several plants. During the day, caterpillars hide under the ground at a depth of 5-10 cm, where they feed on the underground parts of plants. At night, they come to the surface and eat up young plants at the base.
They eat leaves of bent cabbage or drag them into underground burrows and eat during the day. A stub of cabbage leaf sticking out from the underground mink indicates that there is someone underground, and this pest does not mind eating cabbage. It is possible to limit the number of caterpillars on cabbage beds by maintaining high soil moisture, but this should be done so that fungal diseases do not occur on the crop.
Naked slugs
These cephalopods damage cabbage leaves, eating holes of various sizes in them. Moving, slugs leave behind a thick mucous trail. Parts of the plant under the mucus cannot receive oxygen and the growth of cabbage stops. Slugs lay eggs on the soil under the cabbage; in one clutch, the female lays up to 400 eggs.
Important! Having covered the earth between the cabbage with pine needles, the vegetable grower will completely protect the plants from the invasion of slugs, soil moisture from evaporation, and themselves from the need to water and loosen the planting once again. The soft belly of the slugs does not allow them to move painlessly along the prickly mulch, so the cabbage remains safe.
The pace of reproduction of these pests is very fast, so if you do not take measures, after a month of planting will be covered with living mucous carpet. Experienced gardeners argue that slugs and the plants on which they feed are much more effective to dust with dry mustard than to spray with insecticides.
Aphid
These are tiny insects living in large colonies, the body length is about 0.5 mm, the color of chitin can be gray or whitish. Insects feed on plant sap, live in symbiosis with ants, which bring the female aphids to the cabbage. Aphids multiply rapidly. The result of its activities are yellowed and withered leaves, which eventually die off.
When killing aphids, it is also necessary to kill ants living nearby. To do this, a poison bait for ants, which can be bought in garden shops, is laid out near an ant heap or beds of cabbage.
How and when to process cabbage from pests
Pests can be driven away from plants, or not allowed to enter the garden at all, by various methods. These are both biologically pure methods of struggle, using infusions and decoctions on plant raw materials, and spraying cabbage with chemicals.
Among gardeners, there are adherents of both of these methods. Both biological and chemical methods of control can be used, but with the chemical method it is important to observe the time between processing vegetables and eating them. Failure to comply with the recommended interval is dangerous to human health.
Chemical and biological insecticides are sprayed on the beds in the following terms:
- In early spring - two treatments to protect seedlings and early white cabbage from the cruciferous flea and spring cabbage fly (at an average daily temperature of +12 ... + 14 ° C). The first treatment is carried out on April 20-30 from a fly and prevents the laying of eggs, the second - a week after the first.
- At the beginning of summer - from summer cabbage flies, cruciferous fleas, aphids.
- The third, and the last, chemical treatment is carried out 14 days after the second procedure.
You can spray and water the cabbage plantings with biological insecticides any number of times, this will absolutely not harm plants or human health.
Optimal conditions for treating plants from pests:
- calm and cloudy weather;
- lack of rain after treatment for 4-5 hours, if the rain nevertheless has passed, treatment must be repeated;
- adding an adhesive (soap, shampoo) to a biological or chemical insecticide, otherwise the aqueous solution simply rolls off the cabbage leaf in the form of drops;
- treat both infected and pest-free plants in the garden;
- herbal infusions and decoctions must be filtered before use;
- chemical preparations are diluted in accordance with the attached instructions so that no sediment remains on the bottom of the tank.
Did you know? Cabbage contains vitamins A, B, E and K, as well as calcium, iron and magnesium. If the body has a need for iron, a person does not have to eat meat, he can find the right substance in cabbage.
Folk remedies
Folk remedies include decoctions and infusions on roots and herbs, hot pepper, tobacco chips, tar soap, as well as using other ingredients safe for human health. Such biologically pure insecticides repel insects from vegetable crops with an unpleasant odor or bitter taste remaining on the plants after watering or spraying. Biological treatment of vegetables can be repeated as many times as necessary.
Ammonia
This solution is effective against aphids. To 10 liters of water add 1 tbsp. spoon of liquid soap (shampoo or powder) and 2 tbsp. tablespoons of ammonia (ammonia), mix well and immediately apply to spray cabbage beds. When processing, you need to spray on both sides of the sheet, pay special attention to the lower side, on which aphid colonies like to be located.
