How to deal with midges on carrots

Perhaps there is no garden in which there would be no place for a useful and quite unpretentious root crop - carrots. However, it is not always possible to enjoy a whole and healthy crop, and the most diverse pests are to blame for everything. A carrot-scruff can also appear in the most caring, experienced farmer. What are midges, how to deal with them and what to do to reduce the chances of their occurrence - the answers to all questions are detailed in the article.

Carrot Pug - Carrot Fly

The most common carrot pest often mistaken for midges is carrot fly.

On a note! In everyday life, usually called all tiny insects. This category includes miniature flies, and aphids, and leaflet, whiteflies.

Pest Features

The appearance of midges depends on the development phase:

• The length of the imago does not exceed 5 mm, so the name “carrot fly” exactly matches the pest. The abdomen is dark, almost black in color with a glossy tint of oval shape. Head, legs yellow. A triangular shield of saturated red, brick color. Transparent wings shimmer in the sun with all the colors of the rainbow. When folded, they take a horizontal position.
• White carrot eggs 0.5-0.6 mm long, elongated.
• Larvae of light yellow shades are legless, headless caterpillars. The oral apparatus is represented by powerful black hooks. The posterior end of the shiny body is rounded in shape. Pupae brown 4-5 mm long.

On a note! Carrot flies are common throughout Europe. Severe frosts have virtually no control over the size of the population. Even freezing the soil to a depth of 90 cm does not have a detrimental effect on the preservation of the vital activity of wintering puparia.

Features of the development and reproduction of carrot flies

Carrot flies winter in the pupal stage in soil layers or in root crops left on the field, in infected fruits in vegetable stores. Departure of adult flies begins in May. Most often, simultaneously with the flowering of apple trees, mountain ash. Optimal conditions for fly out: moderate soil moisture, temperature 16 ° С.

On a note! Carrot flies are shade-loving insects. Therefore, most often they are settled on beds in shaded places, near ponds, in the shade of hedges, shrubs, trees. In open sunny areas, there is practically no chance of meeting a pest.

If the spring is warm, in May the females begin to lay their eggs. In cold regions, the process is postponed until June and most often oviposition coincides with the formation of the second or third leaf for carrots. An adult lays up to 120 eggs, and then dies. The lifespan of an adult fly does not exceed 12 days. But the years of adult insects are protracted and lasts about 1.5 months.

Female eggs are laid in small groups on the soil near the base of carrots, celery, parsnip, parsley.Depending on the ambient temperature and rainfall, egg development lasts from 4 days to 2 weeks. Hatching larvae of the first generation are introduced into the thin tip of a young root crop. Later individuals affect all parts of the root.

Important! The first sign of parasitism of carrot flies is a change in the color of the tops, which takes on a red, purple color. Subsequently, the leaves turn yellow and dry.

The larval stage lasts about a month, after which pupation occurs inside the root crop or in the soil. After 30 days, in mid-August, the second generation of carrot flies appears. Their larvae continue feeding inside root crops or other umbrella crops.

The damage caused by the larvae is substantial. Damaged fruits are deformed, their structure becomes like a wooden one, they lose their taste and cannot be eaten.

How to deal with carrot flies

To prevent midges on carrots:

• First of all, you should alternate the place of planting crops and in no case plant an orange root crop annually in the same place.
• It is equally important to observe the timing of sowing, visually assess the quality of planting material, give preference to sustainable varieties. Choose ventilated, sunny places to land.
• Timely thinning will significantly reduce the number of adult flies. At the end of the procedure, the aisle can be sprinkled with wood ash, peat, a mixture of ash and tobacco dust in equal proportions, slaked lime or a substrate of naphthalene and sand 1:10. Dusting is repeated during the flowering period of apple trees. Such simple measures will not allow the flies to lay eggs. Agrofibre performs a similar function.
  

  On a note! Before thinning, it is recommended that you first moisten the soil. So the smell of carrots in the air will be felt less and will not attract pests. All removed plants must be removed immediately and not left near the beds.

• Experienced gardeners advise planting onions or garlic next to carrots to deter carrot flies. You can also process plants with infusion of needles, wormwood, black pepper, garlic, chamomile. They neutralize the smell of carrots and beds with umbrella plantings will lose their appeal to pests.
• To reduce the number of adult flies, cool traps, containers with fermented liquids or pieces of plywood coated with a sticky substance are used.

When it is not possible to cope with carrot midges with folk remedies and through agrotechnical measures, the plants are treated with biological preparations “Aktofit”, “Fitoverm” or insecticides “Muhoed”, “Aktara”, “Obverse”, “Decis”.

Carrot Pug - Aphids

If white midges on carrots were noticed, most likely the plants will attack the aphids. Depending on the phase of development, insects can be with or without wings. Due to the pale color of the body of the light yellow or greenish shades, the tiny size of the aphids is often mistaken for midges.

Sizes of carrot aphids do not exceed 1.5 mm. Mostly localized on the basal neck and at the base of the petioles. Affected plants lag behind in growth, due to insect secretions they have a dirty appearance, the tops of leaves are curled, the deformation of the stems is noticeable.

To combat midges on carrots, both chemical and folk remedies are used. The latter is preferable in view of their safety. The most effective folk methods:

• Spraying with garlic infusion. To do this, grind 100 g of garlic and pour 5 liters of water. After the liquid is infused for a day, it is ready for use.
• If possible, chop 1 kg of potato tops, mix with five liters of water and leave for 4 hours. Spray infected plants with a ready-made solution.
• Dusting with a mixture of pyrethrum, wood ash, road dust 1: 2: 2. For convenience, you can use a gauze bag or a kitchen sieve with small mesh.
• Also use an infusion of bitter pepper, wormwood, tobacco for spraying the tops of carrots.