It is almost impossible to find a summer cottage where cucumbers are not grown, but various insects can spoil the harvest. The whitefly on cucumbers is an insect that causes significant damage to cucumber beds. The success of controlling the pest directly depends on how early the gardener noticed it in his area and how much damage the whitefly has already caused to cucumbers.
Signs of an insect on cucumbers
The insect got its name due to the color of its wings - they are milky white in adult whiteflies.The insect is small in size, its body reaches up to 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. Whiteflies reproduce quickly, so timely destruction of the insect is necessary. It prefers a warm and humid climate, so it 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 became sticky to the touch.
- The appearance of a black coating over time.
- Deformation and fall of leaves.
- Reduced yield.
The fight against whitefly is also necessary because it is a carrier of many diseases:
- Chlorosis.
- Jaundice.
- Necrosis of fruits.
- Curly foliage.
- Yellow mosaic.
Greenhouses and greenhouses are a favorite place for insects. Most often, it prefers to overwinter and lay eggs in such conditions.
How to get rid of whiteflies in a greenhouse?
You need to get rid of whiteflies in the greenhouse immediately after they appear in the beds. It will be much more difficult to hatch this insect if it has already laid many larvae.
Methods for controlling the parasite in garden beds:
- Biological.
- Mechanical.
- Chemical.
The mechanical method of fighting is the most labor-intensive.
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, whiteflies are least active.
- Collecting damaged leaves by hand. This will remove some of the larvae, the rest will be destroyed by natural enemies. In this way, you can control the number of parasites in the area.
- Treat each damaged leaf with a solution of laundry soap.Then use a hose to rinse the leaves.
Such methods of control are rarely used because they are low in effectiveness.
An insect such as a whitefly in a greenhouse can most effectively be removed using chemical control methods using various chemicals.
The main disadvantage of this method is that the production of insecticides uses substances that can negatively affect human health. Therefore, you need to be careful with the chemical method of control.
Popular preparations for treating cucumbers in a greenhouse:
- Actellik.
- 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, windless weather early in the morning or in the evening, when there is no scorching sun rays. Before spraying, you should check the weather forecast to ensure there are 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. When they fill the entire area, it will be useless to fight them.
Biological control methods are considered the safest for human health.
How to process cucumbers using traditional methods?
If you don’t want to use chemicals to treat cucumbers, but somehow need to fight the whitefly, then it’s time to learn about folk recipes against the insect.
It is worth noting that these recipes are only effective when the insect population is still small.
Traditional methods of controlling whiteflies in greenhouses and hotbeds:
- Dandelion infusion.Dandelions can often be found in summer cottages, and instead of throwing the plant away, an infusion for whiteflies is prepared from it. Tear a bag 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.
- Garlic based infusion. Finely chop 300 g of garlic clove and add 1 liter of water. Place in a dark room to leave for 5 days. Spray the beds with cucumbers using a spray bottle.
- Sugar solution. Dissolve 100 g of sugar in 2 glasses of water. Treat leaves in the greenhouse that show signs of infection with the resulting solution. If the solution does not help, repeat the procedure after 7 days. After 5 days, water the cucumbers with a hose so that the sugar film is washed off.
- Infusion of yarrow. Pour 100 g of yarrow herb into 1 liter of water and place it in a dark place where the sun's rays will not penetrate for 2 days. Strain the infusion and treat the cucumber beds with it.
Like chemicals, these infusions should be sprayed on the beds in calm weather in the evening or early in the morning.
Traps for whiteflies in the greenhouse
If all else fails, you can place a trap in the area. They do it themselves.
How to make a trap in your area for whiteflies:
- The plastic bottle needs to be painted orange or red.
- Then it is covered with etymological glue.
- After this, lighting is installed next to the bottle so that insects fly towards it.
- In a few hours, such a trap will collect more than half of all the whiteflies that are on cucumbers.
A few days later, a second trap is installed in the greenhouse as a preventative measure.
They do it like this:
- Make a small wooden box 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.
- Place a plate of water at the bottom of the box.
Insects fly into the light and get burned on the light bulb. And then they fall into the water, from where they can no longer get out and die.
Any summer resident can make such traps.
Preventing the appearance of insects in the garden
As a preventive measure, the greenhouse should be kept open in winter. You can open the windows 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 to be inspected regularly. The sooner a whitefly is detected, the easier it is to deal with it.
After harvesting, you need to remove all weeds and dig up the soil. It would be a good idea to water it with a solution of potassium permanganate. If there were insects in the cucumber bed in the summer, then such bushes should be collected and burned away from the summer cottage.
Whiteflies 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, treat nearby plants.
