What’s Consuming My Cabbage? 15 Widespread Cabbage Pests

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You’re most definitely rising cabbage because you benefit from consuming it. And for many who’ve ever tried rising this crop sooner than, you probably discover that plenty of yard pests moreover benefit from consuming cabbage. This textual content explores potential culprits and strategies to put off them.

Cabbage is a member of the mustard family, typically referred to as the Brassica family, or crucifers. Completely different acquainted brassicas embrace broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, turnips, mustards, and horseradish. These are primarily cool-weather yard greens that love full photo voltaic and moist, rich soil with superb drainage. 

This brassica is usually a spring or fall crop the place it enjoys cool days and cooler nights. It even tolerates delicate frosts. No matter its chilly hardiness, this tasty leafy inexperienced vegetable is weak to numerous insect pests that will shortly decimate a cabbage crop. 

Merely as there are a whole lot of sorts of cabbage, there are moreover plenty of utterly completely different species of caterpillars and caterpillar-like pests that love munching on the leaves. Moreover, you’ll uncover aphids, flies, and beetles. It’s essential to appropriately decide the pests in your crops so you might take relevant movement to cope with them. 

Seize a magnifying glass and a bit little bit of endurance as we take a look at 15 frequent, and sometimes very small, critters that wish to eat these heading brassicas.

Aphids

Tiny, gray-green insects cluster tightly on the plant's leaves, covered in a waxy coating.
Tiny, gray-green insects cluster tightly on the plant's leaves, covered in a waxy coating.
Dislodge undesirable bugs with a robust jet of water.

Aphids are ubiquitous yard pests. You’ll see them gathering in large numbers alongside the leaves and stems of many yard crops. They’re moreover eager on cabbage and congregate alongside the veins of the outer leaves.

These soft-bodied bugs are clearly seen to the naked eye. They may very well be inexperienced, gray, white, yellow, or pink. Usually, brassica aphids may appear inexperienced nonetheless with a white waxy or powdery-looking masking. Aphids suck plant juices and set off the leaves to vary into withered, curled, and weak, in the end turning yellow and brown, and ultimately dying. 

Use a sturdy jet of water out of your hose to dislodge aphids. A every day blast of water is usually enough to discourage aphids from coming once more. You may even use insecticidal cleansing cleaning soap to efficiently kill aphids, spraying it instantly on groups of these pesky little bugs. 

Cabbage Looper

Close-up of a small green larva with white stripes crawling along a green leaf leaving small holes.Close-up of a small green larva with white stripes crawling along a green leaf leaving small holes.
Vivid inexperienced caterpillars go away jagged holes in leaves.

Cabbage loopers are vivid inexperienced inchworms which is likely to be a major pest of this crop’s leaves. They switch by inching alongside on account of they’ve no legs inside the middle part of their physique. These are the larvae of an unassuming mottled brown-gray moth often called the cabbage looper moth. The grownup moth lays its eggs on a brassica plant, and a few days later, the eggs hatch into voracious little caterpillars.  

These hungry little caterpillars chew holes inside the leaves and develop shortly from just a few millimeters prolonged to about 1.5 inches prolonged. They munch gaping holes inside the leaves anyplace they’re going to attain. A badly infested plant might have leaves riddled with many large, jagged holes.

Cabbage loopers are fairly frequent pests and the larger they develop, the additional hurt they set off. They will hold in your crops and eat for 3 or 4 weeks, until they’re in a position to pupate into their grownup moth kind. 

Management your crops. For those who occur to see telltale holes and vivid inexperienced inchworm-like caterpillars, you may need cabbage loopers. Cease them by defending your crops with floating row covers; the grownup moths obtained’t be succesful to put eggs on coated crops.

Eradicating caterpillars by hand, BT sprays, and pure predators are environment friendly pure pest administration methods. Pure pesticides can be utilized.

