Pipes

Folk and chemical remedies for caterpillars on cabbage. How to get rid of cabbage caterpillars How to get rid of caterpillars from cabbage

Cabbage is a favorite delicacy of caterpillars, which can destroy most of any crop if you do not pay attention to their appearance and do not take any measures. The butterfly lays eggs in the depths of the developing cabbage heads, and small green worms born a week later destroy the plant from the inside in a short time, leaving no opportunity for subsequent development. So how to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage? You will find answers and advice below.

How to deal with caterpillars

You can fight caterpillars in different ways:

Traditional methods.
By biological means.
Preventive measures.

Of course, you can still use chemical solutions, but this can harm both the plant itself and human health, so we will not touch on this topic. Let's return to safe methods proven over the years.

So, how to treat cabbage against caterpillars (folk remedies)? Cabbage cutworm and cabbage cutworm do not tolerate the smell of solutions made from tops, tomato shoots, onion peels, ash and soda.

Effective recipes for fighting caterpillars

Soap solution. You need 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. Spray cabbage leaves generously with this mixture; the smell will repel butterflies and caterpillars.
Don’t know how to treat cabbage against caterpillars, folk remedies? You can prepare an infusion with onion peels. This product will repel butterflies with its pronounced unpleasant odor. You need to take a liter jar of husks, fill it with two liters of boiling water and leave for two days. After this, 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 shoots, which should be poured with 5 liters of boiling water and left to infuse for 4 hours. After this, the mixture must be boiled for 3 hours, strained and diluted with water in a ratio of 1:2. To make the solution “stick” to the cabbage leaves better, it is recommended to add 20-30 grams of household or tar soap shavings (add immediately before spraying).

Folk remedies

Unground pepper. Don't know how to get rid of green caterpillars on cabbage? To prepare the tincture, you will need to take 25 grams of black peppercorns, add a couple of glasses of water and boil it. After the solution has cooled, it must be covered with a lid and left for three days in a dark place. Before you start processing, you need to add 5 liters of clean water and 20 grams of laundry soap shavings to the tincture.
If you don’t know how to get rid of caterpillars on cauliflower, an infusion of valerian, which is sold at the pharmacy, will help. Place a tablespoon of valerian powder in a 10-liter container and add water - the solution is ready! If you treat cabbage leaves in this way several times a season, you can forget about any pests, including caterpillars.

other methods

When do caterpillars eat cabbage and how to get rid of them? If for some reason you do not want or cannot process the plant using the methods listed above, then as an alternative you can use ordinary baking soda and flour in equal parts (you can also add a small amount of pollen from any cruciferous plant). The resulting mixture just needs to be sprinkled on the leaves through a strainer. Caterpillars on such a “diet” die, but no harm is done to the plants.

The next way to protect cabbage from caterpillars is to plant aromatic plants near it, such as celery, calendula, thyme, marigolds or nasturtium. They all have a very strong smell, so they will scare away the cabbage cutworm and white moth.

Ways to combat caterpillars

Soap-ash solution. In order to prevent the appearance of caterpillars, you should treat the beds with a tincture of ash and soap, and it also works very effectively if the insects have already appeared. To prepare, 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 treated with it on the plants. It is recommended to repeat the procedure 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.
Are you wondering how to get rid of cabbage caterpillars? An excellent way to combat these insects is an infusion or decoction of tobacco dust. You need to take 40 grams of tobacco or shag dust, add a liter of clean water and leave for 2 days. After the solution has infused, it must be filtered and 2 liters of water added. Immediately before spraying, 4 grams of pureed soap are added to the infusion. A decoction of tobacco dust is prepared in the same proportions, only it needs to be infused for a day, and then boiled for two hours. Before application, the decoction must be diluted with water and soap added.

