How to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage with folk recipes and preparations

Ways to fight

The well-known white cabbage (cabbage white) got its name because it loves to lay eggs on cabbage leaves. After several days, caterpillars appear from them, which immediately begin to spoil the cabbage - at first they just scrape the leaf, and then grow up (up to 4 cm) and devour the cabbage at high speed. They live for 15 - 30 days, and then pupate, butterflies appear from the pupae, then the whole cycle repeats again. Over the summer, 3 generations can change, and in the southern regions as many as 5 generations. Only these green hairy caterpillars can eat the entire cabbage crop in the garden.

But they are not alone! There are also repnits, they are smaller than cabbage, their caterpillars are also smaller, but with a great appetite. Cabbage moth and cabbage scoop are small moths that also like to feed our cabbage to their offspring.

You can get rid of pests in different ways, it is best to prevent them from reaching your harvest, because cabbage infected with caterpillars should no longer be eaten, it is toxic to humans. Pests do not like strong spicy odors, so you need to plant dill, celery, parsley, cilantro, sage, and basil next to cabbage or between heads of cabbage. Slugs, fleas, butterflies, aphids - the most common poachers - do not like the scent of these plants and their seeds. But their enemies - ladybugs, lacewings, horse beetles, on the contrary, are attracted by spicy smells, this can help preserve the harvest.

Marigolds, feverfew, nasturtiums, calendula are good for planting in a cabbage bed, they also scare away butterflies and aphids. The fewer cats on the site and around it, the more songbirds there will be, which will make sure that the number of butterflies decreases every day.But if it was not possible to scare off the pests, and they laid eggs on the leaves, there remains a mechanical way to get rid of them. It is necessary to often weed the aisles, remove plant waste from the garden, carefully inspect the cabbage and remove the eggs and caterpillars that have already hatched by hand. This is how the caterpillars of the cabbage and whiteworms are destroyed, but the green caterpillars of the cabbage moth are too mobile for a person to notice and kill them all. It is generally impossible to find the offspring of the cabbage scoop during the day; it sleeps, buried in the base of the stump.

Assistants can be involved in this activity. Wasps and ants feed their offspring with caterpillars and black worms, so it is very useful to lure them to the cabbage with sweet syrup, they will examine the cabbage very carefully and help get rid of parasites. It is even worth bringing ants with the ground from the nearest anthill, they will eat the parasites and go back (if the anthill is not too far).

It is advised to stretch a thin transparent net over the cabbage so that it lets in enough light for growth, but does not allow insects to sit on the leaves and lay eggs. The net will need to be constantly raised higher in accordance with the growth of the cabbage, and it will not be able to protect it from all pests: slugs, beetles and aphids can still get on the plant.

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Caterpillar remedies

Specialist stores offer many effective pest control products. There are tablets, powders, ampoules, the contents of which you just need to dilute in the right amount of water and process the plants. One tablet or ampoule diluted in 10 liters of water can be enough to process 50 m2 of plantings. The main thing is to carefully read the instructions and follow the deadlines. Manufacturers indicate exactly how many treatments and in what time frame need to be done, the latter may be a month before harvest. If you spray the cabbage later, it will become harmful to humans, it will not be possible to eat it.

There are drugs that repel pests, which are added to top dressing, together with it, they are introduced into the soil, it continues to work all season. Most gardeners try not to use chemistry, they believe that this makes the process of gardening meaningless, and vegetables are definitely unsuitable for food. There are a huge number of folk ways to combat caterpillars that suggest using exclusively natural remedies.

Folk methods

Most often, pests that have already settled on cabbage are fought with solutions of vinegar, salt, ammonia. They are prepared as follows: 2 tablespoons of salt or 1 glass of vinegar (1 tablespoon of vinegar essence), or 50 g of ammonia, are diluted in 10 liters of water. Each plant is sprayed with one of the resulting solutions, this procedure is repeated several times during the season.

You can process vegetables with a solution of baking soda, parasites usually do not like it, and caterpillars generally die if they eat cabbage processed with it. Ash is very successfully used to repel pests. It is added to the ground, sprinkled around the root, and lye is prepared for it to process the plant itself. The lye needs to be boiled harder, cool it and generously process each head of cabbage - pour at least 1 liter, there will be no harm to the cabbage, but the pests will suffer.

Sprinkle with a decoction of hot pepper to get rid of the caterpillars. To prepare it, 1 kg of crushed pepper is boiled in 10 liters of water, insisted for 2 days, then filtered. This solution is diluted before use as follows: 150 ml per 10 liters of water. Another 40 g of soap is added to this liquid. In general, herbal teas and herbal extracts are very common in pest control. They are usually made from what grows in the garden and is not poisonous to humans. An infusion is made from dried delphinium leaves (1 kg of leaves are infused in 10 liters of water for 1 day, then a little soap is added), chamomile, burdock.

A great effect is achieved by treating plants with infusions of onion husks. To do this, onion husks must be soaked and insisted in water for at least 12 hours, then sprinkle the cabbage with it. The husk can simply be scattered in the garden; it repels insects even when dry. Broths of tomato tops, potatoes, as well as milkweed, celandine, and wormwood are very common in pest control. The juice of these plants cannot be called harmless, but these decoctions do not harm cabbage, and they do not make it toxic.

For example, an infusion of potato tops is made as follows: 1.5 kg of fresh or less than 1 kg of dry tops in 10 liters of water is infused for 4 days, then filtered. And a decoction is made from tomato tops: 2 kg of dry or 4 kg of fresh tops are boiled for 30 minutes in 10 liters of water, diluted in 3 parts of water before spraying, then soap is added. Even seemingly harmless phytonastes should be used very carefully and carefully, because it is not in vain that we are trying to get rid of pests with their help.

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