Most gardeners prefer not to buy peppers in stores, but to grow them themselves. Before you start growing, you need to become familiar with what pepper pests in greenhouses and open ground can harm the bushes and how to get rid of them at home.
Main signs of pests
Pests of bell peppers in a greenhouse quite often appear due to improper care of the plant or lack of preventative measures to protect them.The following signs indicate that pepper seedling pests have appeared:
- pepper leaves gradually begin to change color and fade;
- infected greenhouse peppers grow more slowly;
- during wilting, not only the leaves of the bushes may suffer, but also their ovaries with peduncles;
- poor yield;
- 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.
Types of pests
Pepper seedlings can be attacked by various insects, and therefore, before protecting bell peppers from pests, you need to become familiar with the most common parasites.
Whitefly
Most often, pepper leaves suffer from a pest such as whitefly. Outwardly, they look like small butterflies, the size of which does not exceed 3-5 millimeters. The whitefly has a distinctive feature - a faint white coating on the wings.
Larvae and adults use bell peppers to obtain the nutritional components they need. However, the whitefly not only absorbs the juice of peppers, but also transmits various viruses.
It is quite easy to make sure that whitefly is present on the bushes. To do this, just 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 the mucus, the leaves will begin to turn black and dry out.
How to treat pepper seedlings against whitefly pests
Most often, whitefly appears on seedlings that are grown in conditions of high humidity.Therefore, to protect peppers from these insects, it is recommended to periodically ventilate the greenhouse and not plant the seedlings too densely.
However, if these insects have already appeared in the greenhouse, then you should protect the bushes and begin treating them. Whiteflies are controlled using the following methods:
- Tapes with special coating. The surface of such tapes is covered with a sticky substance that fights pests and destroys them. Such tapes can be purchased or made independently. To make it yourself, take a small piece of plywood and treat it with Vaseline. One such piece of plywood should be placed near each bush.
- Garlic solution. Sometimes pepper pest control is carried out using folk remedies made from garlic. To prepare the solution, finely chop two heads of garlic and add water to them. Next, the mixture is infused for about a week, after which the bushes are processed.
- Chemicals. If all of the above methods do not help, then you should spray the bushes with special chemicals. Grizzly, Aktara, Zeta, Fitoverm and Iskra are used to process peppers.
Spider mite
Spider glue looks like a harmless and small insect. However, in fact, it is very dangerous, since this pest is capable of completely destroying all the bushes on the site. Under favorable conditions, ticks can live 2-3 months. After death, they leave their eggs in the ground, which can be stored there for more than five years.
It is not very difficult to distinguish spider mites from other pests. The leaves gradually begin to become covered with cobwebs. In addition, small holes appear on the leaves of peppers in the greenhouse. 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. Making a product from laundry soap is not so difficult. To do this, grate 2-3 soap bars and add them to a 20-liter container filled with water. Mix the solution thoroughly and use it to get rid of ticks.
- Onion peel. When fighting insects, you can use onion infusion, which protects plants from mites. To prepare it, dilute 200 grams of onion peel in 10 liters of boiled water.
- Garlic tincture. Some gardeners use garlic solutions to get rid of ticks. To create a medicinal mixture that fights insects, add 150 grams of grated garlic to five liters of water. It is recommended to use the prepared solution immediately.
- Chemicals. Since it is quite difficult to fight spider mites, the above control methods do not always help and more effective means have to be used. You can clear bushes of 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 medicinal products:
- Lures. They can be purchased in specialized stores or made independently.Some vegetable growers make a hole in the ground, not far from the peppers, and place a small keg of beer in it to attract the attention of slugs.
- Plants. To prevent slugs from appearing on peppers, garlic, onions or basil should be planted nearby. All these plants will help repel pests from peppers.
- Soda solution. To stop slugs from gnawing leaves, you can use a liquid made from soda. When diluting soda in water, add no more than 100 grams of soda to 10 liters of liquid.
Ants
A fairly common problem in a greenhouse is ants. These insects emerge from the anthill and eat young pepper bushes. The appearance of ants can lead to various pepper diseases and therefore you need to get rid of them quickly.
Fighting methods
There are several fairly effective ways to combat ants in protected ground:
- Disinfection of an anthill. To make the ants disappear, it is recommended to treat their anthill with vegetable oil, hot water or kerosene solution. Processing should be done in the evening, when all the ants will be in the anthill. Before carrying out the procedure, it is recommended to excavate the den a little so that the liquid is better absorbed.
- Application of powders. Ants can be destroyed using a special powder consisting of lime, ash and soda. You can also use millet or semolina, as insects do not like them.
- Arson of the lair. The most radical way to fight ants is to set their anthill on fire. To do this, a trench is dug around the anthill, into which a small amount of carbon sulphide is added. After this, everything is set on fire and does not extinguish 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. In greenhouse conditions, it is quite difficult to destroy thrips, and therefore many vegetable growers are simply trying to control their numbers so that their presence does not in any way affect the yield.
Once thrips hit the plant, they immediately begin to suck the juice out of it. This leads to yellowing of the leaves and further drying out. If you do not get rid of pests in time, the bushes may die.
Ways to fight
Thrips can be destroyed only with the help of special drugs:
- Vertimek. To prepare a working solution, 3 ml of Vertimek is mixed with 10 liters of water. The bushes are sprayed with the prepared mixture once a week. After treatment, each bush should be covered with a plastic bag, which will need to be removed only the next day.
- Fitoverm. The product is sold in the form of a solution, which should be diluted with water before use. To do this, add no more than 5 ml of the drug to half a liter of water. Spraying is carried out in the evening, when there is no strong wind.
- Intavir. Before using Intavir, you should prepare a working solution. To prepare it, add one tablet of the drug to a 10-liter container.
Conclusion
Almost all vegetable growers who grow this crop encounter pests on peppers. However, 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 choose the appropriate pest control methods for peppers and get rid of them.