Herbal compositions

You can fight insects with components that grow on your own site:

Delphinium decoction works well in the fight against caterpillars. For preparation you will need the above-ground part of the plant or rhizome and autumn shoots. For 10 liters of water, take a kilogram of dried plant or 100 grams of roots and incubate for 2 days. Next, the solution should be boiled for 1.5 hours.
Don’t know how to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage? Burdock tincture is very effective, because the foliage of this plant contains substances that are lethal to caterpillars. To prepare, you need to chop and compact burdock leaves in a bucket so that a third of the container is covered. 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 generously watered with the finished tincture, and each leaf of the seedlings is sprayed with a spray bottle. The procedure must be carried out 3-4 times per season, with an interval of 12-14 days.
Are you 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 underneath them with tincture of burdock or garlic. To prepare the first solution, you need to finely chop burdock leaves, add water in a ratio of 1:3 and leave for three days. The garlic mixture is prepared in a similar way: mash 10 heads of garlic, pour five liters of water into the pulp and leave for three days.

Tansy as a means of combating caterpillars

The next answer to the question of how you can get rid of caterpillars on cabbage will be a composition based on bright red and cineraria tansy. Among the people, these plants are popular under other names - pyrethrum or In industrial production, this component is a natural raw material for the production of the insecticide pyrethrum, and is grown in garden plots as an ornamental crop. From the dried flowers of this plant, you can make a solution or powder at home to combat cabbage pests. To do this, you will need partially opened inflorescences or tubular yellow flowers. They need to be dried, broken and mixed with road dust in a 1:1 ratio. Sprinkle the resulting powder onto the cabbage heads.

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 stir 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 attract them to useful work. 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 caterpillars, because wasps feed their offspring on caterpillars. This results in mutually beneficial cooperation.
Eggshell. As soon as you notice that butterflies have begun to fly around the cabbage beds, you should immediately place sticks with egg shells 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

They resort to the use of these drugs when traditional methods do not help or there is simply no time for manual collection, frequent treatment with tinctures, decoctions, etc., and one does not want to use chemicals. Then how to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage? An effective method is the use of biological drugs such as “Bitoxibacillin” or “Lepidolite”; they are not harmful to people, 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. Plants should be treated 1-3 times per season at weekly intervals. The insecticide is effective only in the first stage of the appearance of insects; it will not help with severe damage. There is also a biological preparation “Fitoverm”, it can be used no more than twice with an interval of 20 days.

Preventive measures

So that in the future you don’t have to wonder: “How to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage?” - and do not waste time fighting them; preventive measures should be taken in advance.

In order to avoid pests, you must:

Cover the beds with cabbage with thin spunbond or fine mesh, which will block the path for butterflies to lay larvae.
Carefully remove weeds and other plants, especially those belonging to the Cruciferous family, as they are very attractive to butterflies.
Plant fragrant plants (mint, marigolds, tansy, sage, etc.) next to or between the rows of cabbage, the smell of which will repel insects.
Inspect cabbage leaves at the bottom of the plant and remove egg masses.
Follow the rules for growing cabbage so that the strong plant can resist pest invasion.
Keep the garden in harmony with wildlife, where there are many natural enemies for caterpillars (birds, insects).

Conclusion

Unlike toxic substances that are available in abundance on the market, natural and biological remedies for eliminating 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 hazardous to health.

Cabbage is the favorite food of caterpillars. Therefore, one of the most important stages of crop care is the destruction of dangerous pests. On store shelves you can find various chemicals that help in the fight against caterpillars. But for those who dream of growing an environmentally friendly crop, we recommend using folk remedies. They have a high level of efficiency and do not harm plants. In this article we will look at how to treat cabbage against caterpillars with folk remedies, effective methods for exterminating pests and preventing their occurrence.

Types of caterpillars that cause damage to cabbage

There are two species of butterflies whose caterpillars cause damage to crops: the cabbage cutworm and the white moth. The white butterfly or cabbage butterfly is a medium-sized butterfly with white wings, on top of which there are dark spots. One individual can lay up to three clutches of eggs per season. Most often you can find them on the underside of a cabbage leaf. The eggs are distinguished by their oval shape and yellow color. It is from them that small caterpillars appear, which are the main pests of cabbage. First they eat the lower part of the face, then crawl to the lower part. If you don’t start fighting cabbage in time, only thick veins will remain from the heads of cabbage.

