In order to grow a delicious, juicy cabbage you will need not only to water and fertilize it , but also to fight pests. A lot of insects like to eat juicy leaves of cabbage. One of them are caterpillars. They soon grow into butterflies, which also kill cabbage. The fight should begin as early as possible, because if the caterpillar gets into the head, then the plant can no longer be eaten. Let's look at possible options for how to protect cabbage from caterpillars and prevent the appearance of this insect.
Than to trample caterpillars on cabbage?
When you notice on your cabbage small holes in the sheets, then think about how to prevent this and remove the caterpillars from the cabbage. The first thing you want to do is to etch out insects. Chemicals that you can find in specialty stores can damage your plant and do not always cope with the destruction of caterpillars. In addition, they can poison the fruit, after which it can not be eaten. The safest thing you can get for destroying caterpillars is tobacco ash or ashes. They scare away the smell of caterpillars. Make a solution according to the instructions and sprinkle with cabbage. You can just scatter ash or ashes around cabbage. Do this procedure every two weeks at least and then you will stop watching harmful butterflies or caterpillars.
Fighting caterpillars on cabbage by folk remedies
Folk remedies are good because they are more effective and cause minimum harm to cabbage. They are simple and do not spend a lot of your efforts. Here are some tips to help you understand how to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage:
- Initially, try to plant cabbage between tomatoes and celery (mint, basil , onions). If you plant these plants near the cabbage, the caterpillars and other pests are unlikely to want to creep towards it because of the sharp odor. Malicious butterflies will also cease to be your problem.
- You can manually collect caterpillars from cabbage and destroy them. This method is completely ineffective. Caterpillars will appear again and again at any time of the day. You just waste your time in this lesson.
- Frequent weeding. In this way, you destroy nests and tunnels of caterpillars, as well as other pests. In addition, improve the process of getting air into the ground, which contributes to the growth of cabbage.
- Spraying the sweet solution. Stir a glass of sugar in 10 liters of water and sprinkle the mixture on cabbage heads. This will attract the attention of wasps, as well as ants that feed their babies with caterpillars and destroy pests quickly enough without harming the plant. Be careful, because the wasps can be aggressive at this moment. After the rain, you will have to do this procedure again. Try not to rinse this solution off the cabbage leaves during watering.
- Infusion of tomato tops and onion husks. Caterpillars are afraid of the sharp smell of tomato and onion leaves. Soak the husk and the tops of the plants in the water. Insist no less than twelve hours. Spray the resulting infusion on cabbage,
after the caterpillar you will not appear long enough on your plant. - Soda. Normal baking soda will not harm the plant, but caterpillars do not tolerate its smell at all. If the caterpillar still decides to eat cabbage, sprinkled with soda, it will soon die. Soda will also help you eliminate many other pests.
- Buy a special mesh to cover the cabbage. This will protect it from pests. The problem is that such grids usually need to be tightened so as not to inhibit the growth of cabbage. In addition, there are pests such as beetles and fleas that can easily get under the net.