How to prevent cabbage worms from ruining your crops.

Cabbage worms are the bane of any gardener’s existence so in order to prevent your plants from worms you must ensure you know how to prevent cabbage worms from running your crops, especially when they attack and destroy your favorite vegetable or herb plants before you can harvest and eat them.

 Luckily, there are several ways to prevent cabbage worms from decimating your crops and ruining your efforts, so you don’t have to feel like all that hard work was in vain.Bellow are different ways In which you can prevent cabbage worms from running your crops:

Raise Awareness

Growing a vegetable garden is a great way to get the freshest produce and teach kids about healthy food. All you need is some soil, seeds, water, sunshine and TLC. One thing many people do not consider is the possibility of damaging pests such as cabbage worms ruining their crops. Cabbage worms are hardy little critters that can quickly destroy even the healthiest of gardens with their ravenous appetite for leaves. 

Identify the Pests

Cabbage worm (aka, leaf rollers) is the larva of a moth in the family Psychidae. Cabbage worms will attack broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables. They are easy to identify because they usually look like a small rolled up leaf. 

These pests can be found feeding on the undersides of leaves or inside them.

 To get rid of these pests there are three steps you can take: handpick, carefully spray with soapy water (don't use oil!), encourage natural predators by planting nasturtiums near crops to attract lacewings and ladybugs

Prevention is Key

As the name implies, these bugs eat their way through cabbages. Once you've seen them in action on one of your plants, it can be tempting to assume that there are no other vegetables for the bugs to bother eating. This is not necessarily true. They will show up on almost any type of vegetable, as long as they find a source of food and water. One way to avoid this problem is by planting different types of crops next to each other in your garden. If you're looking for easy ways to kill these pests, or if you have an infestation already underway, try spraying with insecticidal soap or placing a few drops of detergent mixed with water near the bug's hiding spot.

Remember That Prevention Begins in the Soil

Cabbage is a nutrient-rich vegetable that is at the top of many people's shopping lists. Unfortunately, this delicious veggie is often attacked by the pesky cabbage worm. Understanding how these pests can infest your garden will help you understand how you can keep them out for good. One way to keep these pests out of your garden is by adding lots of compost and animal manure before planting anything. The best time to apply the compost is just after harvesting one crop so it has time to decompose and release its nutrients into the soil. 

If you are looking for a way to get rid of these bugs once they have invaded your crop, an easy solution is spraying with an insecticide.

Crop Rotation & Green Manures

In order to prevent cabbageworms from destroying your entire crop, you need to rotate the plants in your garden so that cabbageworms do not have a chance at laying eggs on all of them. 

In addition, green manures can be helpful in reducing the number of pests like cabbage worms because they will eat all of the residue left behind by plant eating insects and give off nitrogen that will help provide good soil for future plantings. Green manure is any type of cover crop grown primarily to improve the fertility and tilth (looseness) of the soil. The term is most often used for vegetable-family crops, such as legumes or covercrops grown specifically to increase organic matter content and add nutrients back into the soil through their own growth process before being tilled under prior to seeding with another crop

Plant Resistant Varieties and Rotate Chemicals

Planning is the key when it comes to preventing pests like the cabbage worm. There are a few steps you can take to make sure that the hard work you put into your crop isn't spoiled by these pesky pests. Plant resistant varieties and rotate chemicals are a great way to keep the bugs away! Read more about how to protect your produce in this blog post on how to prevent cabbage worms. 

Conclusion

When planting time arrives, be mindful of which seeds you choose, as some plants are more susceptible than others to damage from these worms. Tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts all have their own share of troubles with the larvae of this pest.