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Pepper pests in a greenhouse can cause severe damage to plantings and make them vulnerable to fungi and viruses. To get rid of insects, it is necessary, first of all, to recognize their presence in time.
Causes of pests on pepper
Insects can attack peppers under any growing conditions. But some factors increase the likelihood of pests on a vegetable crop. In particular, peppers often suffer from parasites:
- in an unfavorable climate – excessive heat in the greenhouse and lack of ventilation contribute to the appearance and active reproduction of pests;
- in case of non-compliance with agricultural technology – insects intensively breed on waterlogged soil in the absence of loosening and an abundance of weeds;
- in dense conditions – pepper bushes growing too close to each other do not receive enough light and oxygen, pests often breed on their leaves;
- on contaminated soil – insect larvae may be in uncultivated soil, in which case the vegetable crop falls into unfavorable conditions already at the time of planting.
The presence of pests can be suspected by damage to the leaves and wilting of the stem. Bushes affected by insects often suffer from bacterial diseases, late blight and rot.
Bell pepper pests
Bulgarian pepper in the greenhouse suffers from many pests. Some of them affect the leaves and are relatively easy to eliminate. Others attack the roots of the plant, and in this case it is possible to recognize their presence only when the bushes begin to die.
aphid
Green or brown aphids attack bell peppers in contaminated soil, when there are ants in the area, or when using dirty garden tools. You can find out about the presence of the pest by the deformation of the leaves and the formation of a sticky shiny film on the plates. Upon closer inspection, a large number of small insects can be seen on the pepper – they can literally stick around the plant.
Aphids feed on leaf sap and can quickly destroy crop plantings. At the same time, getting rid of the insect is quite easy – in the early stages, spraying with homemade soapy water is enough.
An additional danger of aphids is that the insect carries viral diseases.
whitefly
A small whitefly butterfly lays its eggs on pepper leaves. The hatching larvae suck the juice from the plant and secrete a sticky secret, further contributing to the development of fungal diseases. You can suspect the presence of a whitefly in the first place by drying and twisting the leaves.
Pest control is usually carried out with a garlic or soapy solution. If there are a lot of insects, you can use Confidor and Fufanon.
Whitefly larvae usually breed on the underside of pepper leaves.
Wireworm
A dangerous pest of pepper roots is the wireworm. Brown-orange caterpillars up to 4 mm in length damage the underground parts of the plant, disrupt nutrition processes and cause bushes to wilt. One generation of insects can parasitize pepper for up to four years.
It is necessary to fight the wireworm with autumn digging and tillage with ash or lime. Of the chemicals, Bazudin and Provotox help well, but it is undesirable to use insecticides during the ripening period.
As part of the fight against wireworm, you can plant mustard near pepper – the pest does not like its smell
Colorado beetle
The pest with an oval body and striped wings hibernates at the roots of pepper, and in the spring it comes to the surface of the earth and feeds on the leaves of the crop. It causes serious damage to plantings and can destroy them almost completely, it is dangerous both at the larval stage and in adulthood.
Since the Colorado potato beetle is easy to spot on pepper leaves, it can be dealt with mechanically. If there are few insects, they are simply collected by hand and destroyed. In case of serious damage to plantings, it is better to use Aktara, Kaiser and similar insecticidal preparations.
The Colorado potato beetle hibernates in the soil at a depth of up to 50 cm, which makes it difficult to get rid of it when digging the soil.
Ants
Ants do not directly harm bell peppers, but they almost always cause aphids to appear on the site, so they also need to be dealt with. It is recommended to lay out sweet baits with poisonous borax in those places where insects run most often. Anthills on the site must be destroyed, if necessary, you can use the strong drugs Thunder-2 and Muracid.
Garlic, parsley or wormwood planted nearby help to scare away ants from peppers.
Caterpillars
All kinds of caterpillars cause serious damage to bell pepper in the greenhouse and soil, among which the following appear especially often:
- gamma scoop;
- I don’t like it;
- cotton;
- carradrin;
- garden;
- exclamatory.
Between themselves, the caterpillars differ in color – they can be green, brown, yellowish-brown, one-color or striped. But pests cause the same damage – they eat pepper leaves, interfere with flowering and worsen crop yields.
Caterpillars appear on pepper mainly in April-May and July-September.
