Cabbage moth: description and methods of struggle

Cabbage is one of the most popular vegetable crops. Grow it on a suburban site is not too difficult. Plants need mostly just to water and fertilize. As for pests, until recently there were not so many of them. Annoyed the villagers except that only slugs and butterflies, cabbage. However, not so long ago this garden crop had another very serious enemy.

In recent years, it sometimes happens that vacationers leave for the city, leaving a healthy cabbage in the garden, and after arriving in a few days, they discover only stems and veins from the leaves. Fabrics, flowers, ovary ovaries - all this is eaten clean. Such a huge harm to plants causes a new kind of pest - cabbage moth. The hearth of its spread is supposedly warm countries of the Mediterranean.

What does a butterfly look like?

It is quite difficult to detect this pest on plants. The fact is that in the adult state, and at the stage of the larvae, the cabbage moth has very small dimensions. Outwardly it is very similar to the usual domestic moth. In adult butterflies, both the front and back wings are narrow, have a complex pattern in gray-white tones. The body of the insect is dark brown with yellow stripes, and the antennae are rather long. The hind wings on the edge have fringe. When folded, their tips are slightly elevated. The body length of adult cabbage moth is 5-7 mm, and the wingspan reaches 15 mm.

Larvae of the pest

The life cycle of adults of cabbage moth is very small - only about 2 weeks. In this case, the plants of the cruciferous family actually do not harm the butterflies themselves. But, of course, the struggle with the cabbage moth should be directed, among other things, to such adult individuals. After all, almost all free time, butterflies are dedicated to laying eggs, from which then come voracious larvae. The latter are absolutely colorless at the initial stage of development and at the same time have tiny dimensions (about 4-5 mm). That is why most of the cottagers do not notice them, and as a result, plants are inflicted huge damage in a short time. On one bush (mainly on the underside of the leaves), the butterfly can postpone a huge number of elongated yellowish eggs.

Hatching caterpillars first gnaw through the cabbage tissues numerous passages. After a while they come out from the top side of the sheet. Approximately on the fourth day the caterpillar enters the next stage of development. The size of it slightly increases, and the body color changes to bright green.

The larval stage lasts for about a month in the cabbage moth. Then the caterpillar weaves a dense spider web and arranges in it a yellowish-green translucent cocoon. Another adult butterfly comes out of it about a week and a half later.

Features of behavior

The butterflies of this species fly very badly. Above the ground, a cabbage moth can rise no more than 2 meters. But, since the size of this insect is not too large, it is easily tolerated by the wind. This is how a pest usually migrates over long distances.

Caterpillar cabbage moth from the larvae of other garden insects, among other things, can be distinguished by behavior. If you touch it, for example, with a wand, it starts to behave very actively - creeps away vigorously, wriggling at the same time, or even quickly descends from a sheet on a silk thread.

The cabbage moth can be damaged not only by white cabbage or cauliflower, but also by other cruciferous plants. Very often it affects, for example, salad, turnip, radish, etc.

In the winter, the moth usually leaves in the stage of an adult butterfly. Too much cold, this insect, fortunately, does not tolerate. Therefore, after frosty winters on cabbage beds of a pest can be met quite rarely (unless, of course, it does not bring southern winds from warmer regions).

Garden cabbage moth: fighting measures

It is very difficult to destroy this gluttonous insect. Most of the means used by summer residents against other pests of cruciferous, in this case does not help. It is completely useless, for example, to use vinegar, tobacco dust, ash or tobacco infusion against moths. To all these means, it is absolutely stable. Do not help against it and most chemicals.

Judging by the reviews of summer residents, more or less good results in the fight against this pest are given only by such means as "Senpai", "Colorado Forte" and "Bio Kill".

However, within a few years and these drugs may be powerless before the cabbage moth. The fact is that this pest, like a room cockroach, very quickly adapts to any insecticide. In any case, the above remedies should be used cautiously. After all, the cabbage tissues are very delicate, and they can easily be burned. It is also extremely not recommended to use these drugs for a couple of weeks before harvesting. Otherwise, cabbage can simply be poisoned.

What other insecticides can I use

If the moth showed resistance to the means described above, it is worth trying to destroy it also with such drugs:

• Carbophos.
• The Talcord.
• Sodium silicofluoride.
• Nurell.

All without exception, insecticides have a harmful effect only on butterflies and larvae of cabbage moths. The embryos in the eggs, as well as the pupae in the cocoons, remain alive. Therefore, after a couple of weeks, the plant should be treated with the same agent a second time. By that time, the larvae and butterflies have already come out of their "shelters".

Folk measures

All sorts of chemicals are often used to destroy a pest such as a cabbage moth. National measures against it can also be used. After all, apply chemistry, and even such killer as, for example, the same "Colorado", most dacha owners would not particularly like.

Some gardeners advise using a mixture of flour with soda (in equal amounts) against this pest. With this powder, you just need to sprinkle cabbage leaves and scatter it on the ground near the stems. Once in the body of an insect with plant tissues, the flour coalesces in a lump and forms a plug in its digestive system. Completes the case of the harmful effects of soda.

There are other ways to destroy such a dangerous pest, as a cabbage moth. Measures of struggle with folk remedies can also consist, for example, in the spilling of leaves of plants with a crushed laurel leaf. It is believed that the usual canine shampoo from fleas can help with moths. It should be diluted with water (2 tbsp per bucket) and sprinkled with cabbage with the resulting solution.

Bacterial agents

What else can be done against such a pest, as a cabbage moth, measures? In some cases bacterial agents also help against the voracious caterpillars of this species. Their advantage is that they do not have any harmful effect on the plants themselves and on the human body. When applied to leaves, they are absorbed by the tissues. Then the drugs enter the body of the larva and begin their harmful work, causing paralysis and death.

Most often, to combat cabbage moths use such bacterial remedies:

• "Dendrobacillin."
• "Homelin".
• Dipel.
• Bactoseptin.

Use the drugs of this group is desirable in the peak activity of caterpillars - in the evening. The best air temperature in the street is +16 degrees.

How to get rid of cabbage moths: preventive measures

It hibernates this insect in the cruciferous tops. Therefore, in autumn, for prevention, all leaves and stems of such plants should be carefully collected by rakes and burned. You can also add them to the compost pile. It concerns not only the leaves of white-bellied, Brussels or cauliflower, but also cress-salad, radish, turnips. Also need to remove from the site the dead leaves of various kinds of weeds of the cruciferous family.