Cabbage Root Maggots

Detailed Photographs of the Cabbage Root Fly (Delia radicum) perched inside a flower with purple petals.Detailed Photographs of the Cabbage Root Fly (Delia radicum) perched inside a flower with purple petals.
Larvae of the cabbage fly (Delia radicum) hurt roots, inflicting crops to wilt and collapse.

Cabbage root maggots are the larvae of the cabbage root maggot fly, a brownish-gray fly measuring between 5 and seven millimeters prolonged. The grownup fly lays its eggs inside the soil on the bottom of a bunch plant. The eggs hatch and the larvae burrow into the stem and feed on the plant’s roots.

As the muse maggots destroy the stems and roots, your crops begin wilting and the leaves will flip yellow. Shortly thereafter, as a result of the larvae proceed feasting on the muse system, the crops will wilt severely, collapse, and die.

Floating row covers will forestall adults from laying eggs on the stems and tilling the soil after your crops are harvested will help forestall overwintering pupae from maturing. Crop rotation with non-brassica crops will even help forestall a buildup of these pests.

For those who occur to can delay spring plantings until the soil has warmed considerably, it is going to help kill any eggs that may very well be present and thus forestall an an infection, although your brassicas may endure from the heat. 

Cutworms

Cutworms are plump, smooth, and brown-gray caterpillars that curl into a "C" shape on broad blue-green leaves.Cutworms are plump, smooth, and brown-gray caterpillars that curl into a "C" shape on broad blue-green leaves.
Small caterpillars decrease stems, inflicting crops to wilt.

Cutworms are very dangerous, given their small measurement. These little caterpillars decrease correct by means of youthful plant stems, inflicting them to topple over and die. There are numerous species of cutworms nonetheless all of them have the equivalent strategy of destruction, so it obtained’t matter lots that you just decide the species as long as you acknowledge your crops have succumbed to a cutworm assault.

Cutworms that assault brassicas may vary in coloration, nonetheless all of them appear to have {{smooth}} pores and pores and skin and so they’re successfully camouflaged with the soil, sometimes with brown or gray coloration.

These are the larvae of a brown or gray moth. An grownup moth can lay tons of of eggs, each singly or in small clusters, on the bottom of their respective host crops. 

When the eggs hatch, the hungry larvae set to work chewing on leaves or larger crops or slicing smaller crops down solely. Cutworm larvae feed primarily at night time time and conceal inside the soil all through the day, so it is doable you will certainly not see them, nonetheless you’ll see proof of their chewing the subsequent morning. 

Predatory beetles and parasitic wasps prey on cutworms nonetheless this may not be enough to curb cutworm hurt. Maintain your yard mattress weed-free to eliminate their hiding areas. For those who occur to suspect a cutworm disadvantage, use BT to help administration them. 

Diamondback Moth

Tiny green caterpillar with pointed end chews irregular holes in the foliage.Tiny green caterpillar with pointed end chews irregular holes in the foliage.
Small caterpillars set off notable hurt to leafy greens.

The diamondback moth is found all via North America and is a fairly frequent yard pest. The grownup moth is small and slender with patterned brown markings. It lays eggs on all cruciferous greens, along with all types of cabbage, collards, and cauliflower. 

Diamondback moth larvae hatch after a few days and immediately start feeding. The small, pale inexperienced caterpillars have tiny black spots on their our our bodies nonetheless no completely different distinctive markings. They not typically attain a number of centimeter prolonged sooner than pupating in a silky cocoon related to the cabbage leaf. 

The larvae are small they normally might trigger notable pest hurt, although not as lots as a number of of the completely different frequent cabbage-feeding caterpillars. Diamondback larvae chew by means of layers of leaf tissue with out chewing absolutely by means of the leaves. It’s a distinctive distinction between these and most completely different frequent caterpillar pests.

For pure, chemical-free administration methods, use row covers to cease adults from laying eggs, and hand-pick specific particular person caterpillars. Develop cabbages interplanted with non-cruciferous greens and herbs to discourage pests.

