Slug is the most disgusting pest of all that are found on our garden plot. Even cabbage moth with its green caterpillars against their background looks much more attractive. Especially loves a garden snail plant with delicate green leaves, such as cabbage. Contribute to the intensive reproduction of pests, warm and humid weather, thickened planting, frequent watering. That is, shade, heat and moisture - this is what this pest needs. What to do with it and how to get rid of slugs on cabbage, we will talk today.
General information
The naked snail is a thunderstorm of strawberries and cabbage, as well as other delicate plants. On adults, in the morning you can see large holes and a silver trail that the pest leaves. And they eat young plants whole and without residue. They eat exclusively at night, so if you are looking for the most budgetary way to get rid of slugs on cabbage, then go out at night with a lantern and a bowl and a strong salt solution. It is designed to drown intruders. However, this occupation is tiring, and not everyone wants to pick up slippery creatures with their hands. Therefore, we choose from the presented methods the one that seems most attractive.
Clean garden without pests
The thicker the weeds, the more comfortable the slugs live there. Therefore, try to maintain cleanliness on the site and remove all grass in time. Weeding does not always save. A bed with cabbage is not in vain so loved by snails, its wide leaves perfectly hide from sunlight. However, if weeds are harvested on time throughout the entire territory, gluttonous guests will most likely go out to dinner with one of the neighbors. In addition, weeds are nurseries of diseases and aphids, so you still need to get rid of them.
Bait
Speaking about how to get rid of slugs on cabbage, I want to note that they can be effectively distracted from leafy vegetables by some delicacy. It can be an apple or potatoes left on a path, a cucumber or a small zucchini. Snails are lazy, they will stop and enjoy the gift left for them. If you leave for the garden early in the morning, you can collect them together with the half-eaten apple and destroy them.
The second option, how to get rid of slugs on cabbage, is a trap bait. Moreover, in order to make it attractive to pests, it is recommended to fill the cup with beer. By morning, a large number of snails should gather in it, which will only be destroyed. The use of burdock leaves is also often mentioned. By themselves, they are attractive to snails, at least as a protection against the sun. And if you dip them in beer and put them on the paths between the beds, then in the morning you can collect a whole crop of pests.
Artificial Shelters
Seasoned gardeners do not get tired of inventing how to get rid of slugs on cabbage. Reviews emphasize that if you do not want to resort to the use of chemistry, it is best to attract pests to some object from which they can be collected and destroyed. The easiest way is to take pieces of slate, wet rags or boards and lay around cabbage and strawberry plantings. Every morning, it will be necessary to raise shelter and collect snails clogged under them. What are the disadvantages of this method? Pests will calmly gnaw your landings, and already on the way back they will hide under the helpfully laid out shelters.
Ditch obstacle
I would like to add that not only white cabbage is subjected to attacks. Slugs regularly appear on Chinese cabbage. How to get rid of pests, we still talk, but for now, let's try to block their path to their favorite plants. To do this, a bed of cabbage is surrounded by a groove around the perimeter. At the bottom you need to pour ash or a mixture of ash and tobacco dust. It will be difficult for snails to cross the groove, and the presence of dry ash makes this path completely impassable. Do not forget to sprinkle dry ash and spray it in the garden at intervals of 15 days.
Making the terrain impassable
Since getting rid of slugs on cabbage, folk methods do not always succeed (for example, they live in a neighboring area and periodically crawl to you), you can make beds with vegetables unattractive for snails. There are several ways to do this:
- Take wood ash, add a spoonful of ground pepper, salt and mustard to it. This mixture is scattered between plants and loosen the earth for several centimeters.
- They do not like naked snails to crawl along coarse-grained sand. He hurts their tender abdomen. You can make a mixture of sand, pine needles, sawdust and lime, ash and any other components that you consider necessary. The main thing is that uninvited guests do not like to crawl along such a surface. You can also add soot, it is very caustic.
If you notice that one bed is regularly attacked by pests, then you can try the following recipe. Mix coarse sand with vitriol and sprinkle the ground between the cabbage. By the way, this procedure is easier to perform if the plants are not planted too tightly.
Poison snails
And next in turn is the next recipe in their series, how to get rid of slugs on cabbage. Vinegar can remove many pests, snails are no exception. And you can not worry about plants. Permissible concentration is completely safe for cabbage, strawberries and other crops. You need to take a glass of 9% vinegar and mix it with a bucket of water. This solution needs to be sprayed with cabbage late in the evening. It is important that the solution remains on the leaves when the snails begin to get out on them. The mixture should get on the body of the pest and cause burns.
Mustard and ammonia
Here you can improvise, any substance that is safe for humans and plants, but unpleasant for a naked snail, is suitable. For example, you can pour cabbage with water with red pepper, salt, vodka. But the most popular recipe among summer residents is the following solution. Take 2 tablespoons of ammonia per liter of water, add 15 g of dry mustard. Spraying with this solution is also recommended late in the evening, when a hungry slug should already be on the way. Without direct contact with the pest, the tool will not work.
Sauna effect
This method has been tested by many gardeners, and reviews about it are very good. High temperature is unbearable for the slug, and this should be used. The land under the magnificent leaves of cabbage is mulched with a transparent film. At night, snails climb under it, seeking refuge from the heat of the day. And in the afternoon, these creatures die due to the effect of the sauna.
This feature of their body can be used for night hunting. Slugs die at a temperature of +40, so we heat the water to +60 and at night we water the bed with cabbage, not excluding the plants themselves.
Chemicals
This method is suitable for those who are looking for an answer to the question of how to get rid of slugs on cauliflower. By the way, all of the above can also be successfully used. But if you are looking for an option with 100% reliability, it is better to buy a bag of specialized means for the destruction of garden snails. Today they are not in short supply, they are quite inexpensive and operate flawlessly. There are chemicals against slugs that cause burns and kill them on the spot. These are Thunderstorm and Meta. However, they only help if you get targeted in the slug. In addition, chemicals are not safe. If you decide to get rid of pests in this way, then do not forget that at least three weeks should remain until the head of cabbage. That is how much time chemicals are removed from the plant.