Another dangerous crop pest is the cabbage cutworm. It is distinguished by its brown color. The eggs are round in shape and white in color. The butterfly lays them inside the head of cabbage. One individual can make one or two clutches per season. Cabbage is eaten by cabbage cutworm caterpillars. They gnaw passages in the cabbage, which leads to rotting of the cabbage.

Features of the use of folk remedies against caterpillars

Growing cabbage does not require significant financial investment or physical effort. One of the conditions for successfully growing vegetables is the timely fight against caterpillars, which can cause significant damage to the crop. The caterpillars cause the greatest damage to seedlings, young cabbage and the weakest plants. To prevent the death of cabbage, it is necessary to plant the largest and healthiest seedlings.

Considerable attention should be paid to the condition of the soil. The soil should not be too acidic or contain a large amount of unrotted plant components or manure. Excessive amounts of these components attract fungal spores, infections and pests.

It is also not recommended to use too much nitrogen fertilizer. They give cabbage a taste that is attractive to caterpillars, so the pest first eats the heads of cabbage, which leads to the rapid death of the crop. An excellent option is feeding with ash. It contains phosphorus, which the caterpillars do not like. In addition, feeding with ash will get rid of not only caterpillars, but also aphids.

In addition to the quality of the soil for planting cabbage, it is important to use folk remedies for the prevention and destruction of caterpillars. If you do not regularly inspect cabbage leaves to identify eggs and caterpillars, you can quickly lose your entire harvest. Therefore, you need to inspect cabbage every 2-3 days, and treat the plant when caterpillars are detected. Preventive treatment is also required 1-2 times a week.

An important step in preventing the appearance of caterpillars is the destruction of weeds in the area, in which pupae and adult pests can hide. In autumn, it is also recommended to dig the soil to a depth of at least 20 cm.

The main types of folk remedies against caterpillars on cabbage

There are two main ways to fight caterpillars on cabbage using folk remedies:

Prevention. It includes the use of folk remedies that repel butterflies and prevent them from laying eggs on cabbage.
Poisoning. If cabbage infestation by caterpillars cannot be avoided, it is necessary to use folk remedies that destroy pests.

To effectively control pests, medications should be applied at least 1-2 times a week. This frequency is recommended in dry weather. After rain and watering, re-application of the product is required.

Preventing the appearance of caterpillars using folk remedies

Caterpillars on cabbage can cause significant damage to the crop, so it is recommended to plant the crop next to plants with a strong aroma. The following crops should be planted near the garden bed or between the cabbage rows:

sagebrush;
calendula;
carrots;
tomatoes;
dill;
celery;
coriander.

These plants have a fairly strong aroma that repels not only butterflies, but also other pests. In addition, planting herbs helps attract insects that feed on eggs. This will very quickly lead to a decrease in the caterpillar population.

In some cases, planting plants with a pungent odor near cabbage is impossible. Therefore, it is recommended to spray cabbage against caterpillars with herbal infusions. To do this, you can use an infusion of tansy flowers, wormwood, calendula, hot pepper or mustard. To increase the effectiveness of spraying, you can use a mixture of these plants. To keep the infusion on the leaves for a long time, it is recommended to add a little laundry soap to the spraying mixture. To quickly dissolve the soap, it is necessary to grind it using a fine grater.

A popular way to scare away butterflies from a cabbage bed is to place sticks with eggshells on it. Butterflies take her for their fellows, and do not lay eggs in those places where they are occupied.

Wasps can also be recruited to help protect the garden bed from caterpillars. These insects use caterpillars to feed their young, so quickly clean the leaves of pests. To attract wasps, you can spray the leaves with sugar syrup or old jam.

