Slugs on cabbage: how to deal with them, get rid of them and protect them with folk remedies

One of the most unpleasant problems that gardeners have is slugs on cabbage, and not everyone knows how to deal with them. These pests can both spoil the crop and completely destroy it. However, an effective fight is possible.

Description of the pest

From a purely biological point of view, slugs are gastropod molluscs, devoid of a shell that would protect them from external influences. The slug has a soft, elongated body that is constantly under a layer of mucus. It is produced by special glands.

When a slug moves, and it does so by contracting its torso, a layer of mucus is left behind. It is transparent when wet, but when it dries, it becomes a silver tint.

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, it is a sense organ.

The mollusk lives in the upper layers of the earth, plant debris, woodpile and other places where humidity is high. The slug does not tolerate high air temperature well, and therefore is forced to hide in the shade from the direct rays of the sun. They appear mainly at night, when life-giving coolness sets in, and eat cabbage leaves.

Slugs are very harmful, because if they appear, they can cause irreparable damage to the entire crop. They love all kinds of cabbage:

• white head;
• broccoli;
• color;
• Brussels;
• Beijing.

The pest is picky, appears only at night and can also feed on other garden crops: tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers and strawberries. In some cases, even potato tops and grape leaves are too tough for them. But slugs don't like mustard. The mollusk will find a saving place for wintering in cabbage heads that were not harvested in the fall.

The danger of the 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 fight

There are many ways to get rid of slugs on cabbage. The mechanical method of struggle assumes that manual processing of cabbage is carried out.Of course, it will not work 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 lay out traps that are made from buckets, slate sheets, leftover boards and old bags. You need to locate the arsenal 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 laid out materials. By placing mollusks in s alt water, you can quickly destroy them: s alt 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 getting to the cabbage.

Superphosphate can be used to prevent slugs. It quickly absorbs mucus, as a result of which the movement of the mollusk will become impossible. If you dig grooves with water around the plantings, this will help scare off the pest. Such protection of cabbage from slugs is effective and simple.

Chemicals

To remove pests, you can also use chemicals, but in most cases this is ineffective: the mollusk is reliably protected from their effects.

There are some remedies that are generally recognized 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:

1. "Thunderstorm". Form of preparation - granulated, color - blue. The pest with great desire absorbs the granules scattered in the place of its stay, after which the entire population dies.Interestingly, the drug is effective in the fight against snails, but it has no effect on worms. With Thunderstorm, the plant will be protected.
2. Meta. This is a protection of cabbage with contact-intestinal action. The composition should be scattered directly on the ground between the rows. Requires advance preparation. It is desirable to know where the concentration of slug is highest. Spilling the drug, care should be taken: metaldehyde is dangerous to humans. In some cases, this drug in the form of a powder can be used to pollinate the head, and not just to poison the pest. Such manipulations can be carried out no later than three weeks before harvest. You can find this tool in granular form. If you know what to do, this option can be convenient: by spreading 3-4 granules under each bush, you can expect that crawling over the granules, the slug will burn and die.

The resistance of these mollusks to the effects of chemical methods makes the fight against it difficult, but possible. To remove the slug, you can use combined methods and folk remedies. We fight the pest in a complex way.

Folk methods

Mechanical methods are difficult, as the pest is active at night, when it is hard 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:

1. The ground under the processed cabbage can be covered with cellophane. Since the clams love warm, humid environments, they are bound to crawl out and die during the day because the resulting condensation will heat up and become hot.
2. Intentionally, you can leave compote, kvass, beer for fermentation. So I struggle with the slug is not always. After the process has passed, the liquids are poured into small containers and placed along the plants. Attracted by the bright smell, the clams will fall into this container and die. By removing the container, you can forget about the shellfish.
3. It is necessary to water the plants with water, the temperature of which is not lower than 40 ^{OC. This temperature kills the slug. Pour warm water over a head of cabbage and it may be saved.}
4. Heads of cabbage can be sprinkled with a mixture of ground black pepper and a variety of seasonings: s alt, ginger, mustard powder. You can powder the head of ash and tobacco dust. Having spread them in water, the bush can be sprayed.

Many gardeners have a question about 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.

Measures can be taken as follows:

• regularly mow the grass on the side of the road and on the territory of the site;
• remove all debris left after construction work;
• to actively fight weeds;
• ensure ventilation of plants by planting bushes at a sufficient distance from each other.

Timely implemented measures to combat slugs on cabbage and effectively organized pest control will help save the crop. Knowing how to protect cabbage from slugs can save plants. Eat cabbage for he alth!

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