The appearance of small green midges in the apartment: what are these insects and how to deal with them?

The variety of small insects is very large. But, if small green midges in the apartment are noticed, then most likely this is a lace-eye (flelnica) ordinary, widespread throughout Europe. Unlike most gnats, which feed on the breakdown products of organic substances, it is a super-predator that eats other pests. Therefore, it is not spoiled foods that attract it, but aphids or worms. Gardeners are often used by gardeners in the fight against plant parasites, but its appearance in the house causes discomfort to its inhabitants.

Insect description

The common lacewing is a green midge with transparent wings. It belongs to the genus Chrysoperla, representatives of which both larvae and adult midges prefer to feed on other insects. Most active at night, and during the day prefers to hide in secluded corners.

Its distinguishing feature is the elongated transparent wings. Their scale in especially large specimens can reach 3 cm, although the body does not exceed 6 mm. If you look at the wings in the light, you can see that they are streaked with a whole network of shiny veins in the light.
The insect is widespread in regions with a climate suitable for its life: flynens do not tolerate heat, which leads to their death, and at a temperature below about 15 ° C they hibernate before the onset of heat. They are common throughout Europe except its northernmost latitudes. Ordinary lacewing can also be found in Canada, the USA and in some regions of Southeast Asia.

To wait out the cold winter, midges fly into farm buildings and human homes. There they climb into secluded places: for example, cracks in the walls or furniture.

Breeding

For her life, lasting about 2 months, the female lacewing does 2 masonry. Each of them contains 100–900 eggs.

Stage of development of the insect:

1. The eggs. They are attached to the underside of leaves on thin threads. At first, the eggs are green, but then gradually darken.
2. Larvae. Appear in a few days and begin to eat actively. The length of their brown or reddish body is not more than 7 mm. They have a well-developed jaw apparatus. When attacking a victim, paralytic poison is injected into her body.
3. A doll that, after a few links, becomes an adult flernica.
4. An adult ready for procreation.

Larvae and adults are so voracious that cannibalism is not uncommon among the species. In the midland, only one generation of lacewings manages to appear in a year, and in the southern regions it can manage to develop up to 4 generations.

Reasons for the appearance

Flerniki rarely fly into apartments, but still this happens. If the majority of house midges are attracted to a person’s dwelling by food debris, the ordinary laceworm flies into an apartment in which aphids live on indoor plants. This is the main factor provoking the appearance of an insect.

In August or September, midges move to a person’s dwelling, sensing the approach of autumn cold weather. It can also be brought home along with wildflowers and objects that have been on the street for a long time.

Benefit or harm?

The lacewing is safe for humans. It is not a blood-sucking insect, so it does not bite people. Throughout its life, the insect has been killing pests, and phlarynx is beneficial. It is specially planted in gardens to hunt its natural victims and save fruit crops from invading aphids. But people in whose houses a green midge starts, feel discomfort and disgust, so they try to expel the insect more quickly.

Fighting the lacewing

Although the lacewing does not harm a person and his property, such a neighborhood is rather unpleasant. Therefore, you need to know how to get rid of green midges in the house without harm to the health of households.

The appearance of flernitsa in a wooden house may indicate that a wood-beetle is gnawing at its walls.

First of all, you need to understand why fllernitsa settled in the room. Most likely, indoor plants were attacked by other pests, which are attractive food for midges and its larvae. Therefore, you need to inspect all the home flowers. If infected specimens are found, they must be immediately quarantined and treated with insecticides.

Mechanical removal

Destroying the imago of an insect is the most primitive way of fighting. Although it does not allow to eliminate the laying of eggs and larvae, the number of adult individuals participating in breeding is reduced. In combination with insecticides, mechanical removal gives a positive result.

You can use special traps sold in stores:

1. Aeroxon is an adhesive trap impregnated with a composition that is attractive for midges. Designed primarily to combat small insects flying around domestic plants, which include the common lacewing. The glue is safe for plants and humans, because it does not contain toxic substances, and also has no smell.
2. Another trap from Aeroxon is a window tape, which allows you to catch insects flying into the apartment from the street.
3. Well-known masking tape from midges and flies from the Raptor company. Time-tested tool.

Adults can be caught with a vacuum cleaner. At the same time, it is recommended to wage war with the clutches: finding them on indoor plants, just crush the eggs.

Another possible way to deal with green midges is based on the fact that these delicate insects do not tolerate heat. Therefore, if possible, the air in the room is heated above 30 ° C, which causes mass death of the flelernits.

Chemical insecticides

Before deciding on the use of toxic substances against ordinary lacewing, you need to weigh the pros and cons. After all, this insect is harmless to humans and can be removed without the use of pesticides, and it is extremely undesirable to use toxic substances in residential premises and this is done only in extreme cases when other methods are ineffective.

When processing a living room, you need to use personal protective equipment, and then make sure that the room is adequately ventilated.

Sprays and aerosols will help get rid of any annoying midges in the house, for example:

• "Dichlorvos";
• "Raptor";
• "Raid" and many others. other

They are sprayed indoors in accordance with the rules and regulations written in the instructions for the tool.

Flernitsa larvae live on plants, feeding on pests. Therefore, indoor flowers need to be treated with insecticides intended for this purpose. Many gardeners consider the most versatile and effective chemical to be "Aktara" - a systemic exposure that allows you to deal with all insects on plants simultaneously.

Prevention

There are no specific measures to prevent the appearance of green midges with transparent wings in the house.But avoiding this will help to maintain the health of indoor plants: a house with no power sources is not attractive to any insect, as well as the use of mosquito nets on the windows and doors of the house. Also, a folk trick says that midges can not stand pungent odors, so they will be scared away by the aroma of plants rich in essential oils: for example, ordinary geranium or mandarin.

You need to start the fight against green midges with putting in order home plants, as well as the destruction of adult individuals and clutches. If you can’t cope with the spread of the insect in the apartment, then chemical sprays and aerosols will come to the rescue. They are mainly effective against adults, so treatment should be carried out until the complete destruction of the population in the house.