The presence of caterpillars is indicated primarily by holes in the plates, their twisting and yellowing. The fight against insects of any kind is carried out with insecticides Decis, Intavir and Aktara, with a weak defeat, Fitoverm and Agravertin help.
Naked Slugs
At high humidity, pepper plantings can be harmed by slugs – mollusks without a shell. Most often, gastropods attack young soft and juicy shoots.
Pepper leaf pests move mainly at night, but during the day their presence can be noticed by large holes on the plates and characteristic sticky marks. Bushes under the influence of parasites turn pale and quickly fade. You can fight gastropods with Slug-eater and Ferramol, mustard helps well in the form of an infusion or dry powder.
To eliminate slugs, pepper beds are recommended to be regularly sprinkled with wood ash.
Shield
A pest with a round body and a hard brown shell reaches no more than 2 mm in diameter, and it is quite difficult to see it on pepper. The presence of an insect is reported by damage to the leaves – the plates lose moisture and dry out, dark plaques and a sticky coating appear on their surface.
Since the scale insect is very small and tightly attached to the pepper, manual collection of the pest is usually not carried out. To eliminate the insect, Aktara and Actellik, garlic or onion infusions are used.
Prevention of scale insects are regular spraying of pepper on the leaf
spider mite
In dry and hot weather, pepper bushes can be attacked by a spider mite, a small pest with a greenish or brown-brown body. It is difficult to see the insect, but yellowish dots on the leaves of the culture and spider webs between the stems help to recognize it. The mites themselves settle on the underside of the pepper plates and feed on its juice. As a result, the bushes turn yellow, wither and die.
With a slight damage to the spider mite, you can spray the pepper with tobacco infusion
Chemical agents Karbofos and Intavir help well against the pest. If the bushes have suffered too much, they must be removed from the site.
Scoop
Grey-brown scoop butterflies lay their eggs on pepper leaves, and numerous greenish caterpillars emerge from them in early summer. The pest feeds on plates and ovaries, damaging ripening fruits. During the summer, the armyworm can produce colonies of larvae twice, and as a result of planting peppers will be seriously affected.
Scoop often spreads to pepper from nettles
If there are few caterpillars on the leaves, they can be collected by hand and washed off with sprinkling. With a massive attack of pests, it is recommended to use chemicals – Decis, Zolon, Volaton and Arrivo.
TRIPS
A small pest on pepper leaves feeds on plant sap and is also a carrier of many dangerous infections. Thrips can be recognized by their characteristic behavior – they fly very quickly from bush to bush, from the side of their movements they seem to bounce.
Against thrips, decoctions of garlic and onion peels help well.
To eliminate the pest, it is recommended to place sticky traps next to the pepper. If there are a lot of insects, it is worth using Karbofos, Aktellik and Vermitek.
Medvedka
A dangerous garden pest moves underground, digs long passages and damages the roots of pepper bushes. As a result, plants dry out and die, even if their green parts remain intact.
Getting rid of the bear is quite difficult, since it practically does not appear on the surface. Usually, a soap solution and preparations of Bankol, Medvetoks and the like are poured into the passages left by the pest. The arrangement of manure traps at a depth of 30 cm in the ground helps well – the bears crawl on the smell, and it becomes easier to destroy them.
For the prevention of Medvedka, the earth in the greenhouse and on the site must be dug up in spring and autumn
The larva of the roach
The beetle larva has a white body twisted into a ring with three pairs of dark legs. It lives at a depth of about 20 cm, feeds on the roots of peppers and especially damages young seedlings.
Beetle larvae can live up to four years
You can find out about the presence of a pest by slowing down the growth of bushes, withering of green mass and white caterpillars in the upper soil layers. Nemabakt and Etonem help get rid of the larvae.
Nematodes
Gall nematodes live underground and injure pepper roots. Recognizing the pest is quite difficult, as the bushes begin to wither without any external damage. But if you dig pepper out of the ground, then brownish or yellowish thickenings can be seen on its underground processes. The roots themselves will be thin and dry.
Peppers affected by the nematode must be destroyed immediately
It is impossible to cure landings affected by the nematode. Attention must be paid to pest prevention – observe crop rotation, disinfect the soil and garden tools.
Other pests
In addition to the main pests, two-tailed insects, insects with a long black body, a red head and a bifurcation on the tail, can damage bell pepper in a greenhouse. Parasites feed on greens and fruits mainly at night, and hide in the ground during the day. Their presence is evidenced by the wilting of plantings and the darkening of vegetables.
