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Often, gardeners growing plants in greenhouses are faced with various insects that can destroy the standing crop. Among these pests is the spider mite. Fighting spider mites is not such a simple matter. This microscopic insect has great vitality and is able to survive in any conditions.
What gardeners can’t come up with to get rid of ticks is just watering and spraying them. Most often, the pest settles in greenhouses where cucumbers are grown. We will try to tell you about methods for killing spider mites, many of which have been used by experienced gardeners for a long time.
Description of the pest
The fight against mites will be successful if you know that this particular pest has settled on your cucumbers:
- The insect belongs to the arachnids and has 4 pairs of legs.
- Whiskers and wings are missing.
- The tick can be red, yellow-green or orange.
- It is difficult to see the pest due to its negligible size: an adult tick is no more than 1 mm long. Although it is rare for gardeners, they have still encountered specimens twice as large.
- Habitat is the lower part of the leaf on which the web is woven.Experienced gardeners notice the pest in a greenhouse by small light spots on the upper surface of cucumber leaves.
The tick reproduces instantly. Judge for yourself: one female is capable of laying 400 eggs a day, and she lives for at least 30-50 days. From the eggs, ticks emerge, which after a while themselves lay eggs, hiding them in the web.
The development cycle continues continuously. Even in the fall, females manage to lay eggs. The pests that appeared in the greenhouse in the last warm days overwinter well, and everything starts all over again.
Tick control
Settlements of the pest, which multiplies at lightning speed, cause harm to plants. Therefore, gardeners, especially beginners, are interested in how to deal with spider mites in a greenhouse.
There are different ways to get rid of the pest:
- biological;
- folk;
- agrotechnical;
- chemical.
Biological method
This method of controlling mites in a greenhouse is safe for both plants and humans. What can be used to destroy the pest:
- Acaricidal drugs. To make them, they use mushrooms that live in the soil and can destroy the pest. Thanks to the selective action of the drug, other insects do not die.
- Natural enemies. In nature, there are predatory mites whose main diet is vegetarian insects. They don't touch plants.
- Repellent plants. There are a number of plants whose scent repels spider mites. First of all, tomatoes, garlic, onions.
Traditional methods
The fight against a malicious pest in a greenhouse has been carried out by gardeners for a long time. Traditional methods are sometimes more effective than chemicals if they are used in a timely manner, without waiting for mass reproduction of pests.
How to get rid of spider mites using decoctions and infusions of herbs and medications? Let's look at a few of the most common recipes:
- You will need about 1.5 kg of potato tops. After cutting into small pieces, the green mass is poured with 10 liters of water. After 3 hours, the product is ready for spraying pests. During processing, only adult individuals die, but eggs remain. Therefore, the procedure is repeated several times every 3-5 days until complete destruction. The lower part of the sheet needs to be treated with the strained solution.
- Take 400 grams of chopped tomato tops, which are filled with 10 liters of clean water. For best effect, boil for 30 minutes. For every two liters of the resulting decoction, add 30 grams of laundry soap. Spraying leads to the destruction of not only aphids, but also other insect pests.
- Onion peels will get rid of not only wireworms, but also mites. Place the husks in a bucket halfway and add hot water (not boiling water!). The spider mite remedy will be ready in 24 hours. Strain well before spraying. For better adhesion of the solution, you can add liquid soap.
- A solution prepared on the basis of hogweed works well.Leaves, roots and stems are harvested before or after flowering and dried. For 10 liters of water you need 1 kg of dry raw materials.
Gardener tips:
Agricultural technology in the fight against ticks
Compliance with agrotechnical rules allows you to grow greenhouse plants without diseases and pests.
What to do:
- Spider mites do not like high temperatures and high humidity, but for cucumbers such conditions are just right. It is not difficult to increase the humidity; it is enough to spray the plants several times a day.
- The soil in the greenhouse must be dug up in spring and autumn.
- Cleanliness is the key not only to human health, but also to the safe growth of plants. Plant debris, which could harbor pests and disease spores, should not be left in the greenhouse.
- Weeds are removed when they first appear.
Chemicals for plant protection
As a rule, gardeners use chemical control agents in extreme cases, when they have already used traditional or biological methods, but still the spider mite continues to feast in the greenhouse.
Modern chemical production produces many preparations that can be used to treat the greenhouse and the plants themselves. Among the recommended ones:
- Fitoverm;
- Aktofit;
- Kleschevitis;
- Agravertine;
- Akarin;
- Vertimek.
If you are unable to get rid of spider mites with the above-mentioned drugs, you can use stronger agents, such as Actellik and Bi-58.
Agricultural technology for the use of chemicals has its own characteristics, which must be adhered to in order not to harm plants and humans:
- Before processing, the soil must be watered abundantly.
- Green potassium soap is added to the solution of any chemical for better adhesion.
- When spraying, it is undesirable to get on the roots. But the soil around the plant and the greenhouse can be safely processed.
Spider mites in a greenhouse will not die after a single treatment, since chemicals do not affect the eggs. Repeated spraying is carried out after 10 days, but with a different preparation. And so on at least 3-4 times. You can get rid of a tick forever if you fight it comprehensively, using all control measures.
Pest in a greenhouse:
Soil and greenhouse cultivation
Spraying greenhouse plants will not give the desired result if the soil and walls of the greenhouse are infected with pests and disease spores. The fight against spider mites in a greenhouse should begin with soil treatment. As a rule, this parasite overwinters in the ground, and in the spring it will begin to reproduce again.
You can destroy insects in the soil and on the surface of the greenhouse using pesticides or special sticks that are buried in the ground. When water hits them, the sticks dissolve and kill pests around them. Penetrating through the root system into the plant, they make the juice inedible for spider mites.
Today, manufacturers offer gardeners sticks that, in addition to the toxic substance, include complex fertilizers:
- Plant Pin;
- Etisso;
- Substral;
- Polish sticks “Green House”.
If you were unable to cope with the problem over the summer, then in the fall you will have to completely replace the soil and treat the greenhouse itself with the following compounds:
- 5% copper sulfate;
- 4-6% aqueous solution of bleach;
A greenhouse treated with vitriol or bleach can be fumigated with sulfur bombs. Gas is able to penetrate into any crack, so pests die 100%.
Let's sum it up
Any diseases and pests cause a lot of trouble for gardeners. If you do not take timely control measures, the spider mite will leave you without a harvest. All your material costs and physical efforts will be in vain. Therefore, plants in the greenhouse must be constantly inspected to prevent spider mites from multiplying.
