How to deal with whiteflies on cabbage

Each summer resident is familiar with the situation when small white butterflies suddenly appear on cabbage beds, and upon closer examination, the leaves turn out to be damaged. This is an alarm - your site has chosen a very harmful insect. Whitefly on cabbage multiplies rapidly and can even lead to the death of plants. Therefore, it is necessary to start fighting it immediately.

Meet the whitefly!

Recognizing a whitefly is easy. It's small, a little bigger aphids the size of the butterfly is powdery white. Butterfly whiteflies no longer spoil cabbage, its life cycle ends, and it only lays eggs, which in one clutch can contain up to 300 pieces! After some time, small, about 2-3 mm long, larvae emerge from the eggs.

The most dangerous for cabbage are gluttonous larvae, which simply destroy the succulent leaves. IN feeding larvae pulp and cabbage juice are included. It affects the plant and the fungus, which starts in the white discharge left by the butterflies. Black spores are clearly visible to the naked eye and such a plant can no longer be eaten. Some species of white-winged butterflies are pests of indoor plants, and get rid of whiteflies on home flowers not so easy.

Preventive measures

The most effective and easiest way to deal with whiteflies on cabbage is to follow preventative measures that simply will not allow this insect to settle in your garden. And in fact, if the living conditions are better on the neighboring plot, then the whitefly will gladly settle there, and your cabbage beds will remain untouched.

• when planting, place plants at a distance of at least 20-30 cm so that air circulates between them and illuminates sunlight from all sides;
• if the plant is grown in greenhouse conditions - provide normal ventilation and fresh air, but close the ventilation openings with fine mesh grids - this will allow get rid of whiteflies in the greenhouse;
• shortly before planting, conduct a preliminary watering of the soil with an insect control agent;
• feed plants with fertilizers and introduce biostimulants into the soil;
• in greenhouses and hotbeds do not spray cabbage, if there is already high humidity;
• be sure to weed several times after planting the plant - while the cabbage leaf is still small, the whitefly settles in the neighborhood.

It is necessary to regularly examine the beds and remember that the whitefly fixes eggs on the back of the leaves. If small caterpillars are found on the cabbage, the leaves turn out to be bitten, and a whitish or black coating is scattered on them in some places - an unexpected guest is already in your garden, you must immediately begin an active struggle and look for a way to get rid of whiteflies on cabbage.

Folk remedies

Measures to control whitefly on cabbage can be used modern - by spraying with potent chemicals or folk. Here everyone makes a decision for himself. If there are not too many pests in the beds, it is possible to combat them with folk remedies quite successfully.

• Fly traps. They will help to quickly get rid of adult whiteflies and thereby prevent further reproduction of the insect. You can hang ordinary Velcro or sticky midge traps, install incandescent bulbs and illuminate the beds at night, arrange half-filled syrup bottles in a narrow neck.
• Soap solution. It is used to wash leaves and makes them unsuitable for insects. This procedure takes a lot of time, since the leaves will have to be washed on both sides, and each leaf should be processed. But there is no health risk, and you will be sure that all whiteflies are destroyed.
• Spray products. Poison the larvae, but are completely harmless to humans. You can use garlic juice diluted with water, tincture of dry tobacco (you can shake out cigarettes), yarrow or dandelion roots. Garlic juice is used immediately, and the tincture should stand for at least 4-5 days. Sprinkle cabbage every 3 days until the whitefly disappears completely.

The use of folk remedies is much more troublesome. It is much easier to fill the cabbage with ready-made chemicals. But if you care about your own health and the ecological cleanliness of the site and the products growing on it, then you should make a choice in favor of natural remedies.

Chemicals

But if you raised a cabbage leaf you released a swarm of whiteflies from there, and the leaves themselves resemble green lace, the use of specially designed products is necessary. Here are some popular whitefly remedies that have been successfully used to water or spray cabbage:

• Aktara. Powerful midge remedy and other pests, a true poison for whiteflies that can kill adults and larvae. It must be diluted with water and water the cabbage. It is absorbed by the plant from the soil, enters the juice and poisons it. Naturally, you can’t eat such cabbage for at least a month from the time of processing. Suitable for whitefly control on tomatoes, cabbage and other crops.
• Aragventin. Another type of powerful poison that allows you to quickly get rid of whiteflies. It is used to spray cabbage, but it must be done very carefully, it is especially good to handle the places of accumulation of larvae or egg laying. The drug is able to stop their development.
• Golden spark. There are several varieties of this drug, so you can choose a convenient form of its use. Its biggest plus is its very low price with high efficiency. Alas, this is also poison and cabbage should not be eaten for 4 weeks.

  

• Fufanon. A complex drug that helps to get rid of whiteflies and other harmful insects within a few hours. Just a few grams is divorced with water and cabbage leaves are abundantly sprayed with this solution. Do not allow the product to hit the ground, since it remains in the soil for a long time and will poison the cabbage and other plants.
• Actellic. A comprehensive super-effective drug to protect cabbage beds from almost all types of pests. Its big plus is the fast period of decay and elimination - only 14 days. But when processing you need to be very careful and use personal protective equipment. If it gets on the skin, it can cause burns, in the lungs it can cause severe allergies.

Important!

You should be very careful with chemicals from garden pests. Most types of cabbage have the ability to adsorb them into leaves and accumulate there. Therefore, if the recommended dosages are exceeded, the plant may become unsafe even for humans. This must be remembered before deciding how to water the cabbage from whiteflies, especially if it gets on the table to the child.

These are only a few of the most popular and effective drugs on the market, from a lot more and better if an experienced gardener helps you make the choice. The application scheme for each means is different, so before use, you must carefully study the instructions.