Observe crop rotation and embrace a numerous assortment of crops in your panorama to welcome a bunch of useful bugs and insect-eating birds that may aid you administration pesky insect pests.

Cabbage Webworm

Close-up of a small, brown caterpillar crawling on the stem of a plant.Close-up of a small, brown caterpillar crawling on the stem of a plant.
Inchworms set off seen hurt, weakening and wilting crops.

Do you see plump tan to grayish-yellow caterpillars in your crops, turning them proper right into a chewed-up mess? Youthful caterpillars is also a sturdy tan coloration whereas older caterpillars have distinct brownish strips working laterally alongside their our our bodies.

These are the caterpillars of the cabbage webworm moth, a mottled brown moth measuring about one centimeter broad and fewer than two centimeters prolonged when at rest.

These crucifer-loving caterpillars feed on cabbages, broccoli, bok-choy, collards, and turnips, to name just a few of their favorite meals. They generally chew up the undersides of leaves with out breaking throughout.

This does enough hurt to set off the crops to wilt and forestall head and flower formation. Contaminated crops will doubtless be visibly damaged, weak, and brittle as a result of the caterpillars chew into their veins and stems. 

These pests are very troublesome to manage. Since they conceal out on the undersides of leaves, they will be troublesome to remove by hand and bug predators are inefficient at looking out them down.

Pesticides that target caterpillars may be utilized to manage them, nonetheless keep in mind that these pesticides moreover harm useful bugs and pollinators so use them sparingly and totally to concentrate on merely the pests you see. 

Imported Cabbageworm

Velvety green caterpillars with faint yellow stripes munch on leaves and leave ragged holes.
Velvety green caterpillars with faint yellow stripes munch on leaves and leave ragged holes.
Small inexperienced larvae shortly hurt crops, forsaking veins.

Most caterpillars that feed on cabbage are the larvae of moths. The imported cabbageworm, nonetheless, is the caterpillar of a butterfly known as the cabbage white. These white butterflies are small butterflies with white wings and distinctive black spots on each wing.

It’s a frequent pest that’s associated in look to completely different native species of cabbage white butterflies, although the imported cabbageworm is now the commonest.

These comfy, inexperienced caterpillars measure as a lot as three centimeters prolonged. They’ve a barely ridged, velvety look with pale yellow spots alongside the lower sides of the physique. These caterpillars feast in your crops for about two weeks sooner than pupating each on their host crops or in surrounding leafy particles.

If warmth enough, they emerge as soon as extra as butterflies inside two further weeks, nonetheless later inside the season, they could overwinter as pupae and emerge as adults the subsequent spring.

The imported cabbageworm caterpillars sometimes feed alongside the larger leaf veins, chewing holes alongside the way in which wherein. Quite a few caterpillars on the equivalent leaf will shortly reduce the leaf to nothing nonetheless veins. They’re blissful to feed on any cruciferous greens and energetic caterpillars can merely switch from one plant to the next. 

Parasitoid wasps, vespid wasps, and assassin bugs are predatory useful bugs that assault these voracious caterpillars. Hand-picking is environment friendly nonetheless tedious on account of there’ll sometimes be tons of of these little inexperienced caterpillars in your crops.

Placing in floating row covers on the time of planting could also be very environment friendly at conserving the adults off your crops, because of this truth stopping them from laying their eggs. 

Cross-Striped Cabbageworm

А dark blue-green caterpillar with black stripes and yellow spots feed on the leaf.
А dark blue-green caterpillar with black stripes and yellow spots feed on the leaf.
Inexperienced larvae can shortly skeletonize leaves in your yard.

Cross-striped cabbageworms are a the larvae of a moth and are frequent brassica pests inside the southeastern United States. They feed on cabbage crops, broccoli, cauliflower, and completely different favorite yard brassicas. You’ll uncover their preliminary feeding hurt as holes inside the leaves, nonetheless as a result of the hurt progresses, the leaves is also solely skeletonized.

