We choose a whitefly remedy for greenhouse and indoor plants

Whitefly is a small butterfly that can cause serious harm to both indoor and greenhouse plants. This insect can be recognized by its yellowish body and white wings covered with powdery bloom. Both adult insects and their larvae suck out juices from plants, as a result of which they lose their vitality and soon die. But if you find the pest in time and choose an effective remedy for whiteflies, it is quite possible to prevent damage to the crop and indoor flowers.

Pest control methods

From whiteflies, you can use both home-made preparations made according to folk recipes, and ready-made purchased products. In addition, in the fight against this pest, biological methods are often used. Let's look at each category in more detail.

Biological methods

These methods have recently gained immense popularity, as they help to preserve the ecological purity of the crop. Moreover, similar methods are used mainly in greenhouses and hotbeds, and for their implementation they resort to the help of parasitic insects.

1. Encarsia - on 2 m² you only need three insects. Female parasites make egg laying in the body of whitefly larvae, after which they begin to feed on their tissues. As a result, all the larvae die.
   

   On a note! The use of enkarzia is highly effective in controlling whitefly on tomatoes. It is not worth using this parasite on cucumbers, since this plant is covered with frequent hairs that prevent enkarsia from reaching the whitefly larvae!

2. Macrolofus - a bug that will help destroy whiteflies on peppers and tomatoes. On 1 m² you will need five bugs.

Popular drugs

Most chemicals are effective because they penetrate the body of the plant and poison its juices. Whitefly, drunk with poisoned juices, dies almost immediately. Other drugs, being intestinal-contact insectoacaricides, cause paralysis and subsequent death of insects.

Important! However, it should be remembered that even the most effective chemicals are not capable of destroying eggs, therefore, treatment is usually carried out twice with an interval of 7 days!

When working with an insecticide, the processor should use personal protective equipment, and after using the drug, you should immediately leave the room and restrict access to it to people and animals.

• "Fitoverm" - a drug that is often used from whiteflies in greenhouses. It was created on the basis of the vital products of soil microorganisms, and therefore does not pollute the environment. It is advisable to use it no later than two days before harvesting. The treatment is carried out in clear, dry weather using any sprayer that is capable of uniformly spraying fine particles of the poisonous substance.
  

  Important! Precipitation and heavy dew can significantly reduce the effectiveness of this drug!

• "Confidor" - very quickly copes with the greenhouse whitefly and works great even from those pests that have acquired resistance to insecticides from the class of pyrethroids and organophosphorus preparations. It exhibits intestinal contact action - getting into the body of an insect, blocks the course of a nerve impulse, which leads to paralysis and imminent death. The effect after treatment is observed after 3 hours.
• "Actara" - is a systemic insecticide based on thiamethoxam. It can be used to protect both indoor and garden crops. After applying the working solution, the active substances penetrate the tissues of the leaves of the plants, but the poison practically does not enter the fruits.
• Actellik is an insecticide, which shows excellent results in the fight against many types of pests of flowers and garden plants, including whiteflies. Its fumigation effect is enhanced in a warm, humid environment, but the air temperature should not be higher than + 15 ° C.
  

  Important! If in the greenhouse or on the street the air temperature reaches the mark of +25 ... + 30 ° C, then treatment with the “Actellik” preparation is not carried out!

• “Match” is a contact-intestinal insecticide that is available in liquid form. Effectively protects fruit and vegetable crops from a wide range of pests. For the complete destruction of whiteflies, it is necessary to perform one, less often two treatments. After use, it continues to protect vegetable crops for two weeks, fruit crops for about a month.
• "Aplaud" is a whitefly wetting powder that regulates the synthesis of chitinous coat of parasites. It has a prolonged action, working for 25 days. During molting, the drug destroys the larvae, while adults, after contact with this agent, lay only non-viable eggs. Thus, it is possible to destroy the entire pest population. Spraying of plants is recommended to be performed once upon detection of insects.
• "Biotlin" - shows high efficiency in the fight against whiteflies in greenhouses and greenhouses. This tool is a systemic insecticide, from which insects die several hours after treatment. It is not addictive and prevents the appearance and development of new pest colonies.

Recommendation! To make the working solution of the above preparations work more efficiently, you can add a small amount of grated laundry soap to it - this will ensure excellent adhesion of the product to the leaves and stems of plants!

Do-it-yourself preparations and products

In parallel with the use of chemicals in the greenhouse and above indoor plants, glue traps can be hung up. Such are commonly used from flies. There are also traps on sale that are installed directly in pots or on beds.

Besides:

• from whiteflies, garlic infusion is very effective. To prepare it, grind 160 g of garlic and pour the resulting mass with a liter of water. The finished mixture is tightly corked and left for five to seven days in a dark place. Before processing, 6 g of the obtained preparation is diluted in a liter of water, after which infected plants are sprayed.
• Another pretty good whitefly drug is benzyl benzoate. It is used as follows: in a liter of water, it is necessary to dilute 50 ml of the emulsion. The finished product is treated with plants immediately after preparation.
• Tobacco infusion is also able to very quickly rid your crops and flowers of whiteflies. For its preparation, dried tobacco must be soaked in water and left for two days. With the obtained agent, we spray the plants affected by the pest.

If the infected area is small or houseplants are affected, then in this case it is quite possible to get rid of whiteflies by mechanical means - by wiping the leaves with ordinary water or a mild soapy solution. Acting carefully and carefully, you can remove absolutely all the larvae located on the underside of the leaf plates.

In addition, it is known that whitefly is a thermophilic insect and does not tolerate low air temperatures. Therefore, if it was found on indoor plants, then for some time they can be taken out onto the balcony.

Important! Just make sure that the air temperature is not too low, as your flowers can die along with insects!

Preventive actions

It is prevention that can best protect your plants from whiteflies. It is carried out quite simply.

These insects appear where there is high humidity, which is combined with high temperature. In greenhouses, whiteflies can also attract dense plantations that interfere with normal air circulation. Based on these facts, we can draw the following conclusion - in order to prevent the invasion of the parasite, it is enough to provide the cultures with a constant flow of fresh air, to normalize the temperature regime and humidity.

Plus, it is advisable to equip the windows of greenhouses and hotbeds with a fine mesh. Autumn digging and disinfection of the soil will not be superfluous. And be sure to clean the soil from fallen leaves and other plant debris, since thanks to them, whiteflies can quite survive the winter. After harvesting and cleaning the greenhouse from the tops, you can also use sulfur blocks - they are set on fire and left overnight, and in the morning they remove the topsoil, in which the larvae usually hide. After such an event, the whitefly disappears forever.

In addition, some strengthening drugs are able to exert a prophylactic effect - a plant with good immunity is much easier to tolerate the attack of whiteflies. In addition, most of these products will cleanse the tissues of crops from poisons, toxins and improve the taste of fruits.