This summer I met with another dangerous pest — whitefly appeared in a neighbors greenhouse.
Information about the appearance of the whitefly came to me later: harmful white butterflies have been so many that arose in clouds, enveloping the review.
What is harmful whitefly
Hurts though in a greenhouse, though in the open ground. Adult insect whitefly feeds on juices of vegetable plants, it has its own preferences: tomatoes like more pepper and eggplant. Yellow spots on the leaves-the first signal to search for the insect. Larvae also feed on leaf juices. When a lot of pests, and they suck a lot of juice, the plant can not cope with the increased load.
Another problem — in the sweet sugary secretions, like the secretions of aphids: they grows well sooty fungus, it can be recognised by the black skin on the fly. It turns out that the parasite came and each brought. We have to deal with two aggressors.
The whitefly in the greenhouse will be more terrible than the Colorado potato beetle on the potato field. The beetle is bright, elegant, the look attracts, as if often flashing traffic lights on the road-you do not want to, but you will see. And larvae red-orange, bright-also will not pass by. And whiteflies is similar to the meadow moth: small, inconspicuous, unnoticeable until until will thrive in such quantities that the cloud of her in a greenhouse maybe with the feet of the gardener to bring down.
Thousands of tiny white moths are visible, and a few whitish dots on the lower surface of some leaves to see almost impossible. Here if not to explore purposefully, can only help the case where you accidentally touched the sheet will fly worried small fry. If such happiness has happened, and the parasite is seen in time, the gardeners are trying to get rid of it drugs from insecticidal plants.
Nicotine, the alkaloid of tobacco, is very poisonous. You can use tobacco dust, but the best option — the stems and leaves, if the shag is grown in the garden.
Recipe for preparation of tobacco-soap solution
- Take 400 g finely chopped and slightly crushed raw materials, pour a bucket of water, insist for two days.
- Drain the water, wring out the remnants of the herbs, add another bucket of water — you’ll have two buckets of liquid.
- For each bucket of solution you need to add 40 g of soap, shredded on a grater.
This infusion is considered deadly for whitefly. But no, he was not able to cope with the distress of my neighbor, even though the processing was done more than once.
Time factor
Why did this happen? Because there is time exposure (exposure) infusion-two days, but still need to add a little to the preparation of the working solution, but wait for the evening to plants on a Sunny day in the greenhouse was not bad. The result is that three days are lost. So they played a fatal role for my neighbors tomatoes, which destroyed hordes of pests.
After all, the whitefly all these days was derived from eggs laid earlier, multiplied, again laid eggs (it is in the greenhouse season, in good weather conditions, gives up to 10 generations). I didn’t know I had to sit quietly and wait for the tobacco to be made.
How the whitefly gets into the greenhouse
In warm climate of the South of Russia-from the street. But we whiteflies are not able to spend the winter, too cold and frosty dies. Where did it come from in the greenhouses of neighbors? Only with planting material. The way can be as follows: a flower bought in a shop, seedlings in pots or boxes on the window sills — seedlings in the same boxes in the greenhouse.
And then the settlement begins. That’s what the path is being processed in the same greenhouse when the doors are open insects out. The warm, die, fly to seek shelter — and find new greenhouse.
How to detect whitefly
One night I decided to pick a zucchini: spread the leaves and … was in a cloud of whitefly! Not in the greenhouse, but on the approaches to it — the garden is located next to the open greenhouse door. I quickly closed below white cloud exploded with fright in the shelter, and the next morning gathered the squash, pulled out the bushes. The first question: “Did you have time to fly into my greenhouse?”. Searched all the bushes — I did not notice the flying little snowflakes. I put on my glasses and reviewed all the undersides of the leaves, looking for flat pale green larvae with red eyes. Not find. I was looking for eggs: they are laid in the form of a ring, as if on short stalks grow oblong greenish (then black) beans.
Eggs in a ring is small, only about twenty. Difficult to detect: butterfly tiny — 1.5 mm long, and eggs and less. Not find. But there was no rest until the end of the season.
Fight against whitefly
To her I was ready. Decided to act dramatically-chemical methods. In many guides for plant protection is proposed to conduct the treatment with Malathion in various concentrations.
Treatments with Malathion only need 3, need to finish the last 5 days before harvest.
One problem: these drugs should be used in high concentrations-in the form of an emulsion, they are allowed to be used only in large farms, where there are plant protection specialists and chemical laboratories.
Than to kill the whitefly
To destroy the whiteflies have appropriate drug.
The active substance should work at the cellular level of the plant. If not all whiteflies die during spraying, the feeding will finish off the remaining after the end of hostilities.
Leave a Reply