Means for controlling caterpillars on cabbage

If caterpillars or their eggs are found on cabbage leaves, it is recommended to begin immediately combating them. Otherwise, you can completely lose your harvest in just a few days. In addition to chemicals that can harm not only pests, but also the plant, you can also use folk remedies. A high-quality and effective folk remedy for caterpillars on cabbage should contain aggressive compounds that cause burns on the body of pests or their death when they eat treated cabbage leaves.

The most effective, affordable and simple methods of fighting caterpillars include the following folk remedies:

Flour and soda. The components must be mixed in equal proportions. Use the resulting powder after rain or abundant watering of cabbage so that the leaves become wet. Sprinkle the powder over the leaves. Soda causes severe burns to caterpillars, but is safe for people and plants. In this case, flour is required so that the soda attaches to the leaves and remains on them as long as possible. Use this product throughout the summer, sprinkling it on cabbage once a week or after each rain or watering.
Potato and tomato stems. The stems of these crops contain solanine, a substance poisonous to caterpillars and many other pests. At the same time, the infusion of the stems is completely safe for cabbage. After treating with cabbage infusion, butterflies will not want to lay eggs on the leaves, and caterpillars that eat the poisoned leaves will quickly die. To prepare the infusion, you will need to take 3 kg of potato and tomato stems per bucket of water. Boil water and pour it over the stems. Leave for 24 hours, then add pre-crushed laundry soap to the solution.
Vinegar. A vinegar solution is also an effective and safe remedy for caterpillars. To prepare it, you need to mix a glass of table vinegar with a bucket of water. Spray the mixture on the bottom of the cabbage leaves. The vinegar mixture causes severe burns in caterpillars, and the smell of vinegar repels butterflies from cabbage beds. Instead of a bite, you can use ammonia, but it has a rather unpleasant odor for humans. The use of vinegar or ammonia, unlike chemicals, is allowed even during the harvest period.
Ash and soap. An excellent spray that repels butterflies and kills caterpillars. To prepare it, you need to mix a glass of ash, half a bar of crushed laundry soap and 10 liters of water. Apply to the cabbage so that the mixture reaches the bottom of the leaves.
Onion peel. A simple and effective method of fighting caterpillars. You will need to use two parts water for one part onion peel. Pour boiling water over the husks and let it brew, add a little liquid soap. Spray the cabbage. Repeat the procedure 1-2 times a week.
Burdock and garlic. Safe and effective methods of controlling caterpillars on cabbage include spraying with infusion of garlic or burdock. To prepare the garlic infusion, you need to chop 15-20 heads and add 20 liters of warm water. Let it brew for 2-3 days. To make an infusion of burdock, the leaves need to be crushed and poured with cold water. Insist for three days. Leaves and water should be taken in a ratio of 1:3. You can also prepare a mixture of garlic and burdock. This spray solution is highly effective.

There are many ways to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage. It is best to give preference to safe methods so as not to harm the plants. The optimal solution is to combine several remedies, follow preventive measures and plant plants with a strong aroma around the cabbage bed.

Everyone associates the word “butterfly” with a bright, beautiful creature fluttering over flower beds. But gardeners know these insects from another side. For them, some butterflies pose a significant threat. There is a species of flying beauties that gardeners dislike - the cabbage butterfly, or, in other words, the cabbage white butterfly. It is she who gives summer residents trouble, forcing them to rack their brains over how to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage.

The white butterfly looks very pretty - a light, almost white butterfly, with dark spots and a black tip of the upper wing. She herself is completely harmless, but her children are dangerous. Each female cabbage plant can lay more than 200 eggs, from which a whole army of cabbage plant pests will subsequently hatch. If such a cute insect hovers over a cabbage bush, then you know that in 5-10 days you will notice uninvited guests - green caterpillars - on the underside of the cabbage leaf.

