The most effective ways to deal with slugs on cabbage folk remedies
One of the most unpleasant problems that gardeners face is slugs on cabbage, and not everyone knows how to deal with them. These pests can either spoil the crop or completely destroy it. However, an effective fight is possible.
Description of the pest
From an exclusively biological point of view, slugs are gastropods, devoid of a shell that would protect them from external influences. The slug has a soft elongated body, which is constantly under a layer of mucus. It is produced by special glands.
When the slug moves, and this happens by contracting the trunk, a layer of mucus remains behind. When wet, it is transparent, but after it dries, it becomes silvery.
The body color of the slug is beige or brown and fairly uniform. The head is pronounced and "decorated" with horns that look like tentacles. For a slug, this is a sense organ.
The mollusk lives in the upper layers of the earth, plant debris, woodpiles and other places where humidity is high. The slug does not tolerate high air temperature, and therefore is forced to hide in the shade from the direct rays of the sun. They appear mainly at night, when the refreshing coolness sets in, and they eat the cabbage leaf.
Slugs are very harmful, because if they appear, they can cause irreparable damage to the entire crop. They love all types of cabbage:
- white cabbage;
- broccoli;
- colored;
- Brussels;
- Beijing.
The pest is picky, appears only at night and can feed on other garden crops: tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers and strawberries. In some cases, they can even tackle potato tops and grape leaves. But slugs do not like mustard. The mollusk will find a saving place for wintering in cabbage heads that were not harvested in the fall.
The danger of a slug is not only that it devours plants in the garden. It is also a carrier of harmful bacteria, viruses and dangerous diseases, which negatively affects the yield, so the pest must be destroyed.
Mechanical way of fighting
There are many ways to get rid of slugs on cabbage. The mechanical method of control assumes that the cabbage is processed manually. Of course, it will not be possible to collect everyone, but you should not neglect this method. If you take into account the habits and addictions of slippery mollusks, work efficiency can be increased significantly.
First of all, you can expand the traps, which are made from buckets, slate sheets, remnants of boards and old bags.The arsenal should be located near the beds that are being processed. In the evening, you can arrange a raid: there will be many "criminals" on the surfaces of the spread materials. Placing shellfish in salt water can quickly destroy them: salt is destructive for them. This method can be used repeatedly.
Choosing a method of how to deal with slugs on cabbage, you can go for a trick. Since it is quite difficult for them to crawl on surfaces with ribs and bulges, barriers can be built from gravel, egg shells and other available materials on the approaches to the garden and beds. This will prevent the slugs from reaching the cabbage.
You can use superphosphate to prevent the appearance of slugs. It quickly absorbs mucus, as a result of which the movement of the mollusk will become impossible. Digging grooves of water around the plantings will help deter the pest. This protection against slugs is effective and simple.
Chemicals
Chemicals can also be used to remove pests, but in most cases this is ineffective: the mollusk is reliably protected from their effects.
There are some agents that are generally recognized as helpers in the fight against slugs: preparations for snails and slugs, the main active ingredient in which is metaldehyde.
So, how can you treat cabbage from slugs?
The names are as follows:
- "Storm". The form of the preparation is granular, color is blue. The pest with great desire absorbs the granules scattered in its place of residence, after which the entire population dies. It is interesting that the drug is effective against snails, but has no effect on worms. With the "Thunderstorm" the plant will be protected.
- "Meta". It is a protection of cabbage with a contact-intestinal action. The composition should be sprinkled directly on the ground between the rows. Requires preliminary preparation. It is advisable to know where the concentration of the slug is highest. After scattering the drug, care should be taken: metaldehyde is dangerous to humans. In some cases, this preparation in powder form can be used to pollinate a head of cabbage, and not just to poison the pest. Such manipulations can be carried out no later than three weeks before harvest. You can find this product in granular form. If you know what to do, this option can be convenient: after spreading 3-4 granules under each bush, you can expect that, crawling through the granules, the slug will burn and die.
The insensitivity of these molluscs to the effects of chemical methods makes the fight against them difficult, but possible. To remove the slug, you can use combined methods and folk remedies. We fight the pest in a complex manner.
Traditional methods
Mechanical methods are complex, as the pest is active at night when it is difficult to see. Making traps helps save cabbage from slugs and snails, and the use of chemicals does not guarantee the elimination of a pest that is immune to them. It remains only to fight with folk methods:
- The ground under the cultivated cabbage can be covered with cellophane. Since molluscs love a warm, humid environment, they will definitely crawl out and die during the day, because the resulting condensation will heat up and become hot.
- You can deliberately leave compote, kvass, beer for fermentation. I don't always fight a slug like that. After the process has passed, the liquids are poured into small containers and placed along the plants. Attracted by the bright scent, the shellfish will enter this container and die. After removing the container, you can forget about the shellfish.
- It is necessary to water the plants with water, the temperature of which is not lower than 40 ABOUTC. This temperature kills the slug. Pour warm water over the head of cabbage and it can be saved.
- Heads of cabbage can be sprinkled with a mixture of ground black pepper and various spices: salt, ginger, mustard powder. You can powder the head of cabbage with ash and tobacco dust. Having diluted them in water, the bush can be sprayed.
Many gardeners have the question of how to spray cabbage. To answer it, you need to carefully analyze all the measures taken, after evaluating the result, draw conclusions about the most effective method, regardless of whether it is spraying or not.
Prevention of slugs
In order not to take measures to get rid of the slug, you can take care of the prevention of its appearance in advance.
The measures you can take are:
- regularly mow the grass on the side of the road and on the site;
- remove all debris left after construction work;
- conduct active weed control;
- provide ventilation of plants by planting bushes at a sufficient distance from each other.
Timely measures taken to combat slugs on cabbage and effectively organized pest control will help preserve the harvest. Knowing how to protect your cabbage from slugs can save your plants. Eat cabbage for health!
