1 Looper

ou walk out into your garden to go and pick some Y nice juicy kale and what do you see but a garden that looks like it is riddled with bullet holes. If you pick up the leaves and look on the underside you will find the infamous green guy called the cabbage looper. The cabbage looper likes to feed on many plants, it likes the plants from the brassica family the best. The cabbage loopers favorite foods include , brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, collards, kale, mustard, radish, rutabaga, turnip, and watercress. Other vegetable crops that he likes to munch on include beet, cantaloupe, celery, cucumber, lima A Cabbage Looper Destroying Collards bean, lettuce, parsnip, pea, pepper, potato, snap bean, spinach, squash, consider is that many times plants out by the root and destroy them sweet potato, , and are deficient in calcium, you will be making a concerted watermelon. Additional hosts are phosphorus and magnesium. So effort at getting one step closer at flower crops such as make sure that the plants are well being in control now and in chrysanthemum, hollyhock, fed and not weak from nutrient following seasons to come. snapdragon, and sweet pea, and deficiencies. field crops such as cotton and Good Air Circulation Make sure . By his nature the cabbage Keep Your Yard and Garden that there is plenty of room for looper does not prefer many Free of Weeds and Debris Year your plants to get proper air agricultural weeds The ones that do Round will migrate to circulation. It helps when you have meet his picky standards are surrounding areas and breed there. an infestation on your cole crops to lambsquarters, Chenopodium You want to pay close attention to pick off the old leaves on the kale album; wild lettuce, Lactuca spp.; get rid of the weeds in your garden and collards and compost them. dandelion, Taraxacum officinale; and in the areas near by. You do The leaves will grow back. and curly dock, Rumex not want your garden to become Planting For Beneficials is a re-infested with the pests that you crispus.There can be five to seven great plan always. The Effective just got rid of because the weeds in life cycles of these bad boys. beneficials that you want to hone in the surrounding areas were First Line of Defense Healthy on are the wasp and tachinid harboring the pests. We learned of plants are the first line of defense. parasitoids, as well as spined soldier the weeds that this months , Many times the plants are stressed bugs. A nuclear polyhedrosis virus the cabbage looper, did not like. If and are either drought stricken or (NPV) is a great attacker as well, you are careful to pull the weeds over watered. One more thing to however you have to purchase that

EDIBLESANMARCOS.WORDPRESS.COM 2 Cabbage Looper under the name of Spod-X-LC from stomach poison. The larvae has no Certis. Plant mint, herb, fennel, more desire to eat the host plant. dill, yarrow, clover and dandelions Bt continues to invade the insects as a good source of food. You other body tissues multiplying in must remember to plant flowers the blood, eventually leading to that are small flat and open for the death. It may take hours or a few beneficial insects. They need a weeks, all depending on how much source of carbohydrates to eat and Bt the larvae ate. It is used as a they also need water to drink, and deterrent for whiteflies as well as shelter to get out of the elements. Cabbage Looper Larvae many other insects. It has a lasting effect and needs to be reapplied Floating Row Covers are a great after it rains. You need to apply line of defense as they block the from the cuticle, the waxy outer every 5 days until under control. little green bundles of joy from layer of insects exoskeletons. This coming in and having lunch. You causes the insects to dehydrate and Beauveria bassiana belongs to the can get them at any lawn center die due to the water pressure entomopathogenic fungi. It is a and online at every garden store. deficiency. Be careful not to fungus Floating row covers work well this breathe the dust when using DE, as that grows around the world and time of year since we are talking it is not good to get it in your acts a parasite by causing disease in about non pollinated crops. It is lungs. It is advised to wear a mask. insects. It is used for control in too cold to plant such crops that whiteflies, termites beetles and is need pollination such as squash Pyrethrum comes from the seed being tested for use in the control because of the weather. Another cases of the perennial plant of malaria-transmitting advantage of floating row covers is pyrethrum (Chrysanthemum mosquitoes. that they add a few degrees of Cinerariaefolium). Pyrethrum protection on cold nights. work by attacking the nervous Spinosad is made of spinosyns A system of insects and are and D, they are substances that are Biorationationals remember neurotoxins. When used in made by aerobic fermentation. even though these controls are amounts not fatal to insects, they The species that is being fermented natural they all have an effect on still may have an insect repellent is Saccharopolysora spinosa of the bees and beneficials so be careful effect. Pyrethrins are very harmful actinomycete species. They were and apply them early in the to fish but are far less toxic to found in the Caribbean in soil morning so they will not kill the mammals and birds. They are samples in 1982. They are the honey bees. biodegradable and break down filamentous bacteria that are in the Azadirachtin The two active easily when exposed to light or soil that give it that sweet earthy ingredients are made from the oil oxygen. They are the safest smell. Spinosad works by found in neem tree seeds. This insecticides for use around food. ingestion, activating the nervous product disrupts the insect molting var. system of the insect, causing loss of period antagonizing the insect kurstaki and Bt. var. aizawai muscle control. The insect dies of hormone ecdysone. are both soil bacterium that occur exhaustion because of the continuous activation of motor Diatomaceous Earth (Silicon naturally. Bt is only effective on neurons. This usually happens Dioxide) is made from a fossilized the larvae stage. Larvae ingest it within one to two days. hard shell algae. It is ground into a and the spore of Bt paralyzes the fine powder and it absorbs lipids cells in the gut. It is in essence a

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