This is what cabbage whites look like

The caterpillars reach 4 cm in length and have unpleasant hair. If only a handful of these insects are infested on cabbage, they can destroy the entire head of cabbage in just one day. Despite their small size, they are extremely voracious. All that remains of the beautiful grown leaves is a skeleton of veins. In addition, if you pick the affected head of cabbage in time, it is undesirable to eat it. Cabbage leaves become toxic, and harmful substances are not so easy to wash off with plain water.

Traditional methods of fighting cabbage

It is unlikely that anyone would want to spray chemicals in their own garden. Firstly, a head of cabbage treated with such a solution cannot be safely eaten, and secondly, you will contaminate the soil with chemicals. Don’t get excited and go shopping at the agricultural store, because there are a lot of proven folk methods that allow you to get rid of cabbage.

Chicken eggs

Many gardeners have noticed that whites are very stupid. Although, what else can you expect from insects? They can be passed around your finger with simple eggshell halves. Between the cabbage beds, sticks are placed on which the shell of a white chicken egg is placed. Tolerant cabbages mistake the egg for their fellow cabbage and do not want to recapture an already occupied cabbage head. Many summer residents recommend this method as the simplest and most effective.

OS help

Dilute 1 kg of granulated sugar in a bucket of water and pour the resulting sweet solution over each bush in the garden bed. Wasps living nearby, which can smell sweet aromas a mile away, will instantly find themselves in the garden and catch all the cabbage caterpillars with which they feed their offspring. Unpleasant stinging pests can also be beneficial.

Soda

Baking soda will help in the household, in cosmetology, and in the garden. Sprinkle the powder generously over the leaves of your cabbage plants. This simple, simple method will scare away butterflies, as they cannot tolerate soda. The vegetable itself will not suffer from soda in any way, just like a person who eats a ripe head of cabbage.

Tomato tops or onion peels

The whitefish looks for its favorite vegetable by smell, so the task of gardeners is to remove the scent that is familiar to it. An infusion of onion peels is perfect for this. Fill a two-liter jar halfway with husks and pour boiling water over it. Place in a dark place for 48 hours, then add another 2 liters of water to the resulting concentrated infusion. In order for the solution to stick to the leaves, add 30 g of grated laundry soap, or even better, tar soap. Such a fragrant infusion will not be very pleasant to curious cabbage butterflies.

The tomato stems along with the roots need to be washed and finely chopped. 500 g of chopped herbs need to be boiled for half an hour in 10 liters of water. After cooking, the infusion should sit for a day. For the best effect, you need to add 50 g of liquid soap and grate half a bar of laundry soap and dissolve in the broth. This infusion will help get rid of not only worms, but also aphids.

Ants

One experienced gardener advised an interesting, but risky method of dealing with caterpillars. Since ants love to feast on baby butterflies, he suggested sprinkling the cabbage with soil containing ants dug out from the anthill. Little hardworking bugs will eat the worms in no time. But the risk is that they may retaliate by infesting cabbage crops with aphids.

Ash

Ash helps in the fight against many pests in summer cottages. Half a kilogram of ash should be diluted in a bucket of water and 50 ml of tar liquid soap or shampoo should be added to the solution. You can finely rub a bar of ordinary tar soap and dissolve it in water. By spraying cabbage with this solution, you can not only get rid of harmful insects, but also fertilize the soil. You can fill the bushes with simple ash, but the solution is more effective.

In addition to the above methods, you can try to drown out the aroma of cabbage with stronger odors. Many gardeners suggest planting onions or garlic, which have a strong aroma, between vegetable beds. Chamomile, sage, rosemary, mint and dill are also suitable. Such precautions do not guarantee one hundred percent protection, but will help to significantly reduce the number of unwanted guests in the garden beds.

When butterflies begin to flutter over the cabbage beds, this is not a very good sign. The butterflies themselves do no harm, but their caterpillars can destroy an entire cabbage plantation. They make holes in the leaves and damage the heads of cabbage by gnawing labyrinths in them.

