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Pests that attack cruciferous crops can destroy the future harvest in a short time. Therefore, you need to know how to fight aphids on cabbage using folk methods and chemicals, which of them is the most effective and efficient.
You should get rid of aphids on cabbage before the heads begin to form. Effective plant protection requires knowledge about the biological characteristics of the pest, the reasons for its appearance and the secrets of its destruction.
Why are aphids on cabbage dangerous?
Cabbage aphids are found everywhere. This small insect belongs to the order Hemiptera. It feeds on plant sap. It can attack any cruciferous vegetables - cabbage, radish, turnips, daikon.
Aphids are capable of piercing tissues with their proboscis and sucking juices from cabbage leaves and shoots.At this moment, the plant loses chlorophyll, photosynthesis does not occur, it turns yellow, withers, dries out and dies.
Aphids reproduce very quickly, forming huge colonies. To attack, it chooses young, tender cabbage leaves, positioning itself on their underside. At the same time, aphids prefer the growth points of heads of cabbage, destroying them at the embryonic stage.
The development of the pest on cabbage is quite difficult. Aphid eggs overwinter on the remains of cruciferous plants. When the air temperature rises to +11 oFrom them larvae emerge, which later become wingless females and produce their offspring, which are already winged. It, in turn, produces numerous new colonies, flying from one place to another.
As a result, a huge number of these small pests can destroy or make cabbage heads unfit for food, leaving their sticky waste on them. For this reason, control of aphids must be carried out on time, using all effective methods and means.
What measures exist to combat cabbage aphids?
To combat aphids for preventive purposes, tomatoes are planted next to cabbage, which can repel pests with their smell. For the same purpose, marigolds, lavender, and calendula are planted along the edges of the beds. To prevent aphids, plants should be low growing so that cabbage seedlings are not shaded.
Some gardeners advise attracting hoverflies, insects that feed on aphids, to the site. The method is controversial, since the houses made and intended for them are most often occupied by ants.
You can destroy aphids by sprinkling cabbage with an infusion of nettles, bay leaves, potato tops, tobacco, onions and garlic, chamomile or wormwood.
An old folk remedy for aphids is spraying cabbage with an infusion of ash, a solution of laundry or tar soap, ammonia, and vinegar.
When large colonies of aphids have spread throughout cabbage seedlings, many try to treat the plants with insecticidal preparations. The frequency and method of their use must comply with the instructions for using these products (Arrivo, Decis, Pirimix, Fufanon).
How to get rid of aphids on cabbage using traditional methods
Although aphids are a very small pest, they can destroy cabbage extremely quickly. Insecticides are effective methods of control because they destroy not only insects, but also larvae. At the same time, chemical preparations for aphids can accumulate in fruits and cause irreparable harm to human health. In cabbage, almost the entire aerial part is used for food, so the use of insecticides in this regard is doubly dangerous.
The most harmless methods of combating aphids are folk ones. You need to choose the most acceptable and effective one for yourself. There are many of them, since the collection of folk remedies for aphids on cabbage is constantly replenished.
Tar soap
One of the most popular folk remedies for aphids on cabbage is tar soap. The reason for its effectiveness is the birch tar in its composition, which has a detrimental effect not only on aphids, but also on the ants that carry it and infect all new plants.
The most common recipe for preparing a solution is to mix 150 g of tar soap with 10 liters of water. If you treat cabbage with a solution, you can not only get rid of pests, but also restore and regenerate the tissue structure of the leaves of the crop.The wounds heal, heal, and the aphids stop settling in the area due to the sharp, irritating smell of tar. After a week, this activity against aphids on cabbage should be repeated.
Bay leaf
Folk methods for combating aphids on cabbage also include bay leaves, since this spice contains a lot of essential oils. Their aroma repels pests. It is possible to use onion remedy both in dried form and in the form of infusion.
- The first method involves placing dried bay leaves directly under the cabbage plants;
- For the second, you need to pour a package (10 g) of spices with boiling water (1 l), cover with a lid and leave for an hour. After this, strain the liquid and spray the cabbage against aphids. You need to process it again in a few days.
Ammonia
To prepare an insecticidal solution based on ammonia, you will need, in addition to ammonia (50 ml), water (10 l) and laundry soap (40 - 50 g), which should first be crushed on a coarse grater and filled with warm water. For convenience, you can replace laundry soap with shampoo or dishwashing detergent. During the growing season, it is necessary to treat the cabbage with the solution several times every week.
Spraying with ammonia is an effective way to kill aphids on cabbage, but you should follow safety rules when using it:
- protect the respiratory tract with a respirator or mask;
- use rubber gloves;
- prepare a solution for aphids in the open air;
- Keep the mixture out of the reach of children.
Vinegar
A solution against aphids is also prepared from table vinegar, which has a sharp, sour odor. A glass of 6% vinegar is diluted in 10 liters of water, a little liquid soap is added and mixed thoroughly.Thanks to the soap additive, the aphid solution becomes viscous and can stick to cabbage leaves. The seedlings should be treated in such a way that the liquid gets on their back side, where insect pests are most often found. The product is harmless, the heads of cabbage can be consumed at any time after treatment.
In hot weather, spraying is carried out in the evening so that the leaves do not get burned.
The procedure should be repeated after each rain.
Tobacco against aphids on cabbage
Insects cannot tolerate the strong smell of tobacco. To combat aphids, a decoction or infusion of this remedy is used.
