How to get rid of spider mites in a greenhouse

Often, gardeners growing plants in greenhouses are faced with various insects that can destroy crops in the bud. Among these pests is the spider mite. Fighting spider mites is not an easy task. This microscopic insect has great vitality, able to survive in any conditions.

What gardeners don’t come up with to get rid of a tick, than they don’t water it and spray it. Most often, the pest settles in greenhouses where cucumbers are grown. We will try to tell you about the methods of destroying the spider mite, many of which have been used by experienced gardeners for a long time.

Description of the pest

The fight against the tick will be successful if you know that this particular pest has settled on your cucumbers:

1. The insect belongs to arachnids, has 4 pairs of legs.
2. Whiskers and wings are absent.
3. The tick can be red, yellow-green or orange.

   

4. It is difficult to see the pest because of its negligible size: an adult tick has a length of no more than 1 mm. Although it is rare for gardeners, there were still specimens twice as many.
5. Habitat – the lower part of the leaf on which the web is woven. Experienced gardeners notice a pest in a greenhouse by light small dots on the upper surface of cucumber leaves.

The tick multiplies instantly. Judge for yourself: one female is able to lay 400 eggs a day, and she lives for at least 30-50 days. From the eggs, mites appear, which, after a while, lay their own eggs, hiding them in the web.

The cycle of development continues uninterrupted. Even in autumn, females manage to lay eggs. Pests that appeared in the greenhouse in the last warm days overwinter perfectly, and everything starts anew.

Fighting the tick

Settlements of a pest that reproduces at lightning speed harm 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 dealing with a tick in a greenhouse is safe for both plants and humans. What can be used to destroy the pest:

1. Acaricidal preparations. For their manufacture, mushrooms are used that live in the soil and are capable of destroying the pest. Due to the selective action of the drug, other insects do not die.
2. Natural enemies. In nature, there are predatory mites, the basis of nutrition of which are vegetarian insects. They do not touch plants.
3. repellent plants. There are a number of plants whose smell repels spider mites. First of all, tomatoes, garlic, onions.

Folk ways

The fight against a malicious pest in the greenhouse has been carried out by gardeners for a long time. Folk methods sometimes work more effectively than chemicals if they are applied in a timely manner, without waiting for the mass reproduction of pests.

How to get rid of spider mites with decoctions and infusions of herbs, medicines? Consider some of the most common recipes:

1. It will take 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 adults die, and the eggs remain. Therefore, the procedure is repeated several times every 3-5 days until complete destruction. Strained solution should be treated with the lower part of the sheet.
2. Take 400 grams of chopped tomato tops, which are poured with 10 liters of clean water. For best results, boil for 30 minutes. For every two liters of the resulting broth, add 30 grams of laundry soap. Spraying leads to the destruction of not only aphids, but also other insect pests.
3. Onion peel will save not only the wireworm, but also the tick. Put the husk in a bucket halfway and pour 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, liquid soap can be added.
4. A solution prepared on the basis of cow parsnip works well. Leaves, roots and stems are harvested before or after flowering and dried. For 10 liters of water, 1 kg of dry raw materials is needed.

Gardeners tips:

Agricultural technology in the fight against ticks

Compliance with agrotechnical rules allows you to grow greenhouse plants without diseases and pests.

What should be done:

1. The spider mite does 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.
2. The soil in the greenhouse must be dug up in spring and autumn.
3. Cleanliness is the key not only to human health, but also to the safe growth of plants. Do not leave plant residues in the greenhouse, in which pests and disease spores can remain.
4. Weeds are removed at the first appearance.

Plant Protection Chemistry

As a rule, gardeners use chemical control agents in extreme cases, when they have already used folk or biological methods, but still the spider mite continues to feast in the greenhouse.

Modern chemical production produces many drugs that can be used to treat the greenhouse and the plants themselves. Among the recommended:

• Fitoverm;
• Actophyte;
• Kleshchevit;
• Agravertin;
• Akarin;
• Vertimek.

If it was not possible to get rid of the spider mite with the above drugs, you can use stronger remedies, such as Actellik and Bi-58.

Agrotechnics for the use of chemicals has its own characteristics, which must be followed so as not to harm plants and humans:

1. Before processing, the soil must be watered abundantly.
2. Green potassium soap is added to a solution of any chemical for better adhesion.
3. When spraying, it is undesirable to get on the roots. But the soil around the plant and the greenhouse can be safely processed.

A spider mite in a greenhouse will not die after a single treatment, since chemicals do not work on eggs. Repeated spraying is carried out in 10 days, but with a different drug. And so at least 3-4 times. You can permanently get rid of a tick if you use the fight against it in a complex way, using all control measures.

Pest in the greenhouse:

Tillage and greenhouses

Spraying greenhouse plants will not give the desired result if the ground and walls of the greenhouse are infected with pests and disease spores. The fight against spider mites in the greenhouse should begin with soil treatment. As a rule, this parasite hibernates in the ground, and in the spring it will begin to breed again.

You can destroy the insect in the soil and on the surface of the greenhouse with the help of pesticides or special sticks that are dug in the ground. When water hits them, the sticks dissolve, killing pests around them. Penetrating through the root system into the plant, they make the juice inedible for the spider mite.

Today, manufacturers offer gardeners sticks, which, in addition to the toxic substance, include complex fertilizers:

• Plant Pin;
• Etisso;
• Sabstral;
• Polish sticks “Green House”.

If over the summer it was not possible to cope with the problem, then in the fall you will have to completely replace the soil, and treat the greenhouse itself with the following compositions:

• 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%.

To summarize

Any diseases and pests cause a lot of trouble to gardeners. If you do not take timely control measures, then the spider mite will leave you without a crop. All your material costs, physical efforts will be in vain. Therefore, plants in the greenhouse must be constantly inspected to prevent the spider mite from multiplying.