Cabbage is a favorite delicacy of caterpillars, capable of destroying most of any crop, if you do not pay attention to their appearance and take no action. The butterfly lays eggs in the depths of the emerging cabbage heads, and the small green worms born a week later destroy the plant from the inside in a short time, leaving no room for subsequent development. So how do you get rid of caterpillars on cabbage? Find answers and tips below.
How to deal with caterpillars
There are many ways to fight caterpillars:
- Folk methods.
- Biological agents.
- Preventive measures.
Of course, you can still use chemical solutions, but this can harm both the plant itself and human he alth, so we will not touch on this topic. Let's return to the safe methods proven over the years.
So, how to treat cabbage from caterpillars (folk remedies)? Cabbage scoop and whitefish do not tolerate the smell of solutions prepared from tops, tomato stepchildren, onion husks, ash and soda.
Effective recipes for dealing with caterpillars
- Soap solution. It is necessary to take 10 milliliters of liquid soap or tar shampoo and dissolve it in 10 liters of water, to which a glass of ash has been added. Plentifully process cabbage leaves with this composition, the smell will scare away butterflies and caterpillars.
- Don't know how to process cabbage from caterpillars, folk remedies? You can make an infusion with onion peel. This remedy will scare away butterflies with its pronounced unpleasant odor. It is necessary to take a liter jar of husk, pour it with two liters of boiling water and leave for two days. After that, you need to add two more liters of clean water and a tablespoon of liquid soap.
- Tomato tops. To prepare tomato tincture, you will need about two kilograms of tops or stepchildren, which should be poured with 5 liters of boiling water and left to infuse for 4 hours. After that, the mixture must be boiled for 3 hours, strained and diluted with water in a ratio of 1:2. In order for the solution to better “stick” to cabbage leaves, it is recommended to add 20–30 grams of household or tar soap shavings to it (add just before spraying).
Folk remedies
- Unground pepper. Not sure how to get rid of green caterpillars on cabbage? To prepare the tincture, you need to take 25 grams of black peppercorns, pour it with a couple of glasses of water and boil. After the solution has cooled, it must be covered with a lid and left for three days in a dark place. Beforebefore starting processing, add 5 liters of clean water and 20 grams of laundry soap shavings to the tincture.
- If you do not know how to get rid of caterpillars on cauliflower, in this case, an infusion of valerian, which is sold in a pharmacy, will help. Put a tablespoon of valerian powder into a 10-liter container and fill it with water - the solution is ready! If you process cabbage leaves in this way several times a season, you can forget about any pests, including caterpillars.
Other ways
When caterpillars eat cabbage and how to get rid of them? If for some reason you do not want or cannot treat the plant in the ways listed above, then as an alternative, you can use ordinary baking soda and flour in equal proportions (you can also add a small amount of pollen from any cruciferous plant). With the resulting mixture, you just need to sprinkle the leaves through a strainer. Caterpillars on such a "diet" die, and no harm is done to the plants
The next way to protect cabbage from caterpillars is to plant fragrant plants next to it, such as celery, calendula, thyme, marigolds or nasturtium. They all smell very strongly, so they will scare away the cabbage scoop and whitefish
Ways to deal with caterpillars
- Soap-ash solution. In order to prevent the appearance of caterpillars, the beds should be treated with a tincture of ashes and soap, and it also works very effectively if insects have already appeared. Forpreparation, take a half-liter jar filled with vegetable or stove ash, add 40 grams of tar soap shavings or 40 ml of the same shampoo. The natural insecticide is infused for a day, after which the solution must be filtered and the plants treated with it. The procedure is recommended to be repeated at the beginning of the growing season, after 14 days from the moment the cabbage was planted in open ground, and then every 2 weeks.
- Thinking how to get rid of cabbage caterpillars? An excellent remedy for combating these insects is an infusion or decoction of tobacco dust. You need to take 40 grams of tobacco or shag dust, pour a liter of clean water and leave for 2 days. After the solution has been infused, it must be filtered and 2 liters of water added. Immediately before spraying, 4 grams of rubbed soap is added to the infusion. A decoction of tobacco dust is prepared in the same proportions, only you need to insist it for a day, and then boil it for two hours. Before applying, the decoction must be diluted with water and soap added.
