How to get rid of whitefly on cucumbers in a greenhouse, how to process it?
It is almost impossible to find a summer cottage where cucumbers are not grown, but various insects can spoil the harvest. Whitefly on cucumbers is an insect that causes significant harm to cucumber beds. The success of the fight against the pest directly depends on how early the gardener noticed it in his area and what damage the whitefly has already inflicted on the cucumbers.
Signs of the appearance of an insect on cucumbers
The insect got its name due to the color of its wings - they are in adults of the whitefly white-milky hue. The insect is small in size, the body reaches 3 mm in length. Outwardly it resembles a small light moth.
The insect can appear not only in an open area, but also on cucumbers in a greenhouse. Whitefly multiplies quickly, so timely destruction of the insect is necessary. She prefers a warm and humid climate, therefore, most often appears when growing crops at home or in greenhouses.
The first signs of a pest are:
- The appearance of white spots on the leaves.
- The surface of the leaves has become sticky to the touch.
- The appearance of a black bloom over time.
- Deformation and fall of foliage.
- Decreased yield.
The fight against whitefly is also necessary due to the fact that it is a carrier of many diseases:
- Chlorosis.
- Jaundice.
- Fetal necrosis.
- Curly foliage.
- Yellow mosaic.
Hotbeds, as well as greenhouses, are a favorite place for insects. Most often, it prefers to winter and lay eggs in such conditions.
How to get rid of a whitefly in a greenhouse?
Whitefly in the greenhouse must be disposed of immediately after it appears in the beds. It will be much more difficult to remove this insect, if it has already managed to lay a lot of larvae.
Methods for controlling the parasite in the beds:
- Biological.
- Mechanical.
- Chemical.
The mechanical method of struggle is the most laborious.
How to get rid of a parasite in a greenhouse:
- Use a hand-held vacuum cleaner to collect all insects. It is recommended to do this in the morning or evening, when it gets cool outside. In cold weather, the whitefly is least active.
- Collection of damaged leaves by hand. This will remove some of the larvae, the rest will be destroyed by natural enemies. Thus, you can control the number of the parasite on the site.
- Each damaged leaf is treated with a solution of laundry soap. Then use a hose to rinse the leaves.
Such methods of control are rarely used, since they are of low efficiency.
An insect in a greenhouse such as a whitefly can be most effectively removed using chemical methods of control using various chemicals.
The main disadvantage of this method is that substances are used for the production of insecticides that can adversely affect human health. Therefore, you need to be more careful with the chemical method of struggle.
Popular preparations to process cucumbers in a greenhouse:
- Actellic.
- Aktara.
- Confidor.
- Detis.
- Verticillin J.
- Fufanon.
The above preparations can be applied at the root or sprayed on the bushes. The second method is preferable, it is more harmless to humans.
It is advisable to spray the bushes in dry, calm weather, early in the morning or in the evening, when there is no scorching sun rays. Before spraying, you should check the weather forecast so that there will be no heavy rains in the near future.
To cope with the cucumber parasite, you need to spray the bushes at the initial stage, when there are not so many whiteflies yet. When they fill the entire site, it will be useless to fight them.
Biological control methods are considered the safest for human health.
How to process cucumbers using folk methods?
If you do not want to use chemical preparations for processing cucumbers, but somehow you need to fight the whitefly, then it's time to learn about folk recipes against an insect.
It is worth noting that these recipes are effective only when the insect population is still small.
Traditional methods of dealing with whitefly in a greenhouse and greenhouse:
- Dandelion infusion. Dandelions can often be found at their summer cottage and instead of throwing out the plant, an infusion for whiteflies is prepared from it. Pick a packet of dandelion leaves and dig up the roots. Pour 1 liter of water over the plants and let it brew for 4 hours. Strain the infusion. Now you can start spraying the foliage.
- Infusion based on garlic. Finely chop 300 g of a clove of garlic and add 1 liter of water. Put in a dark room to insist for 5 days. Spray the cucumber beds with a spray bottle.
- Sugar solution. Dissolve 100 g of sugar in 2 glasses of water. Treat the leaves in the greenhouse with the resulting solution that have signs of infection. If the solution does not help, repeat the procedure after 7 days. After 5 days, hose down the cucumbers to wash off the sugar film.
- Infusion of yarrow. Pour 100 g of yarrow herb with 1 liter of water and put in a dark place where the sun's rays will not penetrate for 2 days. Strain the infusion and process the cucumber beds with it.
As with chemicals, these infusions should be sprayed on the beds in calm weather in the evening or early in the morning.
Greenhouse Whitefly Traps
If all else fails, you can place a trap on the site. Do it yourself.
How to make a whitefly trap:
- The plastic bottle should be painted orange or red.
- Then it is covered with etymological glue.
- After that, lighting is installed next to the bottle so that insects fly at it.
- In a few hours, such a trap will collect more than half of all whiteflies that are on cucumbers.
A few days later, as a preventive measure, a second trap is set in the greenhouse.
They do it like this:
- Punch a small wooden box together and drill a hole in it.
- Paint the light bulb red or yellow.
- Place a light bulb inside the box and turn it on at night.
- We put a plate of water at the bottom of the box.
Insects fly into the light and burn themselves on the light bulb. And then they fall into the water, from where they can no longer get out and die.
Such traps can be made by any summer resident.
Prevention of the appearance of an insect in the garden
As a preventive measure, keep the greenhouse open in winter. You can open the vents at night.It is recommended to freeze the greenhouse well so that all insects and larvae in the soil die. The temperature in the greenhouse in winter should exceed -12 degrees. Then the larvae and adults begin to die.
The greenhouse bed needs regular inspection. The sooner the whitefly is found, the easier it is to deal with.
After harvesting, you need to remove all weeds and dig up the soil. It will be useful to pour it with a solution of potassium permanganate. If there were insects in the cucumber garden in the summer, then such bushes need to be collected and burned away from the summer cottage.
Whitefly can appear not only on cucumbers, but also on other crops that grow on the site. Therefore, you need to inspect all plants and, if they appear, process nearby growing plants.
