Content
Flower growers know that growing roses is a troublesome process. A capricious culture is sensitive to any negative environmental changes. Insect pests, including green midges on roses, not only spoil buds and foliage, but can also completely destroy beautiful plants.
A colony of green aphids on each rose bush can reach several thousand individuals
What kind of pests are these?
In the second half of April, roses wake up after a long winter and begin to actively develop. It is at this time that the first insect pests appear. On rose bushes you can see small green midges - aphids. Parasites can cause irreparable damage to a flower garden in just a few weeks.
Most often, aphids damage young shoots by biting through the tender green shell and sucking out the juice. Signs of damage to rose plantings are visible to the naked eye. Main symptoms:
- plant growth slows down;
- green shoots turn yellow and become severely deformed;
- peduncles are weakened and have a pale color;
- Rose leaves grow irregularly shaped or curl up.
After a short time, the crop becomes covered with a sticky coating, which is popularly called honeydew. The dense layer interferes with normal oxygen exchange in plant tissues.
The easiest way to detect rose pests is on the inside of leaf blades.
Reasons for appearance
Gardeners, having noticed that green midges have appeared on roses, first of all try to find out what is the reason for the invasion of harmful insects. Agricultural specialists are convinced that an unfavorable factor is a change in temperature. Roses do well in slightly cool and humid weather. Heat and dryness pose a threat to an environmentally sensitive crop. Without treatment, the affected plant dies within a month.
Sometimes green midges appear in indoor roses. The reason for their appearance is the constant waterlogging of the soil, in which pests prefer to lay eggs. As a rule, on roses grown at home, owners do not immediately notice cobwebs and small bugs. Most often, parasites appear in winter, when hot radiators cause dry air in the apartment. Spider mites are activated due to decreased immunity of flower crops suffering from heat.
Another reason for the spread of spider mites may be nutritional deficiency, which has a negative impact on the condition of the rose.
Why are small bugs on roses dangerous?
A dense honey layer, which impedes the supply of oxygen, prevents the formation of a bush, and ultimately leads to the fall of rose buds. The plant, weakened by midges and aphids, is affected by associated fungal infections. To prevent damage to the delicate crop, appropriate measures should be taken in a timely manner.
Green lacewing is capable of destroying an aphid colony
What to do if there are green midges in a rose
It is natural that when green midges are discovered on roses, gardeners look for ways to get rid of the parasites. Preventive measures help prevent the appearance and spread of insect pests in the rose garden. If green midges and beetles have already appeared in rose flowers, then folk and chemical methods of combating parasites are used.
Traditional methods
Traditional methods of eliminating pests are gentle. Techniques for eliminating parasites developed over decades are, as a rule, environmentally friendly and harmless to plants.
Effective folk methods are:
- A water solution of laundry soap. The concentrated mixture is applied to the infected bushes and washed off after a few hours.
- Ash and tobacco combined in equal proportions. A mixture of two components is sprinkled on the soil under the infected bushes and watered with water. A few days later the procedure is carried out again.
- Infusion of onion peel.Phytoncides repel parasites and do not cause damage to gardening.
- A decoction of tomato or potato tops. To prepare it, fresh green leaves are poured with boiling water and boiled for 15 minutes. The cooled liquid is used to irrigate the flower crop once every two days.
- Kerosene emulsion. The product contains 100 g of gray laundry soap, 200 ml of kerosene and 10 liters of water.
Folk remedies are effective when rose bushes are slightly infested. A significant advantage of such recipes is that their use does not require precise dosages of components, unlike toxic chemicals.
Chemicals
Chemicals intended for treating garden plantings are very effective in combating green midges on roses, but at the same time have a negative effect on fruit crops growing in the garden plot. In addition, insecticidal preparations can disrupt the biocenosis formed in the territory. In this regard, it is advisable to use chemicals in extreme cases and strictly follow the instructions when diluting and using them.
The following have proven themselves to be the best in the fight against green midges on roses:
- Aktara. The product comes in two forms: granules or liquid. The insecticide is suitable for treating garden and indoor flowers.
To prepare a working solution, 600 ml of Aktara is diluted in 5 liters of water.
- Fitoverm. With its help, three repeated treatments are carried out. The interval between procedures is eight days.
Mix 2 ml of Fitoverm with 0.5 liters of water, spray the solution over the flower bed
- Spark. The drug in tablet form has a universal effect. The low cost of the product is combined with high efficiency.
Two Iskra tablets are dissolved in 20 liters of water and the resulting liquid is used at the rate of 1 liter of composition per 5 m2
- Actellik. Used to treat spider mites. In addition, the product is effective in the fight against flying and crawling insects.
Aktellik is suitable for use in open ground and indoor conditions
- Fitoverm. This is the least toxic drug for humans and animals, so its use does not pose a threat to others.
Fitoverm has an acaricidal (against ticks) and insecticidal (against insects) effect
Spraying roses against green midges and ticks at home is carried out using protective equipment to prevent toxins from entering the respiratory system, skin and mucous membranes. It is recommended to plan repeated processing of agricultural technology in two weeks, when larvae hatch from previously laid eggs and move from the soil to the green parts of the plant.
You can get rid of green midges found in indoor roses by replanting the plant. The method is based on the fact that most pests lay eggs in moist soil. By cleaning the roots from the old soil and treating them with insecticides, after replanting, recovered green bushes of miniature rose varieties are obtained.
To destroy spider mites on home flowers, remove the infected foliage, water the plant well and cover it with polyethylene for 2-3 days. If this method does not give the desired effect, chemicals are used.
Preventive measures
Preventive measures are aimed at preventing pests from appearing on rose bushes, which is why they are preferable in gardening. Among the effective methods of combating green midges:
- purchasing healthy, undamaged seedlings;
- checking planting material for the presence of insects;
- placing rose bushes next to umbrella crops - beds with dill, parsley, fennel, carrots;
- installing birdhouses in the garden to attract birds, as birds actively destroy insect colonies;
- compliance with the rules of agricultural technology when cultivating roses.
Inspection of flower plantings is of paramount importance in preventing the appearance of green midges and mites. Particular attention is paid to checking indoor plants for the presence of pests in the fall, when infection occurs more often. The rose garden on the site is inspected regularly during the growing season: from the time the leaves form until the end of flowering. Recommendations for the prevention and control of parasites that attack flowers.
Proper feeding of rose bushes helps reduce the vulnerability of the crop to insects
Conclusion
Green midges on roses can cause serious damage to a flower garden. Methods for the prevention and elimination of harmful insects will help cope with the problem.To obtain the best results, agricultural technicians recommend combining several methods and treating rose bushes at certain intervals.
