How to treat cabbage from fleas to preserve the harvest

Features of the parasite

The cruciferous or black flea is one of the most dangerous insect pests. Flea cabbage is a favorite vegetable for parasitism. But besides her, insects are found on radishes, radishes and other crops belonging to this family. The insect belongs to the genus Fillotret. The fleas themselves are small in size. Their body length is no more than 3 mm. But at the same time they are very jumpy.

Despite the name "black", their color can be green as well as blue. Insects-parasites acquire maximum activity in dry and hot weather. The first individuals may appear in the spring. At this time, they crawl out of the ground in which they waited out the winter period. In spring, they feed, as a rule, on weeds, and by the time of planting of cultivated plants, they move on them.

With a detailed study of plantings, fleas are clearly visible on plants. To make sure cruciferous fleas have visited your cabbage, simply touch the cabbage leaf. Insects will start jumping actively. Already on this fact, you can choose methods of dealing with them in order to rid your garden of these pests in the shortest possible time.

The black flea beetle is ubiquitous, with the result that no one is protected from it. Appearing on a plant, a cruciferous flea, once on a cabbage, begins to actively multiply and in just a couple of days can infect most of the garden or personal plot. It is necessary to monitor the planted crops throughout the summer. This is due to the fact that the flea can give three offspring during the summer (during the warm season).

If you do not fight it, after a few days cabbage seedlings, sprouted radishes, turnips, mustard and turnips can completely die. This is due to the fact that insects heavily eat leaves, which become like a lace fabric. This type of insect is especially dangerous for young plants and newly planted seedlings. Damaged plants begin to wilt quickly, dry out and soon die. To save your crop, when you find fleas, you need to start fighting them.

Video "Tricks of growing cabbage"

Flea fighting

Fighting cruciferous flea bears are seen in several ways:

• processing of plants and seedlings with wood ash. This is a good method of protection, but only when the gardener remembers to process the sheets at least three times on both sides. In this case, the break between treatments should be 4-5 days. Instead of wood ash, vegetables can be treated with prepared ash and soap solution. To create it, 3 kg of well-sifted ash are placed in 10 liters of water. The resulting solution is infused for 2 days. After that, I filter it through cheesecloth and add 40 g of soap (household). The bar of soap should be pre-softened in hot water. Some gardeners sometimes add mineral fertilizers to the resulting solution. Such a solution can be used several times per season with breaks of 2 weeks;
• spraying plants with a suspension of wood ash and tobacco (1: 1).The method involves cultivating the land by watering or spraying with the prepared mixture;
• to combat the flea, a mixture of wood ash and slaked lime or ground black pepper is also used. Prepare in a ratio (1: 1, 20-30 g per m2). The resulting mixture must be processed between the rows;
• processing with pepper. Such pollination is carried out in the morning according to the dew formed on the plants.

In addition, the fight against the black flea can be carried out using the following solutions:

• a decoction made from tomato tops. For its preparation, 4 kg of finely chopped fresh tops are taken. You can soak 2 kg of dry tops in water (10 l) and let the broth brew for 4 hours. After that, the solution should be boiled over low heat. Then we cool it down and filter it. The resulting solution can be stored until next year, but only in a tightly closed container. Before use, the solution is diluted 1: 1 and only laundry soap is added (40 g in 10 l of water);
• spraying with vinegar. The solution is prepared as follows: diluted in 10 liters of water 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar essence (70%). The essence can be replaced with 9% vinegar (0.5 l). They need to process plants and beds in dry weather;
• dog shampoo. This tool has shown very good effectiveness. In a bucket of plain water we dilute 1-2 caps of dog shampoo and spray the affected plants.

But here you need to know that the above methods do not show the required level of efficiency if you rarely visit the garden. In this situation, the most effective and rational solution would be to use the following insecticides:

• Actellik. It (20 ml) is diluted in 10 liters of water. Consumption for 10 m 2 will be 1 liter. You can also use "Intavir", "Decis", "Bankol", "Aktara";
• "Karate". Dilute 2-2.5 ml in 10 liters of water. A positive effect is observed only when processing the insects themselves;
• naphthalene can be used as an insect repellent. 30-50 grams of the substance is used to treat 10 m 2. In addition to naphthalene, a powder made from dried celandine is an excellent repeller. In addition to it, coriander, dill, potatoes, caraway seeds, tagetis (marigolds) are suitable. You can also use an infusion of crushed garlic, dandelion leaves, or green wormwood. They also effectively repel insects.

Please note that for early varieties of cabbage, chemical preparations should not be used as protective measures. Otherwise, vegetables will be "pumped up" with substances poisonous to the human body.

Some gardeners claim that in order to get rid of black flea beads, plants should be watered early in the morning with very cold water. Such procedures should be carried out over several days.

Also, the method of using glue traps in the garden has proven itself excellent. They are sheets of plywood that have been smeared with glue. These traps should be placed between plants where these parasites have been seen.

In addition, control measures include an ecological method, which involves covering the beds with non-woven materials: spunbond, lutrasil or agrospan.

Whichever method of struggle you choose, remember that in order to obtain a positive result, you must strictly adhere to the rules for preparing a spray solution, as well as the method of using the drug. Most often, spraying cabbage with a variety of preparations aimed at combating the cruciferous flea occurs in the morning, when there is dew on the plants. At the same time, it is not enough to spray once. Each of the above methods requires its own number of sprays. Often, the complete destruction of the pest is observed already 2-3 times of treatment.

Prevention measures

To avoid a long and exhausting struggle with these insects, it is necessary to periodically carry out preventive measures in a personal plot or garden.With proper prevention, you can protect crops from this pest with a high degree of effectiveness.

In the role of preventive measures to prevent the appearance of a cruciferous flea on cabbage, the following manipulations are carried out:

• at the time of the appearance of the first shoots or planting seedlings in open ground, the beds should be sprinkled with river sand. The sand layer must be at least 1 cm;
• plant seedlings or sow plant seeds at an earlier date. As a result, when the flea appears, the leaves of the cabbage will become very tough and rough for it. Therefore, the insect will not be able to cause catastrophic harm to the plantings;
• periodic gouging of the emerging weeds;
• abundant and timely watering, especially in hot weather.

For cabbage, the black flea is a dangerous insect. Therefore, if it is found on plants, it is necessary to immediately begin to fight it. Otherwise, you will lose your harvest.

Video "Planting, processing and caring for cabbage"

If you want some flea not to spoil your cabbage crop, then we advise you to familiarize yourself with the information that is set out in the video below.