Cabbage butterfly - portrait of a dangerous pest

Butterfly cabbage is familiar to most people since childhood. By the popularity of distribution in central Russia, only hives can compete with it. But if many rejoice at the sight of butterflies, meaning the establishment of good warm weather, then summer residents and gardeners are well aware of what threatens the appearance of cabbage white, this is her other name.

Who is not completely familiar with this species of whites, we present the butterfly cabbage in the photo.

Pest biology

Cabbage woman belongs to the family whites and is a butterfly, it is also called cabbage whitewash. It must be said that this family also includes such insects as:

• female repressor;
• bryuvennitsa;
• hawthorn.

Attention! The female repensa is very similar to a cabbage butterfly, there are also black dots on its white wings, but the border on the wings is lighter and the size of the butterfly is smaller.

The structure of the cabbage is the most ordinary: it has two pairs of wings on a short body of a dark tone. The size of the wings of the butterfly cabbage butterfly in the scope is up to 62 millimeters.

Why a butterfly is called a cabbage is clear to everyone: cabbage and other cruciferous are the favorite food of these whites.

Habitat

Cabbage is found almost throughout Russia, with the exception of the Far North. We can say this: cabbage is growing - there is a butterfly.

As for the occupied territory in nature, there is no clearly defined attachment to certain places in the whitewash. She actively migrates in search of food and can meet anywhere:

• at the forest edge;
• in the meadows;
• in fields with cruciferous crops;
• and of course, gardens.

Food

As is often the case with other arthropods, cabbage insects eat differently: imago pollen of flowering plants, larvae - leaves of cruciferous crops.

The following plants can be called as what the butterfly cabbage butterfly, its adult insects, feed on:

• coltsfoot;
• dandelions;
• Civets meadow;
• chamomile;
• alfalfa;
• and many others.

At the same time, the female lays eggs on cruciferous crops, on which the insect further develops. As food objects, you can name such wild and cultivated plants as:

• colza
• hiccup;
• overbig;
• shepherd’s bag;
• waida dyeing;
• all kinds of radish;
• all kinds of cabbage;
• radish;
• swede;
• turnip;
• horseradish;
• mustard.

Smile! If holes appear on the leaves of your garden horseradish, do not blame any horseradish for this - it is most likely that the caterpillars of cabbage whitewood feasted on it.

Insect development

The developmental stages of the cabbage butterfly are typical for insects with complete transformation; there are four of them:

• egg;
• caterpillar or larva;
• chrysalis
• adult insect or imago.

Egg laying

Years of cabbage butterflies stretched out over time. It depends on the air temperature in a particular region and the order of generation of the insect. In the middle lane, the cabbage butterfly lives and breeds twice, in the hot years and in the south - three.

Therefore, egg laying is carried out in any of the months, from April to September.Insects winter in cocoons in the pupal stage, with a warming from the spring sun, cocoon butterflies leave the cocoon, and the years of the first generation begin.
Having fed flower nectar, butterflies mate, and the female lays up to two hundred eggs on the leaves of the cruciferous plant. Since at this time cultivated plants are just beginning to emerge, or plant in the ground, cabbage plants are forced to lay eggs on wild cabbage species. Therefore, gardeners practically do not feel harm from them.

Another thing is the generation of the second generation. In July-August, there are more than enough of these cabbage in these gardens: there are plenty of cabbage in these gardens: root crops, and all kinds of cabbage - choose to taste.

Caterpillar

The cabbage caterpillar is born in a week or two, depending on external weather conditions. She is yellowish-green in color with black spots, her body size reaches three and a half centimeters.

Young caterpillars that have just hatched from eggs are in a heap for some time, as they were kept in masonry. Then, having gained strength, they begin to actively eat on the underside of the leaf.

Attention! Larvae of late age move to the upper part of leaf plates and are able to penetrate the head of a cabbage or cabbage.

During its development, cabbage butterfly larva undergo four molts. Change of chitin cover occurs with a frequency of 3-7 days. The total life of the caterpillar is from two weeks to forty days.

It should be noted that, unlike many other insects, cabbage caterpillars prefer dry and moderate weather with an air temperature in the region of 20-25 degrees Celsius. Hotter weather and even with an abundance of rainfall can lead to the death of larvae.

Doll

The cabbage doll is very similar in color to a caterpillar, the same yellow-green color with black spots.

Before pupation, the face attaches itself to a small, silk-like belt, to various parts and remains of plants.

Soon butterflies of the second generation appear from cocoons, and if the season of warm temperatures comes to an end, then the insect switches to wintering in the diapause.

Our help! Diapause in insects means inhibition of physiological processes and the transition to suspended animation.

Fight

Having become familiar with the insect, you can outline a range of measures to combat cabbage. Today we will consider what preventive measures are taken against this pest, how to deal with it with biological and physical methods, including folk ones.

Prevention

Prophylactic agents from cabbage can be both purely mechanical, and with the use of certain drugs, for example:

1. Harvesting of all cruciferous wild plants and other weeds in the early summer of butterflies. Despite the fact that the first generation of caterpillars is almost harmless, remember that it is from them that the second - the most dangerous generation will subsequently form.
2. Mulching plantings of cabbage plants with fresh grass disorients the butterflies smell.
3. Spraying plantings with a solution of birch tar. This tool will also scare away your cabbage and another dangerous pest - cruciferous flea.
4. Regular inspection of the undersides of cabbage leaves - this is where the laying of whites is located. If one is found, the eggs must be destroyed immediately.
5. Tomatoes work well against cabbage. Butterflies don't like their smell very much, so you can plant these plants nearby for protection. In the second option, you need to spray cabbage with infusion of leaves or stepsons of tomatoes, which are many during the preventive care of this representative of nightshade.

Attention! In many reference materials, autumn digging of the soil is indicated as a method of preventive control. This is explained by the fact that the pupae rise to the surface and die. All this is nonsense.Firstly, the pupae winter in the freezing layer, and secondly, how do you know if the pupa has climbed to the desired depth, or you will dig it there with a shovel.

Anyway, autumn digging makes the soil lifeless, contributes to the destruction of soil microorganisms and hides weed seeds from its surface.

Destruction

Currently, the use of biological insecticides is widespread in order to deal with butterfly cabbage. The most popular of them is made on the basis of a preparation of bacteria of hay bacillus. Who has not guessed yet, we recommend - this is Fitoverm. The action does not occur due to poisoning of all living things with poison, but because active bacteria do not like insects. The work of other biological preparations, such as:

• "Actofeed";
• "Vermicid."

If you use, as some authors advise, chemically active drugs, then imagine what quality crop you will get at the end of the season. Indeed, the same authors, without a twinge of conscience, recommend using protective equipment with respirators and gas masks when processing, as during a chemical attack in war!

Folk remedies

I must say that the people during the cultivation of various cabbage have long adapted to these insects and have developed their own ways of fighting against it. Folk remedies for cabbage are available to almost every gardener who cultivates plants from the cruciferous family.

1. One of the ways to get rid of cabbage is to spray dry mustard with infusion. To do this, one hundred grams of powder is soaked in a bucket of hot water and insisted for about a week. Before use, bred again in half with cold water.
2. Wormwood during flowering, in an amount of about a kilogram, is poured with water and boiled for 10-20 minutes. Then the solution is cooled and mixed with a bucket of water.
3. Chamomile insist half a day in the same proportion with water, but do not boil.

Advice! For better adhesion of the solution to water, add a little liquid soap.