How to save cabbage from ants
Content
Ants are one of the most common beneficial hymenoptera. However, their excessive amount in a garden or a vegetable garden can cause great damage to the future harvest. The fact is that the garden garden ants prefer to build their nests in the roots of seedlings, nibbling them. Especially often insects can be found in strawberries and currants, as well as under the plum, apple or pear.Often they harm the seedlings of Bulgarian pepper, eggplant or cabbage, laying long tunnels in the ground. What to do if ants eat cabbage, you will learn from this article.
What are harmful ants in the garden
Besides that ants eat up the roots of seedlings and love to feast on the fruits of strawberries, apricots, apples or plums, they are also distributors aphids - the most dangerous enemy of gardens and orchards. The attention of the ants is attracted by the viscous liquid released by the aphid (pad), which is their favorite delicacy. The very aphid feeds on the sap of the plants, “drying out” them. As a result, the leaves of the plant turn yellow, wither and begin to fall off. Therefore, the appearance of such allies in the garden is a serious threat to the harvest.
How to protect the cabbage
Chemical and folk remedies will help to get rid of ants on cabbage. And you can also use a shovel to dig and take out the anthill with its inhabitants to a place remote from the garden.
Folk remedies
How to save cabbage from ants, using folk remedies:
- Tansy, wormwood, anise or field mint - the aroma that all these plants emit, repels insects. It is enough just to spread the sprigs of grass in the places where pests are present. From these plants also prepare infusions that are sprayed with cabbage.
- Garlic has a good deterrent effect. It is planted or laid out cloves between the beds.
- If ants eat cabbage, tomato tops will help expel them from the garden. It adversely affects insects due to the solanine contained in the branches and green fruits of tomatoes. The broth is prepared as follows: 2 kg of chopped stems and leaves of tomato pour 5 liters of boiling water and infuse for 2 days. To the ants left the garden with cabbage, it is necessary to process damaged seedlings with filtered infusion.
- Mustard - Another effective and very affordable remedy for ants on cabbage. It is enough just to fill in the accumulation sites, as well as the paths of insect movement with a layer of mustard powder. Its smallest particles penetrate into the body and clog up the spiracles of pests, forcing them to leave the territory they have chosen.
- An equally effective way of evicting ants from a cabbage bed is sprinkling the plot. ash, tobacco dust or red pepper.
- Boric acid or borax - both of these powders are poisonous enough for insects. They are used for cooking bait with sugar or honey. Poison delicacy is laid out between cabbage seedlings, as well as near the anthill.
- To prevent the ants from eating cabbage, many gardeners use potato peels. They are laid out between the beds, as well as next to ant nest. A negative effect on insects is exerted by starch contained in large quantities in potatoes. An unavoidable death is waiting for the pest to survive, as the ant's body is unable to digest the starch.
- Boiling water is a fairly high-quality way to destroy an anthill. Boiling water is poured directly into the pest nest. To get rid of queens of the womb, it is necessary to repeat the procedure. Vegetable oil and kerosene have similar properties.
Chemicals
Chemicals - the most effective way to control pests in the garden. They allow in the shortest possible time to get rid of the whole ant family thanks to the insecticidal components included in their composition.Organophosphorus and pyrethroid compounds usually act as active substances, which, when they enter the body of an insect, cause its death. Preparations are in great demand among gardening enthusiasts: Thunder-2, Ant-eater, Delitsion, Muracid.