What to do if ants eat cabbage, how to get rid of them
At each site, you can find problems, for example, ants eat cabbage, and what to do is unknown. Solutions can be found almost always: in some cases they are so simple that it was difficult to guess about their effectiveness. It also happens the other way around: someone's borrowed experience turns out to be in vain, ineffective, and the problem only becomes more urgent.
Almost every Russian family loves cabbage, using it in a variety of forms: fresh, fried, sauerkraut, pickled, stewed. This explains the fact that the vegetable is grown everywhere. The problems that arise during the growth of a head of cabbage can be different, you can cope with them in different ways, but if ants eat cabbage, the summer resident starts an unequal struggle in some situations.
Why ants are harmful
An ant is an insect that eats up the roots of seedlings. The ant will not refuse the fruits of plum or apricot, apple or strawberry. Everything that is sweet, tasty and aromatic is a real find for ants. This makes them one of the most dangerous enemies of any vegetable garden. The appearance of the ant is no coincidence: it is attracted by the viscous liquid that the aphid secretes. This pad (as the liquid is called) is a real find and a favorite delicacy of ants.
The aphids themselves receive food from the sap of plants, thus, as it were, drying them out. The result of such an influence is deplorable: the leaves become dry, lethargic. Gradually fall off, the plant is exposed and dies. Such neighbors of all cultures are unwanted guests in the garden, so they should be fought with.
How to save cabbage
It is possible to save cabbage heads suffering from the invasion of ants. For this, both folk remedies and insecticides are perfect.
Chemicals are an extreme measure of control that can cause some damage to the plant, but will certainly get rid of unwanted guests - ants.
You can use more radical methods to get rid of the ant. If there is an anthill nearby, you can dig it up and take it outside the garden. It will be better if the chosen new place of residence of the ants turns out to be a forest belt or a field where the insects will do well. Knowing how to save cabbage, you can resort to different means.
The situation is completely different if the ants have settled directly in the soil on the territory of the site. In such a situation, all control measures lead to a temporary result. Ants leave the infected area, but, as a rule, not far away, and a few days after extinction, you can see their new habitat not far from the old one.
Folk remedies
You can save cabbage forks from ants by knowing how to process cabbage, using familiar folk remedies and plants that can be found in any forest belt or in the field:
- Tansy, anise or wormwood: the aromas emitted by plants repel not only ants, but other insects as well. However, the measure is more advisory in nature. To scare off ants, it is necessary to spread thin branches in those places where pests were found. You can prepare an infusion, which is subsequently sprayed with cabbage.
- Garlic with excellent repellent properties. For greater efficiency, it must be cleaned, the cloves must be cut and spread between the beds. The procedure should be repeated periodically, since the aroma of garlic will fade over time, letting the ants get closer to the cabbage.
- Tomato tops. Solanina, which is found in branches and leaves, perfectly expels not only ants, but also other insects. For work, you will need to prepare a decoction, which should contain 2 kilograms of tomato stalks, finely chopped and filled with 5 liters of boiling water. The remedy should be infused within two days. Ants will leave the cabbage patch if the plants treated with the infusion exude a tomato aroma.
- Mustard. This remedy is quite effective against ants. There is no need to sprinkle powder on the entire bed, it is enough just to mark the places where insects accumulate. Moving the ants will help in this fight: on their paws, the ants will spread mustard throughout the territory of the summer cottage, and its particles will penetrate the body and clog the respiratory system.
- Boric acid. The powder is very toxic to ants. The tool works great, which is a kind of bait: boric acid is mixed with honey or a large amount of sugar, after which it is used to treat the ants' habitat. The resulting substance is laid out between the forks and in the immediate vicinity of the anthill.
- Potato peelings. Having spread them between the heads of cabbage within the same bed, the grower can be sure that the starch contained in the potatoes will have a detrimental effect on the ants. A large amount of this substance is inevitable death for the insect, because the ant digestion system is not adapted to digest starch.
- Boiling water. This method is both primitively simple and extremely effective against the ant. Pour boiling water directly into the pest nest. Guaranteed disposal of the uterus - repeating the procedure for several days. Before getting rid of the ants, you can add oil and kerosene to the boiling water.
You can remove ants using ordinary yeast. The material should be squared, not dry, sold in numerous culinary departments. To be effective, half a bar (about 75 grams) should be mixed with jam or honey. The resulting "delicacy" is spread on slices of bread and laid out near the ants' habitat.
To save the cabbage, you can resort to transplanting. There may be no ants in the new location. This method is especially relevant if the area is large enough and the ants do not move within it. It is important that when a plant is removed from its original area, the ant habitat should be pickled to ensure the new bed is as safe as possible.
Chemicals
In the fight against ants, preparations containing chemical toxic substances can be used. These are the most effective methods for getting rid of annoying insects. The shortest time to get rid of ants and the ease of use of the drug, the short duration of exposure - these are the reasons why most vegetable growers prefer insecticides in the fight against ants.
The active substance of drugs can be different. Usually these are compounds of phosphorus and organic elements, pyrethroid compounds. Penetrating into the body of an ant, they will surely provoke its death, bringing real salvation to the summer resident.
The most effective and popular among gardeners are such preparations for fighting ants as: "Anteater", "Thunder-2", "Delicia", "Muratsid". Knowing what to do if ants eat cabbage, you can get rid of the problem quickly and for a long time.
Before broadcasting to the whole world about how to deal with ants, it would not be bad to figure out what actually is and how they do. There are books for that. It is advisable to read scientific literature on the diet of ants in the Russian Federation, and not to draw knowledge from your own speculations and publications of people who are just as ignorant in this matter as the author of this article.
And how in that joke and the movie "Promised Heaven" - Beat the Jews - save Russia! The Jews were killed, Russia was not saved.