To prevent the appearance of a moisture-loving two-tail, greenhouses should be regularly ventilated.
Homemade solutions of wormwood, yarrow and tansy help fight with two-tails. You can also use the insecticides Fufanon and Intavir.
How to deal with pepper pests
Pest control of pepper in the greenhouse is carried out in several ways. With a small and medium lesion of plantings, usually sparing biological agents or home solutions are used. Strong chemicals are recommended only for a significant number of pests.
Biological preparations
Biological preparations are highly safe, do not harm plants and humans. Some of the most popular are:
- Verticillin. The drug is especially effective against the whitefly, it contains spores of the fungus Verticillium lecanii. Conidia invade the tissues of insects and infect their organs, contributing to the rapid elimination of parasite colonies.
It is necessary to use Verticillin on moist soil and after spraying plantings.
- Bicol. The biological preparation helps to get rid of aphids, spider mites and Colorado potato beetle larvae. Contains spores of beneficial bacteria, exotoxin and endotoxin, does not harm the pepper itself, but destroys 85-98% of insects.
Bicol is effective against leaf-feeding caterpillars
- Fitoverm. Insectoacaricide works against aphids, Colorado potato beetle, thrips and scale insects. Approximately 6-16 hours after application, it causes paralysis in insects, and after 2-5 days leads to the death of parasites.
Fitoverm provides protection against re-attack of pests for 1-3 weeks
It is recommended to use biological agents against sucking insects. From worms and caterpillars, they are usually ineffective.
Insekticidы
Insecticides bring the fastest effect in pest control, but can negatively affect the crop. Some of the products are toxic to humans and require compliance with safety rules when using:
- Arrivo. The drug helps to destroy adult insects, eggs and larvae of pests, does not lose effectiveness at high temperatures in the greenhouse. It is necessary to process pepper in accordance with the instructions several times per season with
Arrivo is intended for spraying, but does not help to destroy soil pests
- Nurel D. An insecticide based on cypermethrin and clopirifos causes paralysis in parasites and leads to their death, destroys both larvae and adult insects, as well as eggs.
The effect after using the drug Nurel D lasts for two weeks
It is necessary to carry out the processing of pepper plantings with chemicals in a respirator and goggles. As a rule, the last spraying is carried out no later than a month before harvest.
Folk remedies
With a small number of pests on pepper, folk remedies can have a good effect. For example, the following compositions are popular:
- Iodine solution. Only ten drops of iodine are mixed in 10 liters of water and the plantings are sprayed early in the morning or in the evening after sunset.
Iodine strengthens the immunity of pepper and serves as a good prevention of parasites.
- Boric acid. In a bucket of water, you need to dissolve 2 g of the powder and process the plantings along the leaf and under the root. The tool can be used, including during the fruiting period.
Boric acid not only repels parasites from peppers, but also makes the fruits tastier.
Plantings can also be sprayed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, soap infusions, decoctions of useful herbs and salt. A good effect is dusting with wood ash, which at the same time serves as a top dressing for peppers.
Mechanical methods
One of the easiest ways to deal with Colorado potato beetles and caterpillars is to pick the pests by hand. Grooves can be dug around pepper beds to eliminate slugs.
Soil pest control is a particular challenge. A good effect is the replacement of the top layer of the earth. The soil is simply removed to a depth of 50 cm and poured fresh, previously disinfected.
Prevention of pests
The best way to deal with pepper pests is quality prevention. To prevent the appearance of insects in the garden, you must:
- disinfect seeds and beds before planting a crop;
- ventilate the greenhouse more often in order to prevent an excessive increase in humidity and air stagnation;
- observe crop rotation – it is recommended to place pepper where legumes, onions and greens used to grow, and not plant it after zucchini and potatoes;
- control watering and prevent waterlogging of the soil;
- timely feed plantings with organic and mineral substances.
Several times a week, peppers in the greenhouse should be carefully inspected so as not to miss signs of pests. At the first signals of the presence of insects, it is required to start treating the plantings.
Conclusion
Pepper pests in a greenhouse can damage the crop or completely destroy the bushes even at the growth stage. To get rid of parasites, both home and industrial remedies are used; spraying should be carried out at the first symptoms of infection.