You may certainly not uncover the non-descript gray-brown grownup moth nonetheless the caterpillars are fairly obvious. They shortly develop from an egg as a lot as about one-inch-long caterpillars. They’ve orange heads, yellowish and gray lateral stripes on their sides, and a white, gray, and yellow speckled pattern on their backs.

These caterpillars are most common with late-season crops. Cease the grownup moths from laying eggs in your crops by masking them with floating row covers. Invite useful bugs, corresponding to parasitic wasps, to your yard to help administration caterpillar pests. Try eradicating specific particular person caterpillars by hand in case you may have just some cabbage crops. 

Southern Cabbageworm

А bright green caterpillar with fine hairs feed on the outer leaf, leaving small holes.
А bright green caterpillar with fine hairs feed on the outer leaf, leaving small holes.
Striped larvae create ragged holes in yard leaves.

The southern cabbageworm is a typical pest all via a whole lot of the southern United States, although it may be found in further northern states. It is the larvae of the checkered white butterfly which lays its eggs on brassica crops.

The caterpillars then feed on the leaves until they attain maturity and pupate into the next expertise of grownup butterflies.

Southern cabbageworm caterpillars attain merely over one inch in dimension. They’re gray and yellow striped, with tiny, irregular black spots and coarse, transient hairs. You’ll see the caterpillars on the leaves, and likewise you’ll clearly see the ragged-edged holes they chew as they feed, typically solely inside the outer layer of leaves.

These caterpillars look like further of a problem for fall crops than spring crops, they normally may not be a problem yearly. 

Administration these caterpillars as you will completely different caterpillar pests. Use floating row covers to forestall butterflies from laying eggs in your crops. For those who occur to easily have a few cabbage crops, spend some time in your patch day-to-day and hand-pick specific particular person caterpillars. Entice useful bugs to your yard that will feed upon these and completely different caterpillar pests. 

Beet Armyworm

Close-up of a pale green caterpillar with faint stripes devouring foliage.Close-up of a pale green caterpillar with faint stripes devouring foliage.
Plump inexperienced larvae go away irregular holes in yard leaves.

The beet armyworm is a typical pest, considerably inside the southern United States. That’s the caterpillar of the mottled brown beet armyworm moth. The grownup has a wingspan of about three centimeters and a comfy, fuzzy-looking pale grayish-brown physique

Adults lay their eggs on all types of yard greens, along with cabbages and completely different brassicas along with many others. In distinction to many butterfly and moth species which have very specific host crops, the beet armyworm seems to eat completely something.

Each grownup female can lay as a lot as 600 eggs, which signifies that you’re going to doable have a navy of hungry caterpillars feasting in your favorite yard veggies. 

The caterpillars are pale inexperienced and plump. Their {{smooth}} our our bodies are each all inexperienced with quite a few inexperienced bands or they’ve a selected reddish-pink line alongside both facet and a line of darkish spots or robust ovals above the pink traces. These caterpillars feast their method by means of the leaves, making large irregular holes as they feed.   

Prevention is likely one of the easiest methods to manage a beet armyworm invasion, using floating row covers on the time of planting to protect your cabbage crop from adults trying to place eggs.

Parasitic wasps and completely different insect predators will happily feed on these plump caterpillars. Pure and natural controls are best for these pests on account of they’re largely resistant to pesticides, which ends up in the overuse of ineffective chemical substances and harming useful bugs.

Flea Beetle

Small, shiny black beetles hop from leaf to leaf, creating tiny, round holes.
Small, shiny black beetles hop from leaf to leaf, creating tiny, round holes.
Tiny black beetles go away fairly a number of holes in youthful leaves.

The flea beetle is a small black beetle that feeds on leaves, considerably of youthful crops. They chew many tiny holes inside the leaves and if plenty of beetles are present, as they typically are, they’re going to merely destroy seedlings sooner than they’ve a possibility to develop. These tiny beetles have the habits of springing from one place to a distinct, incomes them their establish. 