Salt
To protect the root zone of the cabbage from the cabbage fly laying laid in the soil: irrigate with salt water after May 15-20. To do this, 250 ml of coarse salt is dissolved in a bucket of water, pour the solution into a watering can and pour the cabbage over the heads. Before watering the heads of cabbage, the ground under them is scooped up from the stump. Salt solution contributes to the death of oviposition or hatching larvae. After salt watering, the ground in the root zone is sprinkled with wood ash.
Did you know? 100 g of cabbage contains the same amount of vitamin C as in a glass of orange juice.
Vinegar solution
This is a universal remedy that works well against different types of pests: scoops, butterfly caterpillars, aphids. With 10 l of pure water mixed 1 tbsp. a spoonful of concentrated acetic acid, poured into a garden watering can and water the plants on a leaf. The leaves acquire a sour taste, unpleasant to insects, and the soil on which the vinegar solution fell, irritates the chitinous membrane. The solution is prepared immediately before use, since vinegar tends to evaporate.
Dandelion Infusion
Cruciferous flea remedy. Before starting to dig out from the ground a few fresh dandelion plants, along with the roots and the aerial part, rinse off the ground. It will take about 3-4 adults, well-developed plants. Together with roots and leaves, dandelions are ground in a meat grinder or in a blender. The ground green mass is added to a bucket of water.
There, to stick the solution to the leaves, add 1 tbsp. spoon of liquid or grated laundry soap. The solution is left to infuse for several hours, possibly overnight. In the morning, the infusion is ready for use, it is filtered before use.
Mothballs with sand and ash
Good remedy for cabbage flies. Naphthalene tablets can be purchased at garden centers, before use, the tablets must be crushed. On 1 tbsp. a spoonful of powdered naphthalene add 5 tbsp. tablespoons of fine sand or wood ash. The mixture is thoroughly mixed and scattered with a thin layer on the soil within a radius of 5 cm from the cabbage stalk, based on the calculation: 25-30 g of mixture per 1 m², no more.
The infusion of pharmacy chamomile
Remedy for aphids and caterpillars. An infusion is being prepared in the evening. 1 kg of fresh herbs blooming pharmacy chamomile is mixed with 10 liters of boiling water, and left to infuse overnight (for 12-14 hours). In the morning, 20 liters of pure water are added to the resulting concentrated infusion. As an adhesive, it is advisable to add 5-6 tbsp. To the insecticide before treatment. tablespoons of liquid soap.
Did you know? Cabbage contains glucosinolates, which are intended by nature to protect plants from pests, bacteria or fungi. In the human body, these natural toxins have an inhibitory effect on the development of cancer. These substances also prevent inflammation of the gastric mucosa, heartburn and inflammation of the esophagus.
Chemicals
The most popular drug for controlling pests of cabbage among gardeners is the insecticide Intavir. The drug is made in tablets or in powder, the weight of one dose is 8 g. One dose is added to a 10-liter bucket of water and the solution is stirred until the drug is completely dissolved and no sediment remains at the bottom of the container. This amount of solution will be enough to process 1 hundred parts of cabbage. Like biological preparations, Intavir should be used in calm, dry weather, with an air temperature not exceeding + 25 ° C.
It is advisable to carry out the procedure after 16 hours, when the midday heat is significantly reduced. Treated plantings will be protected from the pest for 14 or 30 days. The timing of protection depends on the weather, in the heat of the protective period ends much earlier than in cool weather. The interval between Intavir treatments is at least 3 weeks, during the growing season no more than three chemical treatments of vegetables are allowed.
How many days can I eat cabbage after processing?
After spraying the cabbage with plant infusions or decoctions - the vegetable can be eaten without fear, both after heat treatment, or fresh. Unless you have to, after spraying with bitter infusions, before using cabbage in cooking, remove the top leaves from the head. After processing by any chemical means, vegetables can not be eaten for quite some time.
The minimum waiting period, between processing and eating, is 14 days. Cabbage is a tasty and healthy vegetable, and gardeners should take measures to protect their cabbage beds from pests, so that in the fall they can harvest large and succulent cabbages.
