Fighting cabbage moth

Cabbage moth is a pest widespread throughout the world. This butterfly is known for the fact that its caterpillars are able to bring a head of cabbage into a species that cannot be stored with just a few gnaws - because of the holes gnawed in the leaves, the cabbage starts to deteriorate rather quickly and can be stored for no more than a few weeks.

At the same time, the cabbage mole itself is rather unsightly in appearance, and does not catch the eye of gardeners. However, being so inconspicuous, in the fields it constantly keeps agronomists in good shape, since its caterpillars are able to grow rapidly on wild rape and colza along the field borders, and constantly threaten to cause serious harm to the entire crop. That is why the fight with cabbage moths continues from year to year, and with time it becomes more fierce.

 

Description of the pest: appearance and characteristics

Cabbage mole belongs to the family of ermine moles.These butterflies are known for having a slender, elongated body, and some types of ermine moles are brightly and contrastly colored.

However, the cabbage moth is not affected. She is a butterfly with a discreet, patronizing coloring. Its wings have a neat light brown color, with a bright pattern in the center. When a butterfly rests on a plant, when viewed from above, it looks like a small straw.

Butterfly wings have a length of about 7-8 mm. Cabbage moth is an unimportant flyer, and, as a rule, the butterfly does not fly away from the place of exit from the pupa. Its wings have a beautiful fringe around the edges, and at the ends in a quiet state of the insect are slightly lifted upwards. The photo below shows a butterfly when viewed from above:

and below it is only on the side:

But the caterpillar of the cabbage moth is painted in a soft green color. Her body is covered with fine hairs, her head is almost brown. Caterpillars are rarely found in large clusters, as a rule, one or two larvae are present on one plant.

The eggs of the cabbage moth are small and have an elongated shape, reaching a length of 0.44 mm, and a width of 0.26 mm. The color of the eggs is green, as is the forage plant itself.

The pupa of the cabbage moth has a dark yellow color and is usually found on the stems and leaves of the plant.

 

Lifestyle, nutrition and breeding cabbage moth

Cabbage moth is widely distributed throughout the world. Its homeland is Southern Europe, and initially the habitat of the pest was limited to the territories in which the winter frosts destroyed pupae and adult butterflies.

However, today the cabbage mole actively conquers even the agricultural land of the Murmansk region, successfully wintering in mulch and among uncultivated grass, and with the cabbage it has spread to America, Asia and Africa. Moreover, some cultures in Australia, New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands are seriously affected by this butterfly. It can be considered a real cosmopolitan.

It is interesting

Capturing the world of cabbage moths was swift and somehow resembled the victorious procession of the Colorado potato beetle in the potato beds of the Old World, only in the opposite direction. In 1854, the butterfly was first registered in Illinois, and at the beginning of the last century successfully crossed the ridge of the Rocky Mountains and found itself in British Columbia.

Cabbage moth is famous for its speed of reproduction. Her eggs develop for 2-3 days, the caterpillars have time to feed for one and a half to two weeks, and the pupa continues to develop for another week or two. As a result, in the North, mole gives 1-2 generations over the summer, in central Russia and Europe - 3, in the Southern regions (Krasnodar, Stavropol Territory) - 4 generations, and in the south of Kazakhstan, in Ukraine and in the South Caucasus - up to 6 generations one warm season.

On a note

At temperatures below plus 4 ° C, the caterpillars and eggs of the cabbage moth die.

Adult specimens overwinter with pupae of the pupa.

One female lays up to 165 eggs in her life, but at the same time in each clutch she has no more than 4 eggs, usually 2-3. This distribution reduces the death of eggs from predators and parasites.

The adult butterfly feeds on the nectar of flowers, and the caterpillar feeds exclusively on leaf tissue of forage plants. Actually, this is what harms the crop.

 

Harm of the butterfly and signs of its appearance on the site

Small caterpillars that have just hatched from eggs immediately gnaw through the outer shell of the leaf of the plant and feed on the inside of it for the first time, forming mines. After reaching a certain size, the larvae come to the surface of the leaf and continue to feed on its tissues, leaving only a thin outer shell on the other side.

Caterpillars of the cabbage moth can eat on almost any plant of the cruciferous family - all varieties of cabbage, radish, radish, rutabaga, turnip, rape, mustard.

Caterpillars cause the greatest harm to cruciferous plantings during the hottest period of summer, reducing the assimilating ability of the leaves and increasing the number of burns of the leaves. On young plants, caterpillars actively gnaw buds and buds, which reduces the total number of ovaries on a plant.

External signs of the appearance of moths on the site are numerous:

• noticeable damage to cruciferous outer and rosette leaves
• appearance of gnawed buds and damaged young heads on cabbage
• mines visible in the light in the leaves
• the caterpillars themselves.

Often, a good sign of the damage to the cabbage shrub with moths is the quick drying of the outer leaves of the cabbage head or the stunted growth of the head in general.

This is due to damage to the base of its larva.

 

Ways to fight cabbage moth

Measures to combat the cabbage moth are numerous and should be applied in combination. Among them:

• Careful plowing crop residues and green manure plants. It is on them that a large number of pupae remain to winter.Butterflies cannot get out of the ground in spring.
• Weed control, especially near plots. They are often breeding grounds for pests.
• If more than 10% of plants are damaged or more than 4 caterpillars are found on one bush, the bushes are treated with insecticides.

On a note

In the cabbage moth there are a huge number of enemies, not counting just enemies such as birds, lizards and toads. Many riders and wasps lay their eggs in the body of the caterpillars of this butterfly, and their larvae destroy the caterpillar itself, preventing it from pupating. Sometimes these parasites kill up to 90% of the moth caterpillars and pupae. Today, biological moth control methods with the help of such insect helpers.

but with insecticides in cabbage moths, acquaintance is already very long, and therefore their use is less and less effective.

 

Pest Control

Cabbage moth was the first agricultural pest to develop resistance to Entobacterin, a drug based on pathogens for moth bacteria. A little later, a population of cabbage scoops, also resistant to this tool, was discovered.

It is interesting

Back in the 1980s, the cabbage mole developed resistance to pyrethroids and pyrethrins, and a few years later, scientists discovered populations of this moth that are resistant to most insecticides used in agriculture.

However, totally stable moth populations are rare. Therefore, entobacterin, Bitoxibacillin, Lepidocid, as well as products based on pyrethroids and pyrethrins can be used on the kitchen gardens themselves against the pest.

Only if the use of a particular drug does not give an obvious result should one switch to another. Most likely, already at the first attempts will be found a means to destroy the mole.

It is important to remember that the widespread and thoughtless use of insecticides hardened the mole and contributed to the development of its resistance. Therefore, in the fight against the pest in the first place it is necessary to use agrotechnical methods, and only supplement them with poisons.

 

Useful video: how to protect the crop from cabbage moth