Flea beetles don’t consider cabbages or brassicas, they chew up many alternative yard crops as successfully, along with beans, eggplants, and tomatoes. In case you may have these pests in your yard all through one season, you might depend on to see them persist by means of the entire rising season, damaging plenty of crops to the aim of oblivion. 

These persistent pests are troublesome to manage nonetheless there are some preventative measures you should take for many who’ve seen these beetles sooner than. Till your yard inside the fall to disclose any buried bugs and eggs that may very well be hiding inside the soil.

Add useful nematodes to your soil to feed on the soil-dwelling beetle larvae. You may even try companion planting with mint and basil to help repel flea beetles and completely different pests, along with enchantment to useful bugs to your yard. Pyrethrin and spinosad are pure pesticides you must use together with cultural and preventative controls.

Harlequin Bug

Close-up of a beetle with a striking shield-shaped body featuring bold black and yellow markings, feeding on waxy leaves.
Close-up of a beetle with a striking shield-shaped body featuring bold black and yellow markings, feeding on waxy leaves.
Vibrant bugs suck juices, inflicting crops to wilt.

Harlequin bugs are dangerous insect pests that feast completely on cabbages and completely different cruciferous greens. They’re prevalent all via the southern half of the US and will set off vital harm if not managed. 

The black and white banded eggs are laid on the undersides of the leaves of a applicable host plant. The eggs hatch into tiny spherical, dome-backed insect nymphs with vivid orange and black markings. At this stage, they could almost be confused with ladybug beetles.

As these bugs develop, develop, and molt, their patterns change, nonetheless all of them have variable patterns of black, white, and orange markings. Grownup harlequin bugs are further merely acknowledged as a species of stink bugs with their angular our our bodies and daring black and purple, orange, or yellow markings. 

Harlequin bugs pierce and suck the juices from plant leaves. Affected crops wilt and leaves flip yellow and brown. Plant improvement is stunted and your crops may die if critically contaminated. These insect pests are merely seen and you should not have any trouble determining them as a result of the culprits. 

Administration harlequin bugs by conserving your yard clear and weed-free to reduce habitat for hiding pests. Hand-pick and destroy any eggs, nymphs, or adults that you just see in your crops. If hurt is excessive and you have got a giant infestation, try spraying contaminated crops with an insecticidal cleansing cleaning soap.

Whiteflies

Tiny white insects cling to the undersides of broad, waxy leaves.
Tiny white insects cling to the undersides of broad, waxy leaves.
Tiny white bugs hurt crops by sucking vital juices.

There are numerous utterly completely different species of whiteflies, nonetheless those most continuously found on cabbages and brassicas are the cabbage whiteflies. These are tiny flying bugs which is likely to be, as their establish implies, white.

You may or may not see these little pests nonetheless they do their truthful proportion of harm to cabbage crops. They’re most prevalent inside the fall and normally restricted to hotter climates the place they’re going to overwinter. 

Whiteflies suck plant juices and it is doable you will assume that since they’re so small, they shouldn’t set off any vital harm, nonetheless they do. Whiteflies reproduce shortly and shortly dwell in your cabbage leaves in giant numbers. As they suck nutritional vitamins out of your plant, they deposit a sticky honeydew that pulls fungal illnesses that set off further hurt. 

As soon as you buy youthful cabbage crops out of your native yard coronary heart, confirm them rigorously for any sign of bugs, along with whiteflies, sooner than bringing them home. You don’t want to by probability convey these pests into your yard for many who can steer clear of it. 

Invite and welcome useful bugs to your yard to permit them to prey on these and completely different insect pests. For those who occur to need further help than the dragonflies and ladybugs can provide, you might spray with insecticidal cleansing cleaning soap, nonetheless use this with warning because it’ll moreover harm good yard bugs. 