There are two species of butterflies whose caterpillars are harmful pests of cabbage: the cabbage white moth and the cabbage moth.

Cabbage butterfly – This is a diurnal butterfly with beautiful white wings. The top of the front wings are painted black, and there are small black spots on the top or bottom. Up to three times per season, these butterflies lay elongated oval yellow eggs on the underside of the leaf. Small caterpillars emerge from them, which are pests.

The color of the caterpillar is yellow with a green tint, black hairs are sparsely located. The length of the body is up to 3.5 cm. For some time, young caterpillars live in a heap, and as they grow, they spread over all the leaves. First they gnaw the underside of the leaf, then move to the top. If these pests are not dealt with, they will eat the entire head of cabbage, leaving only thick veins.

Cabbage scoop – this is a nocturnal butterfly, in the dark it flies towards a bright light . It is colored brownish, sometimes a dark pattern is clearly visible on the folded wings. She folds her wings flat on her back, as if covering herself with them. The eggs are white, round. They are laid inside the head of cabbage, up to twice a season. If the weather is favorable, they may postpone it a third time. They overwinter in the ground. Both eggs and pupae can overwinter.

Cabbage is damaged by the caterpillars of this butterfly. They are brown or gray in color and may have a pattern of dark shapes on their backs. Sometimes there are individuals with a greenish tint. Size from 2.5 cm and more. They gnaw holes in the heads of cabbage, and their waste products cause the cabbage to rot.

How to treat cabbage against caterpillars

Chemical remedies should be used with caution. It is better to choose insecticides of hazard class 4, which include such biological products as: “Bitoxibacillin”, “Lepidotsid”, “Akarin”, “Fitoverm” and others.

Biological preparations should be treated repeatedly; their effect on pests can be seen only a few days after application.

If the infestation of caterpillars is too large, then treatment with class 3 pesticides is possible. It must be remembered that it will be possible to harvest only a month after treatment.

It is necessary to process 3 times per season: in May, July and late August or early September. To accurately determine the processing date, you should monitor the moment when the butterflies appear.

It is best to carry out treatment when eggs are found on the leaves, or when the caterpillars have just appeared and have not had time to cause serious damage.

Foliar feeding of cabbage reduces the number of pests. To do this, dilute 1 teaspoon of potassium chloride and 4 teaspoons of superphosphate in granules in 4 liters of water.

Folk remedies for fighting caterpillars

The best means of control is mechanical destruction of egg clutches and manual collection of caterpillars. You should only work with gloves, because they release a substance that causes irritation on the skin.

If manual harvesting is not possible due to the size of the plantations, then spraying cabbage against caterpillars is suitable:

A vinegar solution is prepared from 9% table vinegar and water in a ratio of 1 glass of acid to 1 bucket of water;
2 cups of wood ash are poured into a bucket of water, mixed and left for a day;

To prolong the effect of these products, add a little liquid or grated laundry soap. Treatment is carried out once a week.

Cabbage caterpillars are a delicacy for wasps; they feed their offspring with them. To attract them, you need to irrigate the cabbage beds with sweet water or drop a few drops of sugar syrup on the plants.

How to prevent caterpillars

To avoid the appearance of caterpillars, butterflies must be scared away from cabbage beds. When the first individuals appear, it is necessary to cover the beds with a fine mesh net or the thinnest white covering material. This should be done in May, July and towards the end of summer.

Butterflies do not lay eggs in territory already occupied by others. You can deceive them if you stretch a string over the beds and tie egg shells strung on a thick thread to it.

Young seedlings can be powdered with ash. In dry weather, this method will work for several days.

Some plants with a pungent odor repel butterflies. Marigolds, calendula and celery planted between cabbage should do the trick.

Butterflies do not like the smell of potato tops, nettles, and tomatoes. The crushed tops are infused in a small amount of water, filtered and sprayed on the plantings.