To prepare a decoction, 200 g of tobacco leaves are poured into 5 liters of water, then put on fire, brought to a boil and boiled for about 2 hours. The finished decoction is infused until it cools completely, after which the volume is brought to the original volume using the required amount of water. After straining and adding soap, the aphid decoction is ready for use.
To prepare the infusion, pour 200 g of shag into 5 liters of boiling water, close the container and leave for two days.
When processing cabbage, you need to pay attention to the back side of the leaves, where aphid colonies are most often located.
Tomato and potato tops
After pinching tomatoes and removing the lower leaves of the plants, a large amount of tomato leafy green mass remains, from which it is easy to prepare a remedy for aphids on cabbage.
For this purpose, take 1 kg of fresh shoots that are not damaged by disease and rot, chop them, add a small amount of water and leave for about 4 hours. Next, bring the volume of liquid to 10 liters, filter and use for its intended purpose.
Using the same scheme and in the same ratio, an infusion of potato tops is prepared, used against aphids.
If you treat cabbage with this composition, leaf-sucking insects die. It is worth spraying again after a few days.
It is possible to prepare a decoction from tomato or potato tops, for which you need to pour 0.5 kg of greens into 10 liters of water and cook for about 3 hours over low heat. The decoction is used after filtering, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:3 and adding 30 g of soap.
Sagebrush
Wormwood repels pests from the site if it grows around the perimeter or next to cabbage seedlings. For this purpose, you can lay out wormwood branches scalded with boiling water on the ridges under the plants.
To prepare a decoction for aphids, take about 1 kg of a little dried grass and add water. After boiling for 15 minutes. The wormwood decoction is cooled, filtered and the volume of liquid is brought to 10 liters, diluted with water. For greater effectiveness in the fight against aphids, before processing the cabbage, add 50 g of soap to the broth.
Mixture of ash and spices
An effective remedy for aphids on cabbage is a mixture that has repellent properties. It contains 100 g of wood ash, 1 teaspoon of ground pepper and 100 g of tobacco dust. The mixture is sprinkled around the cabbage seedlings, the soil is loosened to a depth of 2 cm, repeating it every 5 days.
Onion and garlic
Onion-garlic infusion against aphids is prepared as follows:
- 60 g of onion and garlic, chopped.
- Pour the mixture with two liters of water.
- Let it brew for 5 hours.
- Add 10 g of soap to the solution.
- Strain and use to kill aphids.
Spraying cabbage should be carried out several times with a break of 10 days.
Chamomile
An infusion of chamomile flowers helps to completely destroy aphid colonies, provided that plants are repeatedly treated regularly with this product.
For this purpose, take 100 g of inflorescences, pour them into an enamel bowl, pour 1 liter of boiling water, close tightly with a lid and leave to infuse for at least 45 minutes. The resulting aphid infusion is filtered, diluted with water in a ratio of 1 to 10 and poured over the cabbage directly from a watering can.
How to treat cabbage against aphids with chemicals
Today, the choice of chemicals for controlling aphids on cabbage is very wide. They are used for urgent action: most often, for large planting areas. Experts recommend the following remedies for aphids:
- Kemifos;
- Spark;
- Fury;
- Bankol;
- Arrivo;
- Decis;
- Pirimix;
- Fufanon.
When using them, you must strictly follow the instructions, observing the dosage. Plants should be treated by spraying preparations in calm, windless weather. The best time of the day is morning or evening.
Safety precautions must be followed:
- use special clothing when spraying;
- do not smoke or eat near the treatment site;
- Wash exposed areas of the body with soap after work.
Among chemical preparations, Deltamethrin and insecticidal soap based on olives or flax are considered the safest for humans.
Which cabbage varieties are resistant to aphids?
Thanks to the hard work of breeders, cabbage hybrids that are resistant to aphids have been created:
- Aggressor – a Dutch late-ripening variety, characterized by its unpretentiousness in cultivation, the ability to develop in the most unfavorable conditions, the absence of cracking of heads of cabbage and resistance to insect attack;
- Amager 611- a late variety, characterized by frost resistance, high yield, keeping quality, and immunity to aphids;
- Bartolo – a late Dutch variety of cabbage, high-yielding, not susceptible to many diseases and insect damage, including aphids;
- Snow White – cabbage is a late-ripening variety that produces flat-rounded heads of cabbage that can be stored for up to six months. The culture is universally used, and most importantly, it is weakly susceptible to attack by insects, in particular aphids.
Prevention measures
You can prevent aphid invasion of cabbage by applying a number of preventive measures:
- after harvesting, remove from the garden all plant debris that could become a place for aphids to lay eggs;
- dig up the soil in the fall to a depth of at least 20 cm;
- remove all weeds;
- in the spring, before planting, treat the area from insect pests;
- follow the rules of agricultural technology and cabbage crop rotation;
- buy in a specialized store and propagate lacewings, coccinellid beetles, serphid beetles, the larvae of which feed on aphids.
Conclusion
Fighting aphids on cabbage using traditional methods is more difficult than treating plants with chemicals. It is necessary to prepare a remedy and apply it repeatedly to achieve success. But this method has one undeniable advantage: it is absolutely harmless and does not make the product environmentally unsafe. From many options, you can choose a traditional method and, using it, be confident in your health and the condition of your loved ones.
