How to deal with spider mites in a greenhouse, treatment methods

Characteristics of the insect

Spider mites are harmful insects whose habitat is houseplants, garden crops, and especially greenhouse plants - due to the favorable temperature for them in greenhouses. It is difficult to fight ticks because they are very small. They cannot be noticed until the leaves become covered with cobwebs and the plants lose their usual appearance: they become lethargic and then dry out completely.

The web is so strong that when sprayed with a spray bottle it is difficult to break. In her cocoons, the female lays up to 400 eggs daily with a life expectancy of 40 to 50 days. This shows the avalanche-like speed at which the number of insects is increasing. In winter, the development process in greenhouses stops, and resumes with the beginning of the season.

The length of the female is from 0.4 to 0.6 mm, the male is even smaller. They have a pale green or amber-yellow color. The young offspring of ticks are six-legged, and after several molts they become eight-legged. The favorable environment for the growth of an individual is 25-30 degrees, and its development ends in 7-8 days. At lower temperatures, this process slows down and lasts up to a month.

The tick belongs to the class of arachnids. Usually it is located on the back side of the leaf, feeding on its juice and eating out many small holes. Dehydration causes leaves to become dry and brittle. Even with minor damage, plant development is suspended, and if measures are not taken to destroy parasites, crops lose their ability to recover, and the process of photosynthesis decreases. Diseased leaves become covered with a thin web, turn yellow and fall off.

The particular harm caused by mites lies in their ability to cause significant damage to plants in a short period of time. Hordes of microscopic parasites attack plants, which become sick and then die. This distinguishes them from other plant pests. Therefore, we have to destroy them using various means.

Description of the spider mite

The color of a spider mite may vary: green, red, brown, light yellow. The body is transparent, which allows you to see the contents of the internal organs - while dark spots on the sides are noticeable on the outer integument.

The tick has 4 pairs of limbs, they are multi-segmented. There are no antennae, the head is small in size, almost corresponding to the oral apparatus, which consists of a powerful claw-like jaw. The body of the pest is oval, convex, covered with many bristles.

The pest is inconspicuous, hiding on the plant (on the underside of the leaf),

It is characterized by a small length - 0.5 mm; the larvae look almost the same, but much smaller.

Magnified view of a spider mite

Movement and stay of arachnids

In winter, the female tick with the eggs she lays lies in the ground and under the bark of trees. With the arrival of spring, they move to unharvested nearby weeds, and later to plants.

Spider mites are capable of active movement. Even with a usually sedentary lifestyle, as food reserves are consumed, he goes to look for a new habitat. Pests move using their webs, which are carried by the wind, or slowly crawl over short distances.

Indoor flowers and greenhouse plants can become infected with pests from new seedlings and soil. Insects even enter the apartment from things, shoes, and independently enter through an open window.

Parasites are introduced into the greenhouse by staying on the gardener’s clothes, the fur of a cat that accidentally ran into the building, or with seedlings. It is almost impossible to avoid insects from entering a greenhouse. It is difficult to combat them, but if timely measures are taken, you can grow plants without fear of pest invasion.

At the first stage of being in the greenhouse, it is very difficult to detect them. If you look closely, you can see whitish spots on the back of plant leaves, usually along the main vein. Over time, these marks will yellow and discolor. But after only 8-10 days you can see parasites scurrying along the leaves of cucumbers or tomatoes.

After some time, the plants will be covered with areas entwined with a thin web - it is in these places that colonies are established and pests actively reproduce, and then spread to other plants. Interspersed with white dots on the leaves are a sign of the existence of parasites in the greenhouse.

Sometimes the web may be completely absent if there are not too many insects yet. The plants that are located at the edges of the passage are the first to suffer; they are more susceptible to attack by ticks from the street.

You need to know that the arachnid creature is not dangerous to humans, does not bite and is not a carrier of any diseases. Dangerous only for plant crops.

Where do spider mites on flowers come from?

Pests are unpretentious in choosing a habitat; they can be found on various indoor flowers:

• ficus;
• palm;
• Sims azalea;
• rose;
• Cyperus.

The first signs of infection are yellow dots on the leaves, which over time merge into a large spot. Microscopic arthropods in small quantities do not entwine indoor plants with webs, so they are not immediately noticeable. Usually the damage caused by it is attributed to a lack or excess of moisture. You should look for pests on the back of the leaves. When there are several dozen individuals, they can be noticed.