After harvesting, the area must be dug up to a depth of at least 15 cm. This will destroy egg laying and pupae that overwinter in the soil.

Video

How to treat cabbage against caterpillars in order to prevent their invasion or promptly expel them when detected? There are many ways, among which folk remedies remain no less effective. With timely use of a properly prepared composition, the problem can be easily dealt with.

Cabbage beds often become habitat for white cabbage. She lays eggs on cabbage leaves. After a couple of days, a large number of caterpillars emerge from the eggs, destroying the cabbage. The color of the caterpillar is gray-green, with yellow stripes and black dots. The first days, when the caterpillars are still small, they damage only the top layer of leaves. As soon as their size reaches approximately 4 cm, the head of cabbage itself is eaten.

Cabbage caterpillars live on average just under a month. Then they pupate and turn into butterflies. The cycle repeats itself again. If you don’t start fighting the pest, up to five generations of these insects can change over the summer. Therefore, when getting rid of butterflies, you can be sure that the caterpillars will not eat the crop. Cabbage is not only affected by cabbage caterpillars. The turnip, like the white one, has white wings, but is half the size. The caterpillars are green with yellow stripes. The caterpillar eats not only the leaves, but also the head of cabbage itself.

Cabbage cutworm caterpillars are also dangerous for cabbage. Butterflies are small in size, brown-gray in color. Green caterpillars are also small in size. At night, they eat leaves, forming holes in them. During the daytime they sleep inside the stalk. The cabbage moth is small in size, reaching approximately 7 mm. The insect is gray-brown in color with light stripes. Small green caterpillars that appear feed on the sap of the plant and hide on the inside of the leaf.

After 3-4 weeks, the caterpillars pupate, turn into butterflies and become ready to hatch the next generation.

Green caterpillars manage to ruin the entire crop without intervention. The heads of cabbage are formed small or completely wither and rot. It is better to engage in prevention than to waste time and effort on treatment.

Prevention measures

There is a simple but proven way to get rid of caterpillars on cabbage. The pest does not like pungent and spicy smells, therefore, experienced gardeners plant celery, parsley, cilantro, and basil near cabbage beds. The smells of flowers such as marigolds and calendula repel insects from cabbage. While repelling some insects, their scent attracts the attention of other insects that feed on the caterpillars. This prevention option is one of the effective methods.

What to do to prevent insect attacks? In addition to choosing neighbors in the garden, they fight cabbage in other ways:

prevent the growth of weeds and carry out weeding in a timely manner;
it is necessary to remove the tops of the previous harvest and pulled out weeds from the beds;
periodically inspect the vegetable crop; leaves should also be examined from the inside;
When pests are detected, they are removed from the beds and destroyed.

Not all pests can be collected by hand. For example, cabbage moth caterpillars begin active activity only at night. During the day they carefully hide at the base of the stalk. How to protect cabbage from the spread of pests? In this case, wasps or ants will come to the rescue, as they feed on larvae and caterpillars. To attract them, cabbage beds can be watered with sweet syrup.

Herbal Ingredients

What folk remedies can be used to treat cabbage against caterpillars? There are many proven and effective means used by experienced gardeners. You can scare away butterflies with a decoction based on hot pepper. Pepper, in the amount of 1 kg, is crushed and poured with boiling water (10 liters). After two days of infusion, the broth must be strained. The solution is diluted with water before use. Add 150 ml of decoction to 10 liters of water. “Once we fought caterpillars with a bitter decoction of peppers. The recipe worked quickly. To increase efficiency, I add 40 g of crushed soap.” This will allow the solution to remain on the cabbage leaves for a longer period.

You can protect cabbage beds with a decoction prepared from hot peppers. The recipe requires 100 g of dry peppers per liter of water. The pods are boiled in water for two hours. The resulting solution is diluted with water. The fight may be accompanied by decoctions based on burdock, nettle, onion peel or chamomile. They water the beds. In addition to repelling insects, herbal infusions will help replenish the lack of microelements.

