It would seem that the flowers growing in the room, not in contact with the street, should not be affected by pests, but they get to them. The real misfortune is a spider mite colony on indoor plants. How to fight? Let's get it together.
Material Content:
Spider mite - symptoms of appearance
This microscopic pest is not visible to the naked eye. But traces of his life can be seen, guided by the damage to plants. An agile lover of vegetable juice leaves punctures on the leaves, when viewed in the light, they are clearly visible. Over time, they merge, forming spots, damaged leaves dry. The plant stops growth, the leaves turn pale. The cobweb, which is released by the pest, indicates a strong population of the plant with ticks. This stage of the lesion requires immediate action, otherwise the flowers may simply die. In order not to miss the danger, they need to be inspected regularly. Traces of molting, which have the appearance of whitish dandruff, as well as silver stripes and spots - the allocation of the pest, also speak of tick populations. For his searches, it is better to use a magnifying glass, choosing a sunny daylight. With electric lighting, the chances of finding it are slim.
Types of parasites than they are dangerous
Biologists attribute the tick to the class of arachnids to the type of arthropods. Such a classification is possible due to the special structure of his body. That is why all insecticides against ticks used from other insects are powerless. They need other means. In nature, there are more than 2,000 different species of ticks. They can be found anywhere in the world.
For indoor plants, the following species are most dangerous:
- common spider mite - absolutely omnivorous, affects up to 200 plant species;
- red spider mite - specializes in indoor plants and is most dangerous for them;
- spider mite red-footed tick;
- spider mite cotton Turkestan.
The community of these microscopic arthropods has not been fully studied, so other species may also be discovered.
The main food of any representative from the above list is plant juice. Deprived of his indoor flowers quickly weaken and die. What is the danger of spider mites?
Hard to detect
The size of an adult, regardless of species, is not more than 1 mm, and the color is greenish brown in different shades, which makes it easy to merge with foliage. Only wintering females are brightly colored. The tick lives on the underside of the leaves, so its colony does not strike the eye.
They multiply rapidly
The tick reproduction cycle, called metamorphosis, can last from a month to a week and depends on the surrounding temperature. At a temperature of about 30 degrees Celsius, the larvae emerge from the eggs after 3 days, and after a few days they are ready for breeding. Therefore, a colony of ticks grows very quickly, capturing new territories.
Ease of infection
The pest can be brought into the house with purchased plants or other planting material, with soil, on the soles of shoes and on clothes. Finally, a tick can enter the room through an open window, covered by the wind, and the number of storeys does not matter here.
The presence of diapause in females
If the conditions for development and nutrition become unfavorable, female ticks fall into a peculiar stage of dormancy, in which they can stay up to 5 years. But more often they just get wintering - daylight shorter than 17 hours does not give them the opportunity to lead an active lifestyle. Ticks hibernate on leaves or in pot soil. They are able to dig into a depth of 20 cm. Any gap is suitable for them - in the windowsill, wall, ceiling, or in the floor. Females do the same with prolonged heat.
Such features of the life cycle make the struggle with a pest difficult and lengthy.
What house plants are susceptible to infection
Most species of ticks are omnivores, some have their own particular preferences, but most of them do not live on the plants of the Gesneriaceae family due to the small hairs covering their leaves. They have their own pest, also from the tick family - flat-bodied, but it does not belong to cobwebs.
This pest also does not favor aloe, but with pleasure it will eat juices of other colors:
- citrus fruits;
- arrowroot;
- aroid
- koutrovye.
Often a tick can be found on ficus, fuchsia, croton, balsam. Special gourmets prefer one species: the phalaenopsis tick attacks orchids, and the cactus plano - cacti. But the favorite target of this insect is roses. Even with the constant struggle against small arthropods, the spider mite on the rose is found again and again. Some gardeners simply stop growing it because of this.
But you can deal with this pest.
Spider Mite Chemicals
There are a lot of remedies for spider mites, and all of them belong to the class of acaricides or insectoacaricides.
Insecticides of this pest cannot be destroyed, they will not bring him harm.
