Cabbage is one of the most popular garden crops. Growing it in a suburban area is not too difficult. Plants only need to be watered and fertilized on time. As for pests, until recently there were not so many of them. Only slugs and cabbage butterflies annoyed summer residents. However, not so long ago, this garden crop has another very serious enemy.
In recent years, it sometimes happens that summer residents leave for the city, leaving he althy cabbage in the garden, and arriving a few days later, they find only stems and veins from the leaves. Fabrics, flowers, ovaries of cabbages - all this turns out to be eaten clean. A new type of pest, the cabbage moth, causes such colossal harm to plants. The center of its distribution is presumably the warm countries of the Mediterranean.
What a butterfly looks like
It is rather difficult to detect this pest on plants. The fact is that both in the adult state and at the larval stage, the cabbage moth has a very small size. Outwardly, it is very similar to an ordinary domestic moth. In adultsbutterflies, both the front and hind wings are narrow, have a complex pattern in gray-white tones. The body of the insect is dark brown with yellow stripes, and the antennae are rather long. The hind wings have a fringe along the edge. When folded, their tips are slightly raised. The body length of an adult cabbage moth is 5-7 mm, and the wingspan reaches 15 mm.
Pest larvae
The life cycle of adult cabbage moths is very small - only about 2 weeks. At the same time, butterflies themselves do not cause any harm to plants of the cruciferous family. But, of course, the fight against cabbage moths should also be directed to such adults. After all, butterflies devote almost all their free time to laying eggs, from which voracious larvae then emerge. The latter at the initial stage of development are absolutely colorless and at the same time have tiny sizes (about 4-5 mm). That is why most summer residents do not notice them, as a result of which huge damage is inflicted on plants in a short time. On one bush (mainly on the underside of the leaves), the butterfly can lay a huge number of elongated yellowish eggs.
Hatched caterpillars first gnaw through numerous passages in cabbage tissues. After a while, they come out from the top side of the sheet. Approximately on the fourth day, the caterpillar enters the next stage of development. Its size increases slightly, and the color of the body changes to bright green.
The larval stage of the cabbage moth lasts about a month. Thenthe caterpillar weaves a thick cobweb and arranges a yellowish-green translucent cocoon in it. After about a week and a half, an adult butterfly emerges from it.
Features of behavior
The butterflies of this variety fly very badly. Above the ground, the cabbage moth can rise no more than 2 meters. But, since this insect is not too large in size, it is easily carried by the wind. This is how the pest usually migrates over long distances.
Cabbage moth caterpillars can be distinguished from the larvae of other garden insects, among other things, by their behavior. If you touch her, for example, with a stick, she begins to behave very actively - she energetically crawls away, wriggling at the same time, or even quickly descends from a sheet on a silk thread.
Cabbage moth can damage not only white cabbage or cauliflower, but also other plants of the cruciferous family. Very often suffer from it, for example, lettuce, turnip, radish, etc.
Moth usually leaves for wintering in the stage of an adult butterfly. Fortunately, this insect does not tolerate too much cold weather. Therefore, after frosty winters, the pest can be found quite rarely on cabbage beds (unless, of course, it is brought by southerly winds from warmer regions).
Garden cabbage moth: control measures
Destroy this voracious insect is very difficult. Most of the remedies used by summer residents against other cruciferous pests do not help in this case. It is completely useless, for example, to apply against mothstable vinegar, tobacco dust, ash or tobacco infusion. To all these means, she is absolutely stable. Most chemical preparations do not help against it either.
Judging by the reviews of summer residents, only such means as Senpai, Colorado Forte and Bio Kill give more or less good results in the fight against this pest.
However, after a few years, even these drugs may be powerless against the cabbage moth. The fact is that this pest, like indoor cockroaches, very quickly adapts to any insecticides. In any case, the above means should be used with caution. After all, the tissues of cabbage are very delicate, and they can be easily burned. It is also highly recommended not to use these preparations a couple of weeks before harvest. Otherwise, cabbage can be simply poisoned.
What other insecticides can be used
If a moth is found to be resistant to the means described above, it is worth trying to destroy it also with such drugs:
- Karbofos.
- "Talcord".
- Sodium fluorosilicon.
- Nurell.
Without exception, insecticides have a detrimental effect only on butterflies and cabbage moth larvae. Embryos in eggs, as well as pupae in cocoons, remain alive. Therefore, after a couple of weeks, the plants should be treated with the same remedy for the second time. By this time, the larvae and butterflies will have already come out of their "hideouts".
Popular Measures
Chemicals of various kinds are often used to kill pests such as the cabbage moth. Folk measures against it can also be used. After all, most summer residents would not particularly like to use chemistry, and even such a lethal one as, for example, the same Colorado.
Some gardeners advise using a mixture of flour and soda (in equal amounts) against this pest. With this powder, you just need to sprinkle cabbage leaves and scatter it on the ground near the stems. Once in the body of an insect with plant tissues, the flour sticks together in a lump and forms plugs in its digestive system. Completes the detrimental effect of soda.
There are other ways to destroy such a dangerous pest as the cabbage moth. Measures of struggle with folk remedies can also consist, for example, in spilling the leaves of plants with crushed bay leaves. It is believed that regular dog flea shampoo can help with moths. It must be diluted with water (2 tablespoons per bucket) and spray the cabbage with the resulting solution.
Bacterial agents
What else can be done against such a pest as cabbage moth, measures? In some cases, bacterial agents also help against voracious caterpillars of this species. Their advantage is that they do not have any harmful effects on the plants themselves and on the human body. Being applied to the leaves, they are absorbed by the tissues. Further, the drugs enter the body of the larva and begin their harmful work, causingparalysis and death.
Most often, the following bacterial agents are used to combat cabbage moths:
- "Dendrobacillin".
- Gomelin.
- Dipel.
- "Baktoseptin".
It is desirable to use preparations of this group at the peak of caterpillar activity - in the evening. The best outdoor temperature is +16 degrees.
How to get rid of the cabbage moth: preventive measures
This insect usually hibernates in cruciferous tops. Therefore, in autumn, for prevention, all leaves and stems of such plants should be carefully collected with a rake and burned. You can also put them in a compost heap. This applies not only to the leaves of white cabbage, Brussels sprouts or cauliflower, but also to watercress, radish, turnip. You also need to remove dead tops of various kinds of cruciferous weeds from the site.