If caterpillars appear, you can use burdock leaves. They are finely chopped, filled with water and left to infuse for three days. Before watering, dilute with water. Plants should be sprayed against butterflies during their flight and when caterpillars emerge from eggs. Folk remedies cannot do without onion peels. It is poured with boiling water. After a couple of hours of infusion, soap shavings are added. Water or spray the plants with the resulting solution.

You can pour in the onion peel along with the onion itself, previously finely chopped. It is enough to insist for a day. Before spraying the plants, the infusion must be filtered. You can destroy the caterpillar with another infusion. Take tomato leaves and tops, wormwood and finely chop. The resulting green mixture is poured with water, and after a day the infusion will be ready for use.

You can water the cabbage with an infusion based on tomato tops and leaves without wormwood. Chopped greens are poured with boiling water for 4 hours. Then bring to a boil again and cook for 3 hours. The resulting infusion is filtered and diluted in a 1:2 ratio before watering. Cabbage should be processed during the period when the caterpillars appear.

You can treat cabbage with an infusion based on garlic. Chopped garlic cloves are poured with water and left for a week. To spray, you need to take 25 ml of infusion and dilute it in 10 liters of water. All these recipes will help protect against insect infestations, get rid of caterpillars and stop their further spread.

Other compositions of folk remedies

Many gardeners use folk remedies to treat cabbage against caterpillars. All compositions contain natural ingredients and do not harm the culture. You can treat cabbage against whiteflies with a vinegar solution. A glass of the main component is diluted in 10 liters of water, 60 g of salt and 50 ml of ammonia are added. “We have been fighting insects with this product for a long time. Only the resulting solution should be sprayed on the cabbage; you cannot water it at the root.” For preventive purposes, you can spray cabbage several times a season.

How to deal with whiteflies on cabbage, wood ash has proven itself well. You can simply sprinkle it on the soil around each seedling, or make a decoction. Wood ash is poured with water (1 liter of water per 100 g of ash), brought to a boil and boiled for 20 minutes. After this it is left to cool. Advice from gardeners: “I have been spraying cabbage with a decoction of ash for every year. Before use, I add water, bringing the volume to 10 liters.”

An infusion of ash will help against whiteflies. Wood ash is poured with water and left to infuse for two days. Dissolve 40 g of laundry soap crushed with a grater in the resulting composition. A natural remedy such as tobacco dust will save you; it drives away many pests and helps you cope with the cutworm.

You can simply sprinkle the mixture onto the cabbage beds, but there are recipes for preparing a decoction and infusion. To obtain an infusion, infuse 50 g of tobacco dust in a liter of water for 24 hours. For the decoction, you need to take 100 g of tobacco dust, add water (10 l) and boil for half an hour. Then leave to infuse for a day, strain and dilute with water, adding soap.

You can poison caterpillars and butterflies with mustard. For infusion you will need mustard powder in the amount of 10 g. Infuse in a liter of water for two days. Before spraying the vegetable crop, the solution is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:5. Protection is also carried out with infusion. Mustard (approximately 90 g) is poured with a liter of water and stirred thoroughly. You need to insist for three days in a closed container.

Before spraying the cabbage, filter the solution, dilute it with water in a ratio of 1:20 and add 40 g of crushed laundry soap.

Harmless ready-made formulations

You can also poison caterpillars using purchased drugs. Biological products without chemicals are produced on the basis of living bacteria and fungi. These drugs are not harmful to humans or animals. Accumulating in the soil, they create a favorable environment for the development of any vegetable crop. Treated vegetable plantings are cleared of pests after 6 hours using the following means:

Verticillin is used against whites;
if cabbage flies appear, Nemabact will help;
To get rid of caterpillars, the drug Actofit and Avertin are often used.

You cannot use biological products and chemicals at the same time. Living bacteria die under the influence of chemical components, and the result will not be achieved.