Attention. If you suspect a spider mite on a ficus, it is worth conducting a simple study. Shake the sheet over the paper, and then examine the surface with a magnifying glass. A few pests are sure to fall off the plant and be noticed.

Fighting methods

Unfortunately, it is impossible to completely neutralize plants in a greenhouse from mites. It can get into a building in different ways: with a gust of wind, on clothing or on garden supplies. But it is quite possible to influence the conditions of an insect’s stay in a greenhouse and make them unbearable. The pest tends to those places where there is less moisture and a fairly high temperature, at which its reproduction accelerates.

If you set the goal to destroy the tick so that it does not appear again in the spring, then this problem can still be solved. In the fall, it is imperative to clear the soil of weeds, plant roots, leaves, thoroughly dig up the beds and disinfect every corner of the greenhouse.

With such a small size, an arachnid insect can cause enormous harm. Therefore, measures to combat spider mites in a greenhouse should be taken as soon as their presence is noticeable. But it is better to carry out prevention even before these insects appear. There are ways to deal with them:

• agrotechnical;
• folk;
• chemical.

Sometimes one method is not enough to completely get rid of pests. Then it is necessary to carry out a set of measures to achieve a positive result.

Symptoms of appearance

Recognizing the pest and distinguishing it from others is quite simple: upon careful examination of the plant, dried leaves can be seen. On their surface there are numerous spots of white or yellow color, resembling pinpoint burns in appearance. The lower part of the leaf blade is covered with an almost invisible web. The larger the web, the larger the colony of mites . As soon as the web reaches the top of the plant, the dried leaves fall off and the specimen dies.

Vera Ivanovna Sh

Since childhood, I have been interested in growing indoor flowers, then I decided to devote my life to landscape design and gardening.

Most often, spider mites are not noticed until the seedling dies. Therefore, a weekly preventive examination is necessary, which will allow timely identification of the invisible enemy.

• Web on the bottom of the leaf blade;
• Foliage drying out for no reason;
• White bald spots, yellow dots and spots on the leaf blade or along its edges;
• Some types of pests with a bright red-orange color are easily visible.

Agrotechnical methods

Such methods are effective to use before the tick appears. The better the preventive measures are carried out, the greater the chances of protecting plants from the voracious pest and preserving your harvest. The following measures will help get rid of spider mites in a greenhouse:

1. Maintain order and cleanliness in the greenhouse, promptly remove weeds and old leaves, since female ticks in winter hide in the remnants of grass under large clods of earth.
2. When annually treating the greenhouse and disinfecting the building at the beginning of the summer season, you need to use products such as sulfur bombs and bleach.
3. Consider recommendations for crop rotation: alternate planting plants that ticks feed on with those that are not susceptible to attacks by parasites. For example, where there were beds with cucumbers or peppers, plant tomatoes or cabbage next season.
4. Create wide row spacing so that infected bushes can be removed in time and the pest does not have time to move onto healthy beds.
5. Maintain a climate with high humidity up to 85%. This event will benefit the plants, and the mites will die in such an environment.
6. Regularly inspect the leaves, especially the back side. If pest damage is detected, it should be destroyed.
7. Constantly water and loosen the soil.
8. If the greenhouse is infected, add the predatory mite Phytoseiulus, the enemy of the arachnid pest, into it.
9. It is advisable to plant cereal plants around the greenhouse to block insects from getting inside.

Fighting spider mites in a greenhouse is a troublesome task. But by carrying out high-quality prevention, regular inspection of plants, and using various control methods, you can defeat arachnids.

How to detect spider mites

Plant infection can be determined by a number of pathological processes. First, lethargy of the leaves appears, and soon the growth of the plantings slows down. In this case, light dots are visible on the upper side of the leaves. They grow, which contributes to the appearance of a marble pattern. Brown spots are also found - the result of exposure to saliva introduced by the tick during the bite.

Spider mites in a greenhouse are found on the underside of leaves. Here the pest leaves offspring (microscopic eggs with a diameter of 0.1 mm). As the colony's population increases, it becomes more difficult for parasites to hide. They leave cobwebs on the leaves, where they themselves are constantly located. Yellow, brown, white spots, deformed leaves are symptoms of plant infection.

As a result, photosynthesis processes are disrupted,

leaves lose their bright color.

