Pests of sweet pepper and the fight against them: what to do, what to treat
Most gardeners choose not to buy peppers in stores, but grow them on their own. Before starting cultivation, you need to familiarize yourself with what pests of pepper in the greenhouse and open field can harm the bushes and how to get rid of them at home.
The main signs of pests
Pests of bell peppers in the greenhouse quite often appear due to improper care of the plant or due to the lack of prevention to protect them. The following signs indicate that pests of pepper seedlings have appeared:
- pepper leaves gradually begin to change their color and wither;
- infected greenhouse peppers grow more slowly;
- during wilting, not only the leaves of the bushes can suffer, but also their ovaries with peduncles;
- poor productivity;
- small pest larvae appear on the leaves, which can be seen with the naked eye.
When the first signs of the presence of pests appear on the bushes, it is necessary to immediately figure out which plant parasite attacked the plant.
Pest types
Various insects can attack pepper seedlings, and therefore, before protecting bell peppers from pests, you need to familiarize yourself with the most common parasites.
Whitefly
Most often, pepper leaves are affected by a pest such as whitefly. Outwardly, they look like small butterflies, the size of which does not exceed 3-5 millimeters. Whitefly has a distinctive feature - a weak white bloom on the wings.
The larvae and adults use bell peppers to get the nutrients they need from it. However, the whitefly not only absorbs pepper juice, but also carries various viruses.
It is quite easy to make sure that the whitefly is present on the bushes. To do this, it is enough to carefully examine the leaves of the plant. Thick mucus will appear on their surface, in which the fungus develops. If you do not spray the leaves in a timely manner and do not remove mucus, then the leaves will begin to blacken and dry out.
How to process peppers seedlings from whitefly pests
Most often, whitefly appears on seedlings that are grown in high humidity conditions. Therefore, in order to protect the pepper from these insects, it is recommended to periodically ventilate the greenhouse and not plant the seedlings too thickly.
However, if these insects have already appeared in the greenhouse, then the bushes should be secured and treated. Whitefly is fought with the following methods:
- Coated tapes. The surface of such tapes is covered with a sticky substance that fights and destroys pests. These tapes can be purchased or made yourself.To make it with your own hands, take a small piece of plywood and process it with petroleum jelly. It is necessary to place one such piece of plywood near each bush.
- Garlic solution. Sometimes pepper pest control is carried out with folk remedies made from garlic. To prepare the solution, finely chop two heads of garlic and fill them with water. Next, the mixture is infused for about a week, after which the bushes are processed.
- Chemicals. If all of the above methods did not help, then the bushes should be sprayed with special chemicals. For processing peppers, Grizzly, Aktar, Zeta, Fitoverm and Iskra are used.
Spider mite
Spider web glue looks like a harmless and small insect. However, in fact, it is very dangerous, since this pest is able to completely destroy all the bushes on the site. Under favorable conditions, ticks can live for 2-3 months. After death, they leave their eggs in the ground, which can be stored in it for more than five years.
Distinguishing spider mites from other pests is not very difficult. The leaves gradually begin to become covered with cobwebs. In addition, peppers in the greenhouse will have small holes in their leaves. If you look closely, you can see small insects in the web.
How to get rid of spider mites
To get rid of spider mites on pepper seedlings, you can use the following control measures:
- Laundry soap. It is not so difficult to prepare a product from laundry soap. To do this, 2-3 pieces of soap are grated and added to a 20-liter container filled with water. Mix the solution thoroughly and get rid of ticks with it.
- Onion peel. During the fight against insects, you can use onion infusion to protect plants from ticks. To prepare it, dissolve 200 grams of onion peel in 10 liters of boiled water.
- Garlic tincture. Some gardeners use garlic solutions to get rid of mites. To create a medicinal mixture that would fight insects, 150 grams of grated garlic is added to five liters of water. It is recommended to use the prepared solution immediately.
- Chemicals. Since it is quite difficult to deal with spider mites, the above methods of struggle do not always help and you have to use more effective means. You can clean the bushes from ticks using Anti-tick or Apollo.
Slugs
Quite often, leaf-eating slugs begin to appear on peppers. Immediately after appearing on the bushes, the insect eats the leaves and fruits of the plant. The appearance of such gnawing slugs is facilitated by a warm climate and waterlogged soil.
How to get rid of slugs
To combat slugs, it is recommended to use the following remedies:
- Bait. You can purchase them from specialized stores or make your own. Some growers make a hole in the ground near the peppers and place a small keg of beer in it to attract the attention of the slugs.
- Plants. To prevent slugs from appearing on the pepper, you should plant garlic, onions or basil nearby. All these plants will help scare off pests from peppers.
- Soda solution. To stop the slugs from gnawing the leaves, you can use a soda liquid. When diluting soda in water, no more than 100 grams of soda should be added to 10 liters of liquid.
Ants
Quite often there is such a problem in the greenhouse as ants. These insects emerge from the nest and eat young peppers. The appearance of ants can lead to various diseases of the pepper and therefore need to get rid of them quickly.
Control methods
There are several fairly effective ways to deal with ants in greenhouses:
- Disinfection of the anthill. To make the ants disappear, it is recommended to treat their anthill with vegetable oil, hot water or kerosene solution. It is necessary to do the processing in the evening, when all the ants will be in the anthill. Before carrying out the procedure, it is recommended to dig out the den a little so that the liquid is better absorbed.
- The use of powders. Ants can be destroyed with a special powder consisting of lime, ash and soda. You can also use millet or semolina, as insects don't like them.
- Burning the lair. The most radical way to fight ants is to set fire to their nest. To do this, a trench is dug around the anthill, into which a small amount of sulfurous carbon is added. After that, everything is set on fire and is not extinguished for 10-15 minutes. This time is enough for all the ants in the nest to die.
Thrips
Pests such as thrips are quite common on pepper bushes. It is quite difficult to destroy thrips in greenhouse conditions, and therefore many vegetable growers simply try to control their number so that their presence does not affect the yield in any way.
After getting on the plants, thrips immediately begin to suck the juice out of it. This leads to yellowing of the leaves and their further drying. If you do not get rid of the pests in time, the bushes may die.
Ways to fight
Thrips can only be destroyed with the help of special preparations:
- Vertimek. To prepare a working solution, 3 ml of Vertimeka is mixed with 10 liters of water. The bushes are sprayed with the prepared mixture once a week. After processing, a plastic bag should be put on each bush, which will need to be removed only the next day.
- Fitoverm. The product is sold as a solution, which must be diluted with water before use. For this, no more than 5 ml of the drug is added to half a liter of water. Spraying is carried out in the evening when there is no strong wind.
- Intavir. Before using Intavir, prepare a working solution. For its preparation, one tablet of the drug is added to a 10-liter container.
Conclusion
Almost all vegetable growers who cultivate this crop face pests on peppers. Moreover, many of them do not know what to do if holes appear on the pepper leaves. To get rid of them, you need to figure out who eats the leaves on the bushes and why. This will help you find the right pest control methods on the pepper and get rid of them.