Slugs and Snails

A slimy, soft-bodied brown creature leaves trails of mucus as it chews large holes in the leaves.A slimy, soft-bodied brown creature leaves trails of mucus as it chews large holes in the leaves.
Slime trails reveal hidden night-time munchers in gardens.

In case you may have any protected, damp hiding areas in or spherical your yard, you probably have slugs and snails hiding available on the market. Slugs and snails feed primarily at night time time nonetheless go away telltale slime trails on the leaves and the underside spherical your yard crops. Inside the morning, you’ll see the hurt they set off inside the kind of smooth-edged holes alongside the edges and the amenities of the leaves. 

If given the prospect, these slimy pests feast on cabbages, lettuce, strawberries, hosta leaves, and loads of completely different favorite yard crops.

Slugs and snails lay their eggs inside the soil, typically beneath moist leaves, in compost piles, and beneath wood, stones, and yard planters. Elevate any of these items and likewise you’re extra more likely to see at least a number of snails hiding beneath. 

Defend your crops from slugs and snails by eradicating their hiding areas. You may even deter them with copper edging and diatomaceous earth, although you’ll should reapply the diatomaceous earth after rainfall. One different trick to try is setting beer traps which magnetize slugs away out of your crops and drown them. 

Mammals

A small, furry animal with white fur and black ears and eyes nibbles at the edges of large green leaves in the garden.
A small, furry animal with white fur and black ears and eyes nibbles at the edges of large green leaves in the garden.
Fencing and covers defend tender crops from hungry animals.

Deer, rabbits, squirrels, mice, and groundhogs eat plenty of yard crops. They may each have their favorite crops to munch and, whereas cabbage may not be on the prime of all people’s report, trying mammals will most definitely at least model your cabbages, significantly when youthful and tender. 

Mammals don’t merely nibble little holes inside the leaves of your creating cabbage head— they eat the entire issue. In a single chew. Chomp. Gone. It could be irritating, to say the least, to be watching your crops develop, and also you then uncover that the entire sudden they’ve vanished. 

For those who want to protect deer and completely different mammals away out of your cabbages, you’ll should plant your cabbages the place mammals can’t entry them. Plant your yard inside a fenced house.

Use critter cages to protect seeds, seedlings, and youthful crops, and hope that they’ll shortly develop large enough to be uninteresting to munching mammals by the purpose they’ve outgrown the cage.

Floating row covers moreover work to protect crops from most mammals, as long as larger animals, like deer, don’t merely stroll over them and crush them alongside the way in which wherein.  

Steadily Requested Questions

Pesticides will kill many insect pests. Sadly, they’re moreover toxic to bees, butterflies, pollinators, predatory bugs, and completely different useful bugs. They harm birds that feed on these bugs and organisms that dwell inside the soil and help protect your soil healthful.

Try completely different methods to manage insect pests sooner than resorting to pesticides. And for many who do decide that pesticides are the reply, keep in mind to be taught and adjust to the instructions rigorously and take precautions in the direction of respiration and touching them, as many are toxic to people and pets along with bugs and wildlife.

In no way! Many yard bugs are good in your yard. Pollinators are vital for lots of economically priceless crops to offer fruits. Useful bugs mustn’t solely pollinators however as well as predatory bugs. Predatory bugs, like ladybugs and dragonflies, eat giant numbers of insect pests and help protect these pest populations low.

You can enchantment to useful bugs to your yard by planting various crops and flowers that bloom at utterly completely different cases of the 12 months. Choose crops which is likely to be acknowledged to be significantly participating to useful bugs. Steer clear of using pesticides in your yard on account of they kill all bugs, useful and unhealthy.

Certain. Develop your cabbages and completely different yard crops in the most effective conditions you might provide. Give them a great deal of daylight, a great deal of water, and a great deal of high-quality nutritional vitamins. Healthful crops are resilient crops!

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