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The appearance of slugs on cabbage rarely goes unnoticed. Round holes in the leaves, waste products - all this indicates that the plantings have been attacked by these invertebrates. Such symptoms should not be ignored. If you do not treat cabbage against slugs in time, the result will be the most disastrous.
Why are slugs on cabbage dangerous?
Slugs are gastropod invertebrate mollusks that resemble snails without shells. Their appearance on cabbage threatens a number of serious troubles:
- When moving, the mollusks secrete sticky mucus, which contains enzymes that cause cabbage leaves to rot.
- Mucus clogs the pores of the leaves, complicating and disrupting the air exchange process.
- Mucus often contains pathogens of various diseases.
- The mollusk itself feeds on the tissues of the cabbage leaf, gnawing numerous holes in it and thereby causing serious damage to cabbage plantings.
Voracious slugs can greatly harm cabbage
Reasons for the appearance of slugs on cabbage
There may be several reasons for the appearance of slugs in cabbage plantings, but they are all directly related to excess moisture. Main factors:
- Damp, cool weather. There are especially many slugs after a mild winter and a long, cold spring.
- Excessive soil moisture (excessive watering).
- Disruption of natural ventilation of cabbage beds due to highly dense plantings.
- A large amount of organic residues on the soil, as a result of which the layer does not dry out.
Signs of slugs on cabbage
Determining the appearance of slugs on cabbage is quite simple. This can be done according to the following criteria:
- Small round holes in the leaves.
- Mucous tracks on leaf blades.
- Greenish-brown watery discharge.
Pests concentrate in the dampest places, under the cover leaves
By bending back the upper outer leaves of the head of cabbage, you can find the pests themselves. As a rule, they concentrate in places of greatest humidity, crawling into the folds between the leaves closer to the stalk.
How to get rid of slugs on cabbage
There are many ways in which you can drive slugs out of cabbage. They include both mechanical methods of pest removal and the use of various chemicals and folk remedies for treating plants.
How to fight slugs on cabbage using folk remedies
The range of folk remedies used to treat cabbage against slugs is very wide. Since this mollusk, unlike many other gastropods, does not have a hard chitinous shell, it remains very vulnerable to any irritating substances. Contact with such products will cause serious harm or force the slugs to leave the cabbage plantings. Here's what you can use to treat this pest from folk remedies:
- Vinegar. 50 ml of 9% table vinegar should be diluted in 10 liters of water. Cabbage beds are treated with this solution after sunset.
- Ammonia. To prepare a solution for 10 liters of water, you need to take 40 ml of ammonia preparation. The treatment is carried out in 2 stages with an interval of 15 minutes.
- Soda. Dry powder is sprinkled on areas where slugs accumulate. You can also use an aqueous solution of this substance for treatment, adding it in an amount of 50 g per 10 liters of water. To enhance the adhesive properties, a few tablespoons of liquid soap are also added to the composition. In the fight against slugs on cabbage, you can use both baking soda and soda ash, although practice shows that treatment with the latter is more effective.
Both baking soda and soda ash can be used to control insects.
- Coffee. The caffeine contained in coffee beans has a detrimental effect on slugs. For processing, you need to prepare a strong solution by adding 2 tsp. coffee for 1 tbsp. warm water. The method is effective, but not very cheap, given the current prices for this product.
- Ash. This substance is known to be an irritant, so it can also be used to treat cabbage against slugs.To enhance the effect, add ground red pepper, mustard and salt to the mixture, and then apply it to areas where shellfish accumulate.
- Mustard. Mustard powder can be used to treat cabbage against slugs and in the form of an aqueous solution. For infusion you will need 0.5 tbsp. dry mustard, it needs to be diluted in 10 liters of water and left for several hours. Plantings are treated with this infusion once every 3-4 days.
- Hot water. Spraying cabbage with water heated to a temperature of about 60 °C will not cause damage to the heads of cabbage, but will be destructive for slugs that are unable to tolerate such heat treatment.
How to protect cabbage from slugs and snails with chemicals
The use of chemicals to control slugs on cabbage is always undesirable and is a measure of last resort. If the amount of pest is small, then it is advisable to use other treatment methods or much less toxic folk remedies. When there are a lot of slugs and there is a threat of complete destruction of the crop, the following drugs can be used to combat it:
- Storm. A granular preparation containing metaldehyde, a highly toxic substance. The beds are treated by scattering granules on the surface of the soil around the heads of cabbage at the rate of 4-5 g per 1 sq. m. m.
The drug Groza contains metaldehyde, a strong poison.
- Thunder. Insecticide based on diazinon - substances of hazard class 3 (moderate toxic). Granules are a mixture of an active drug with food attractants and are, in fact, ready-made bait that is scattered over the surface of the soil.Thunder has excellent efficiency, destroying not only slugs, but also many other pests, for example, ants, mole crickets, wireworms, flies.Important! The effectiveness of treatment with Grom is from 95 to 100%.