Vegetable formulations
You can fight insects with components that grow on your own site:
- Decoction of delphinium helps well in the fight against caterpillars. For cooking, you will need the aerial part of the plant or rhizome and autumn shoots. For 10 liters of water, a kilogram of a dried plant or 100 grams of roots is taken and aged for 2 days. Next, the solution should be boiled for 1.5 hours.
- Don't know how to get rid of caterpillars oncabbage? Burdock tincture is very effective, because the foliage of this plant contains substances that are fatal to caterpillars. For cooking, it is necessary to grind and tamp the burdock leaves in a bucket, so that a third of the container closes. Next, you should fill the bucket with warm water and leave it warm for 72 hours. Before processing, the solution must be filtered. The soil under the bushes is abundantly watered with the finished tincture, and each leaf of the seedlings is sprayed from a spray bottle. It is necessary to carry out the procedure 3-4 times per season, with an interval of 12-14 days.
- Looking for an answer to the question of how to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage roots? To protect the roots, it is necessary to spray the heads of cabbage and the ground under them with a tincture of burdock or garlic. To prepare the first solution, it is necessary to finely chop the leaves of burdock, pour water in a ratio of 1: 3 and leave for three days. The garlic composition is prepared in the same way: mash 10 heads of garlic, pour five liters of water into the gruel and leave for three days.
Tansy as a means of combating caterpillars
The next answer to the question of how to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage will be a composition based on bright red and cinerary tansy. Among the people, these plants are popular under other names - pyrethrum or Dalmatian / Caucasian chamomile. In industrial production, this component is a natural raw material for the production of pyrethrum insecticide, and in garden plots it is grown as an ornamental crop. From the dried flowers of this plantit is possible to make a solution or powder at home to control cabbage pests. To do this, you need partially opened inflorescences or tubular yellow flowers. They need to be dried, broken and mixed with road dust in a ratio of 1:1. The resulting powder must be sprinkled with heads of cabbage.
To make an infusion, you need to take 125 grams of crushed inflorescences and 5 liters of water, pour a moderate amount into them and mix until thick sour cream, and only then add the remaining water.
Biological methods and methods
- Don't know how to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage? If wasps live on the site, then you can involve them in a useful business. To do this, you need to dilute the jam, take compote or just sweet water and sprinkle it on the cabbage. The sweet smell will certainly attract wasps to the beds, which only hunt for sweets. And they, in turn, will save you from the caterpillars, because the wasps feed their offspring with caterpillars. This is how mutually beneficial cooperation turns out.
- Eggshell. As soon as you notice that butterflies began to fly around the cabbage beds, you should immediately place sticks with eggshells suspended on them around the perimeter. It is said that butterflies mistake the shell for their own kind and do not invade where it is already occupied.
Drugs
The use of these drugs is resorted to when folk methods do not help or there is simply no time for manual collection, frequent treatment with tinctures, decoctions and other things, andI don't want to use chemicals. Then how to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage? An effective method is the use of such biological preparations as Bitoxibacillin or Lepidolite, they are not harmful to humans, animals and bees in moderate proportions. Active substances do not enter plant tissues and, accordingly, do not accumulate in them. The drugs act in such a way that after eating the treated foliage, the caterpillars lose their appetite and die. Processing of plants should be carried out 1-3 times per season with an interval of a week. The insecticide is effective only in the first stage of the appearance of insects; with a strong lesion, it will not help. There is also a biological preparation "Fitoverm", it can be used no more than twice with an interval of 20 days.
Preventive measures
In order not to wonder in the future: “How to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage?” - and do not waste time fighting them, you should take preventive measures in advance.
In order to avoid the appearance of pests, you must:
- Cover the cabbage beds with a thin spunbond or fine mesh that will block the way for butterflies to lay their larvae.
- Carefully remove weeds and other plants, especially cruciferous plants, as they are very attractive to butterflies.
- Plant odorous plants (mint, marigold, tansy, sage, etc.) next to or between rows of cabbage, the smell of which will repel insects.
- Spendinspect cabbage leaves at the bottom of the plant and remove clutches of eggs.
- Observe the rules for growing cabbage so that a strong plant can withstand the invasion of pests.
- Keep the garden in harmony with wildlife, where there are many natural enemies for caterpillars (birds, insects).
Conclusion
Unlike toxic substances that are abundant on the market, natural and biological remedies for removing caterpillars from cabbage leaves are completely safe for people, plants and pets. Do not forget that the use of chemicals for pest control leads to the accumulation of carcinogens in the plant that are dangerous to he alth.