Table: insectoacaricides and acaricides for the destruction of spider mites.
| A drug | Class | Application features |
|---|---|---|
| Actellic | Acaroinsecticide | It is valid at all stages of development. Hazard Class 2. Danger to pets. Outdoors Recommended |
| Apollo | Hormonal acaricide | Sterilizes adults, destroying everyone else. Hazard class - 4 |
| Demitan | Acaricide, the active substance is phenazachine | Low toxic, dangerous for fish. Resistance is possible, therefore only a single treatment |
| Karate | Insect acaricide | It acts at all stages of development. Hazard class - 3.Danger to bees, fish and pets |
| Bitoxibacillin | Biological Insectoacaricide | Safe intestinal product for adult pests |
| Neoron | Contact acaricide | Hazard class - 4 |
| Nissoran | Hormonal acaricide | Sterilizes adults, destroys everyone else |
| Omight | Contact Acaricide | It affects adults and nymphs. Hazard class - 2 |
| Sunmight | Contact acaricide | Affects all individuals. Resistance to the drug may develop, therefore, a single treatment per season. Hazard class - 3 |
| Skelt | Insect acaricide | Affects individuals of all ages. |
| Talstar | Pyrethroid insectoacaricide | It acts at all stages of development. For people low toxicity. Danger to fish and bees. |
| Flumight | Hormonal acaricide | It acts at all stages of development, sterilizing adults. Single processing. Low toxicity |
| Fufanon | Insect acaricide | Affects all individuals. Hazard class 3 |
| Envidor | Insectoacaricide, violates lipid metabolism | It acts at all stages of development. Hazard class - 3. |
First of all, Bitoxibacillin, Apollo, Akarin, Flumayt should be used, since they are less dangerous for humans.
How to get rid of a spider mite if you do not want to use chemical agents? There are many popular methods.
Folk remedies for the fight
First of all, these are various decoctions and infusions.
- 100 dried alder leaves or 100 g fresh for half an hour are boiled in 1 liter of water. The broth, infused for 12 hours, is filtered and used for spraying.
- Fill 50 g of leaves or 30 g of dandelion roots with hot (40 degrees) water and leave for about 3 hours, strain.
- 100 g of crushed horseradish roots are poured with a liter of water. Let it brew for an hour and filter.
- 20 g of garlic cloves are passed through a garlic press and mixed with 1 liter of water. Filter, not insisting, and immediately process.
- Finely chop a large onion, pour 0.5 liters of warm, non-rigid water, let it brew for 5 to 7 hours under the lid. Use a filtered solution.
- Gently wipe the leaves with medical alcohol with a 965 concentration. Particular attention should be paid to the treatment of leaf sinuses, where a tick can hide.
- If you turn on a household UV lamp with medium-length rays for only 2-3 minutes, then the tick will be destroyed. You can do this 3-4 times a week.
- Perhaps the use of a mixture of acetone and 96% alcohol in a ratio of 1: 2. In this solution, it is better to just completely dip the plants. Combine the processing with transplantation, thoroughly cleaning the roots of the old substrate.
How to handle plants and flowers
An unsystematic fight against a spider mite will not give the desired effect, on the contrary, it will form a stable immunity to poisons in him. Therefore, in the fight against such a dangerous pest, you need to observe consistency, methodicality and not forget about some little things that can reduce all efforts to zero.
What do we have to do?
- It is necessary to process not only the affected plant, but also all the other flowers standing on this windowsill, and possibly in the whole room.
- Tear off all damaged leaves and destroy.
- Arrange shower plants, you can even wash the leaves with a soapy solution and rinse. For those plants for which water procedures are contraindicated, a steam bath is arranged. To do this, they are placed in the bath and for a quarter of an hour they turn on very hot water without closing the drain. But the doors, on the contrary, are covered.
- Disinfect all pallets thoroughly, you can hold them in boiling water.
- The leaves are treated with the selected preparation, wetting the entire surface. They spill the soil in a pot.
- Put a plastic bag on the flower and tie it, creating an enclosed space. The package is not removed until 2 days. The plant should not stand in the sun, otherwise it will simply boil.
- While the spider mite feeds on poisons, carefully process the outer surface of the pot, window sills, frames, glass with alcohol or soapy water, without missing a single slit. It will not be superfluous to wash the curtains.
- In order to completely destroy the ticks, the treatment must be repeated 2 more times with an interval of 6 days, but no more. You may need to change the folk remedy or acaricide, so that ticks do not become addictive.
In order not to start the tiresome fight again, preventive measures must be taken.
Prevention of occurrence
The tick loves dry air and high air temperature. In order not to give him pleasure, flowers should be often sprayed and the apartment aired so that it is not too hot.
A good preventive measure can be a hot shower every 3 weeks. Many plants calmly tolerate temperatures up to 45 degrees.
Everything connected with plants and brought into the house from the outside must undergo strict control and, if necessary, processing. A new flower is washed in the shower and placed on an empty window sill, where it must undergo a two-week quarantine. Soil for plants needs to be steamed, like all other components used for making planting mixtures, including drainage.
The spider mite is a very dangerous and treacherous enemy. He can quickly destroy the entire collection of indoor flowers. Therefore, you need to fight him mercilessly, only then can he be defeated.