Grom granules work both on the surface and in the soil
- Meta. In fact, this is the same drug Groza, only produced in Switzerland. Processing is done according to the same scheme.Important! Metaldehyde-based preparations can be used no more than 2 times per season, and the second treatment must be carried out no later than 1 month before the planned harvest.
Biological means of controlling slugs on cabbage
Biological preparations are considered more environmentally friendly than chemical ones, since contact with them does not pose a danger to humans and animals. Such means of processing cabbage appeared relatively recently and are a new word in the science of plant protection. The mechanism of action of biological products is based on dehydration of the slugs, as a result of which they die.
Here are some of the products used to process cabbage:
- Ulicide Eco. This is a granular, highly effective product based on iron phosphate. The granules are scattered at a distance of 20-25 cm from the heads of cabbage and between the rows at the rate of 1.5 g per 1 sq. m. m. The drug has a long shelf life and can be used to treat crops in any weather.
Ulicide can be used in any weather
- Ecokiller. This is a preparation based on diatomide - a finely dispersed substance of contact action, which, when it comes into contact with the body of a slug, literally draws moisture out of it. Ecokiller is absolutely safe for humans, animals and birds.
The new generation biological preparation Ecokiller is safe for people, animals and birds.
How to deal with slugs on cabbage using mechanical methods
The simplest mechanical way to combat slugs on cabbage is to manually collect shellfish. However, not everyone wants to do this; frankly speaking, it is not a very pleasant thing. In addition, gastropod pests are active at night; during the day they hide in the folds of the head of cabbage, and it is often difficult to detect them. Therefore, gardeners prefer to use other means to protect their crops. Slugs can only move on a smooth surface, so an obstacle made of any dry bulk material can become an insurmountable obstacle for them. The following materials can be poured around the heads of cabbage:
- needles, pine or spruce;
- large sawdust;
- sunflower husk;
- crushed eggshells;
- small shell rock;
- wood ash.
The arsenal of anti-gastropod remedies is very extensive.
To combat gastropods, you can use various traps that are easy to make with your own hands. The following materials can be used in this capacity:
- Jar or any other container. The dishes are dug in so that the neck is level or slightly above the soil surface. You need to pour some beer, fermented compote or mash inside; the smell of these products attracts slugs. The container must be kept closed during the day, otherwise a large number of insects will fill it, and opened at night. Pests that fall inside will die.
Beer cups buried in the garden serve as bait for gastropods
- Polyethylene film. It can be placed between the rows of cabbage. Slugs seeking shelter from the daytime heat will crawl under it in the morning, and in the afternoon they will die from thermal shock in such an improvised “greenhouse”.
- A board or piece of roofing felt. You can use any dense material that slugs might mistake for daytime cover. The soil underneath must be moistened. To escape the heat of the day, the pests will take refuge under such an improvised canopy; all that remains is to wait until midday and simply collect them.
Prevention
As a preventive measure against the appearance of slugs, measures can be recommended to reduce excess humidity. This includes rationing watering, and timely care of the beds, preventing them from becoming overgrown or littered. It is important to observe the intervals between neighboring plants and the size of the rows, otherwise the soil in the root zone will never dry out.
A good prevention against slugs can be to plant various plants with a strong aroma in close proximity to the cabbage, the smell of which repels mollusks. These are calendula, basil, parsley, rosemary. However, this measure does not always work. If aromatic herbs are constantly grown on the site, then slugs develop immunity to their aromas, as a result of which these plantings over time can themselves become food for gastropod pests.
Birds are natural enemies of slugs
It is known that some birds and animals, such as hedgehogs and frogs, feed on slugs, so there is no need to drive them away from the area. On the contrary, everything should be done to keep them.
Advice from gardeners
The problem of slugs appearing on cabbage has long been known. Therefore, considerable experience has been accumulated in the fight against these gastropods.
Here are some tips to help combat these pests:
- It is best to involve their natural enemies - birds, hedgehogs and frogs - in the fight against slugs. For birds, you can build feeders and hang them on trees, and for frogs, dig a natural puddle on the border. If a hedgehog is spotted in the area, you can keep it away by placing a piece of biscuit on the garden bed.
If a couple of hedgehogs settle on the site, then you can forget about slugs
- As a rule, gardeners do not have problems with fresh nettles. If you spread bunches of this burning herb between the heads of cabbage, slugs will not appear in the garden bed. As the nettle dries, it should be renewed.
- Slugs love moisture, but not water. If you install grooves with water around the bed, the pest will not be able to overcome such an obstacle.
Conclusion
You can treat cabbage against slugs with a variety of preparations. Of course, you should start with the most harmless and gentle methods: collecting pests by hand, setting traps and using folk remedies. Heavy chemicals to combat slugs should be used to treat plantings only in the most extreme cases, when other methods are ineffective. Fortunately, this happens quite rarely, especially if you keep your garden clean and take the recommended preventive measures.
