What are midges on cucumbers and how to get rid of them

Growing cucumbers is a troublesome business. The culture is very demanding on temperature conditions, humidity, often exposed to insect attacks. Cats on cucumbers are the most common pests that can cause significant damage to the plant and thereby reduce productivity. Under the midges understand a variety of small flying insects and methods of dealing with each species are different.

White midges on cucumber culture

White midges in everyday life are called whiteflies (Aleirodidov). The pest eats the sap of plants, lays eggs. If you do not take measures to destroy, it can completely destroy the culture.

Characteristics of the insect

Appearance fully justifies the name. The insect has 2 pairs of wings covered with white or slightly yellowish plaque. A closer look gives the impression that they are powdered with flour. On cucumbers, small white midges are located on the inner sides of the leaves. If you touch the leaf - insects instantly fly away. Both greenhouse plants and those growing in the open ground are affected.

The most optimal conditions for whiteflies are a closed ecosystem with constant high humidity and no temperature differences. Therefore, greenhouses are the most favorable option for the habitat of white midges.

Gluttonous adults feed on plant sap, which often leads to the death of the culture. In addition, they secrete a kind of dew, which provokes the formation of soot fungus. The consequences are manifested in the formation of adhesive sticky coating on the affected areas, blackening and dying.
However, this is not all the damage done by whiteflies. White midges on cucumbers lay transparent eggs, of which a few days later tiny gray or greenish larvae appear. They stick to the back of the leaves, stems and feed on their juices. At this phase of development, the young individual is covered with a wax coating that reliably protects it from external influences, including insecticides. Damaged parts of plants turn yellow, curl and fall away. Larvae of the fourth age cease to feed and pass into the pupation stage.

During its short life cycle, which is 2 weeks, the female whitefly can lay up to 180 eggs. During the season, 9 generations of new offspring are possible, and in the greenhouses 15 generations.

Signs of infection of cucumbers with white midge

The presence of a pest on cucumbers gives the following symptoms:

• the appearance of white dots, spots on the leaves;
• blackening of green mass caused by soot fungus;
• yellow mosaic, curliness, torsion of leaves - symptoms of the viral disease of chlorosis, which the white midge suffers;
• drying of buds, fruit ovaries, leaf fall.

If even one symptom appears, it is necessary to begin the fight against the pest.

How to get rid of white midges in open ground

Whitefly does not accept low temperatures and perishes in the open ground during the winter.However, it appears very quickly, it is enough to be in the neighborhood of a greenhouse, and the pest will, when the opportunity arises, begin to inhabit new territories. Ways to deal with white midges on cucumbers are determined by the degree of infection of the plants:

• If insects just appeared and did not have time to lay eggs, cucumbers are treated with a soap solution. To do this, laundry or tar soap is grated and mixed with water in a ratio of 1: 6. The solution is thoroughly mixed until it acquires a homogeneous structure. Using a sponge, wipe the leaves from the inside. The procedure is repeated after 5-7 days.
• With a small number of pests, manual collection of adult individuals and removal of eggs is carried out. Resourceful gardeners often use a handheld vacuum cleaner for these purposes.
• On large areas and in cases of mass infection of cucumber culture, insecticidal treatment is carried out. The choice of chemicals should be treated with special care, as they can affect crop toxicity. To destroy white midges on cucumbers, it is recommended to use products that include avermectins. These include Akarin, Vertimek, Fitoverm.
• For processing, they also use the preparations Bud, Ovary - natural stimulators of fruit formation that increase the protective properties of plants. Before using insecticides, you should read the instructions and dilute the product, according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Some preparations are applied to the soil under the root, while others are applied to plants by spraying.
• Relatively safe are veterinary drugs to kill parasites, the active substance in which is fipronil. One of the inexpensive means is the Bars series. To spray paths, mulch use sprays, for processing leaves - shampoos diluted with water. Procedures are carried out with an interval of five days until the pest disappears completely.

Avoid the use of insecticidal solutions, which tend to accumulate in the soil. It will be extremely difficult to restore the soil after such procedures, and the crop will be with a high content of pesticides.