Spider mites on the underside of a cucumber leaf

Folk remedies

If agrotechnical methods of exterminating insects prevent their appearance, then folk methods can be used when the mite has already occupied the greenhouse and poses a threat to the future harvest. If fruits have appeared on the plants or they are to be harvested soon, there is no need to use chemicals. It is better to use old, reliable means that do not harm plants and fruits, but have a detrimental effect on parasites. You can use the following methods:

1. Prepare an infusion of potato tops and water the beds with it. After 2-3 hours, the mites will die, but the eggs will remain unharmed. Therefore, it is necessary to additionally process 3-4 times.
2. Irrigate with the same decoction with the addition of a solution of laundry soap. After this procedure, not only arachnids die, but also aphids and other pests.
3. Watering with an infusion of onion peels will help get rid of parasites.
4. Herbs are also used: datura vulgare, alder, wormwood carpesium, garlic extract.

To repel and also kill insects, you can spray the plants with vinegar, hydrogen peroxide or ammonia. The method used is to wash the leaves with an infusion of horseradish, yarrow, garlic and the most common anti-mite remedy - a solution of tar or laundry soap.

If the infestation of the beds is minor, you can cover them with polyethylene for a short time to retain moisture longer, which has a detrimental effect on most individuals. However, treating a greenhouse against spider mites with folk remedies can destroy only some of its species, and with the simultaneous use of chemicals, the result will be more effective.

How to treat a greenhouse

At different times of the year, prevention and control costs are a little different. Let's look at how exactly.

in autumn

Check out

How and with what to treat a greenhouse in the fall and prepare it for winter If mites have infested the greenhouse by the end of summer, then after harvesting the covering should be replaced, completely getting rid of the old one.

If it is difficult to do this directly, you should cover everything with snow.

Afterwards, you should organize a general cleaning: wash the entire structure completely, disinfect it with a solution of acaricidal agents or copper sulfate (5%), and a solution of bleach (5%).

To prepare the latter, you need to dilute a full bucket of water with 500 g of the substance. The film that covers the winter garden should be left until spring. In autumn it is also worth using sulfur bombs.

in spring

It makes sense to treat at this time if your or a neighboring plot has been damaged earlier, since in this case there is a high probability that the pests will hide en masse to spend the winter, and in the spring they will definitely begin active life. However, if they have been avoiding your area, spring treatment may be unnecessary.

Sometimes irrigation alone is not enough: it will not lead to the desired result, because the soil and walls of the greenhouse remain contaminated. You need to start processing in the spring from the soil, because the insect overwinters directly there. The film should be removed just in the spring and then destroyed. Then you need abundant watering. If infected parts are found, they should be torn off and burned.

Quite effective means of combating parasites are watering with acaricidal solutions or burying special sticks, which dissolve after watering, enter the root system and distribute pesticides inside the plant.

We recommend that you read: treatment of polycarbonate greenhouses against diseases and pests in the spring.

Drugs

If a small number of plants are infected with mites, then it is advisable to use traditional methods of pest control. However, if a harmful insect has infected most of the crops in the greenhouse, then it is necessary to use various chemicals, but their disadvantage is that they negatively affect the crop itself.

You can remove ticks using the following medications:

• Fitoverma - it can be used to spray both seedlings and indoor plants;
• Benzyl benzoate - effectively fights against all types of ticks;
• Bi-58 - should be used if it is not possible to achieve a positive effect by other means;
• Actofita - will show good results if sprayed in clear weather.

Before you start using chemicals, the plants need to be watered thoroughly. This must be done so that the crops experience less stress and do not get burned. To ensure that the results of plant treatment are as good as possible, experienced gardeners recommend adding potassium soap (50 g) to the solution.

Spider mites in a greenhouse.

Chemicals should be sprayed on the plant itself and on the soil. Do not allow the solution to come into contact with the root system.

To prevent crops from dying, it is necessary to maintain the correct concentration of chemicals, so before using the products you should carefully study the manufacturer’s recommendations. You can re-treat after 1.5 weeks, using other drugs.

How do indoor plants become infected?

The pest enters plants in various ways:

With an infected indoor flower. When purchasing a new plant, you should carefully examine its leaves. You won’t be able to spot a tick, but yellow dots on the leaves will make you think about the health of the plant.

Advice. It is recommended to quarantine a new flower for 2 weeks. If it turns out that it is a carrier of the pest, only it will have to be treated, and the rest of the plants will not be harmed.

Advice. It is recommended to bake soil taken from the street in the oven.