Folk methods for the destruction of pests

The purchase of ingredients for the preparation of the solution does not require material costs, since the components can be found in your own garden. Let's see how to deal with midges on cucumbers using folk methods:

1. Treat plants once a week with tincture of dandelion. Finely chop 40 g of leaves and 20 g of rhizomes and pour a liter of water at room temperature. Let it brew for at least 4 hours.
2. Garlic infusion is used to combat many pests, including white midges. Pour 200 g of garlic with a liter of water and infuse the mixture for 5 days in a dark, cool place. The finished tincture is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:20. The resulting solution is sprayed with bushes of cucumbers once every 5-7 days.
3. The tobacco solution is prepared from the cheapest cigarettes, from which tobacco must be extracted. The resulting ingredient from one pack is poured with 1 liter of boiling water. The mixture is infused for 4-5 days in a dark place, after which it is filtered. Spray cucumbers with tobacco tincture every 2-3 days.
4. Pour 100 g of yarrow with a liter of water, stand for 4 days, strain and treat the affected plants 3 times a week.
5. Planting rows of dill between bushes of cucumbers is an effective way to scare off white midges.

On a note! To avoid draining plant tinctures from the leaves, it is recommended to add laundry soap to them.

How to get rid of white midges in a greenhouse

All the above recipes are applicable in greenhouses. But in order to prevent re-infection in greenhouses, preventive measures are carried out:

• If possible, the coating is removed from the greenhouse during the winter period, otherwise the frame must be disinfected with a solution of bleach.
• Deep digging of the soil.
• After removing the entire crop, clean the greenhouse from plant debris.
• Before planting seeds, the land is treated with iron, copper sulfate.
• During vegetation, traps for whiteflies are hung in the greenhouse, and weeds that can be carriers of larvae are regularly removed.

To conduct an effective fight against white midges on cucumbers, different methods are combined. This allows you to avoid the adaptation of the insect to one type of funds and get rid of the pest in a short time.

Black midges

An insect appears as soon as the air warms up to 10 ° C. It features a black or dark green color, tiny dimensions not exceeding 2 mm. Black midges on cucumbers prefer lower leaves, settle in colonies, because of which they can completely destroy nearby plantings. Like most pests, they feed on plant juices. In addition, black gnats carry viruses that can lead to the death of seedlings.

Symptoms of the appearance of black midges

Black aphids can be detected by flipping the leaf with the back side, sometimes midges are grouped on shoots. Signs of infection:

• the plant weakens, withers;
• affected areas look shriveled;
• curvature of shoots;
• wilting, twisting of leaves, lack of ovary;
• the appearance of a large number of ants, since these insects use the liquid that black midges emit as a source of nutrition.

If black midges have long been parasitic on the plant, dark spots appear on it, gradually turning into a dry crust.

How to deal with black midges

To combat the pest, both folk methods and chemical methods are used. If the plant began to bear fruit, then after treatment with insecticidal agents, the crop is not removed from it within 3 days. When choosing chemicals, one should give preference to those that affect black midges through the root system.

The safest recognized folk methods:

• Processing plants with tincture of hot pepper. To prepare it, you need to mix 200 g of tobacco dust with 30-40 g of hot pepper and pour 10 liters of hot water. Maintain the mixture in a dark place for a day. Then strain, add a tablespoon of liquid green soap and 3 tablespoons of wood ash. Once a week, spray the cucumbers with the resulting infusion.
• On adult plants, black gnats can be reduced by spraying a stream of water from a hose. For young seedlings, the method is not applied so as not to break immature stems.
• To repel pests, marigolds, lavender, sweet peas, nasturtium are planted.

Mining flies

Mining flies also often called midges. Insects got their name because of the characteristics of nutrition. The length of adults does not exceed 2 mm. Color is variable and depends on species. The female pierces the foliage with the ovipositor and lays eggs. After a few days, larvae emerge from them, which gnaw at the white passages, called mines. After the food resource is exhausted, the young individual moves to the next sheet.

The female lives about 7 days. During this time, she manages to lay up to 400 eggs.

Insect activity begins in May and June. With serious infections, plant growth is worsened, leaves die off. How to deal with a mining fly on cucumbers:

• colorful sticky traps are used to prevent the invasion of dangerous parasites;
• damaged leaves must be removed;
• surviving plants are treated twice with insecticides; before flowering, Aktara can be used; during fruiting, Vertimek.

Only regular inspection of seedlings, timely care and identification of pests will help preserve the crop of cucumber crops.