Sprout flies are pests of grain crops. Sprout fly on cucumbers Sprout flies on cucumber seedlings how they harm

Rostkovayafly – Delia Platura

Class: Insects - Insecta

Squad: Diptera – Diptera

Family: flower girls – Anthomyidae

The sprout fly is found throughout Ukraine. It mainly damages crops such as cucurbits, legumes, corn, sunflowers, onions and many other crops.

Harmfulness of the sprout fly

In a sprout fly, the larvae are harmful. As a result of their harmful activity, there is a sharp thinning of crops and the death of seedlings. Due to mechanical damage, seeds and sprouts become susceptible to infection by bacteria and pathogenic fungi. The larvae of the first generation cause the greatest harm, the harmfulness of subsequent generations is less significant, since the larvae damage mainly adult strong plants.

Germ fly larva damage

Morphology of the sprout fly

The fly has a small body size of 3-6 mm, yellowish-gray in color, mesonotum with a brownish coating and three dark brown stripes; gray abdomen with a narrow longitudinal black stripe; the head is gray in color with a light-orange velvety frontal stripe. The male differs from the female in several ways. The inner edge of the hind tibia of the male is covered with long hairs in the form of a comb; hind femora equipped with 3-4 long setae. The egg is up to 1 mm in size, white, oblong, one of its ends is slightly twisted, and the other is narrowed towards the top. The larva reaches a length of 5-7 mm; at an early age it is almost transparent, and with age it acquires a dirty gray color, fleshy; its anterior end is narrowed and four black mouth hooks are visible on it. The puparium (pupa) reaches a size of 4-5 mm, is colored yellow-brown, has an elongated oval shape, the posterior end is equipped with four large teeth.

Sprout fly - Delia Platura
Sprout fly egg-laying

Developmental biology of the sprout fly

The sprout fly overwinters in the pupal stage in false cocoons in the soil, deepening at the same time approximately to a depth of 8-10 cm from the surface. The flight of the fly begins in the second decade of April. Eating extra. Oviposition is carried out on wet soil lumps, since in dry soil the eggs dry out quickly and die. The embryonic development of this species lasts about 3-8 days and depends on the ambient temperature. After hatching, the larvae begin to actively move in the soil substrate in search of germinating seeds and, at the same time, feed on plant debris. Having found seedlings of fodder plants, the larvae penetrate into the place of emergence of the sprout and gnaw holes and furrows in the cotyledons. After such damage, the seeds and sprouts rot and die. On seedlings of cucurbits, the larvae gnaw through the hypocotyl genu and penetrate inside the stalk, causing the death of the plant. The sprout fly produces three generations in a year. The flight of flies of the first generation falls on the second decade of April - the first decade of May, the second generation - in June and the third - in the second decade of July. The development of larvae lasts approximately 30-40 days.

Protective measures against the sprout fly

Agrotechnical control measures. To prevent the appearance of a sprout fly, the following measures should be taken:

• deep autumn plowing is obligatory;
• multiple (2-3 times) tillage during the growing season;
• optimum sowing time.

Chemical control measures. In the case of dangerous numbers (5-8 flies per ten strokes of the net), pre-sowing introduction of granular insecticides into the soil, and pre-sowing seed treatment with insecticidal disinfectants is mandatory.

Every gardener wants to get a good harvest on their beds. And we are all concerned about the question: how to minimize losses from all kinds of pests of cucumbers. We'll talk about this.

All living things are forced to defend themselves: someone, yes, considers it a product.

A cucumber, besides a person, has a lot of lovers to feast on it. Cucumber is defenseless.

Pests of cucumbers find them both, and in.

These are common insects that annoy many cultures (aphids, mites), and specific insects, determined even by name (cucumber mosquito).

spider mite

This pest loves greenhouse conditions, it is more common under shelters - in greenhouses, greenhouses.

Does not disdain and plants of open plots. When a web appears on the growth shoots, leaving this fact without attention is fraught.

These are not spiders weaving: a tick has settled on a cucumber. It hides at the bottom of the sheet. He loves heat and dryness, but seeks shade. Insects are small but harmful. The color is red with a slightly greenish tint.

Ticks are fertile - several generations per season. The female lays one and a half hundred eggs.

After two weeks, these cucumber pests suck out the juices of the leaves, dehydrating, drying the plant. Falling ovaries, flowers. The plant may die.

Ticks are destroyed, focusing on the biology of the pest:

• Cucumber is watered more often - the tick does not like soil moisture, but the cucumber needs it.
• Sow "goodies" that attract natural enemies of the tick. Umbrella (dill, parsley, carrots) like ladybugs. They also like ticks: the ladybug is a useful predator.

The tick does not have a hard protective cover; treatment with caustic compounds does not leave a cucumber pest a chance to survive.

Solutions and infusions are best prepared from home remedies that are harmless to humans:

• A spoonful of ground pepper (tablespoon) is added to a bucket of water, the same amount of liquid soap, and chopped onions, a handful of wood ash. The solution is used filtered. Apply it for spraying: twice, with a five-day interval.
• The components are similar to the previous recipe, only capsicum, dried (hot). 3 ground pods are added to the composition, insist for a day. Apply the same.

Insecticides on cucumber are undesirable: it grows quickly, poisons do not have time to be removed from the plant.

The gardener does not need products with dangerous filling. Therefore, chemical control measures are appropriate only in the early period - shoots, first leaves.

From the moment of flowering, chemicals are prohibited, or the products must be disposed of.

melon aphid

The name of the pest is deceptive: even if you have melons, aphids will settle on melons and cabbage, and will not forget about cucumbers.

The pest is small, up to 2 mm, but polyphagous and voracious. An oblong green rounded insect.

The aphid sucks the juices from the leaves, and with a large population of the plant and the terminal stems.

The female founders of the wings do not have, the offspring give birth to two types: wingless and winged.

Winged are female settlers, they fly far, populate other plants.

It is more convenient to settle aphids on the lower leaf side, where it is covered from harmful influences (weather, predatory insects, chemical treatments).

And it is easier to pierce a leaf with a proboscis from below - there its surface, the epidermis of the leaf, is thinner.

In the South, aphids are most harmful: the climate allows them to give two dozen generations per season.

Aphid loves moisture, you can reduce the number of this pest of cucumbers by keeping the plants in the heat without watering for as long as possible.

How much - will tell the type of plant. If the lashes begin to fade, watering is resumed.

The methods used in the event of a tick invasion are also suitable for expelling melon aphids.

Of the preparations, ISKRA Bio is good: harmless, complex action (destroys ticks, whiteflies, aphids, thrips). In the heat, the remedy also works, the effect even intensifies.

whitefly

Miniature (2 mm), similar to a butterfly, but allocated to a separate detachment of homoptera, an insect.

The body is yellow, the wings are powdery white. Sometimes the wings are spotted.

The larva is microscopically small, but it is she who is harmful. Appears from the bottom of the leaf where the eggs are laid, chooses a place.

Sucking on, this place no longer leaves, passing through several ages. You can notice the attack of the pest on cucumbers by the wilting of the leaves.

A sooty coating is visible from the bottom of the leaf: pest secretions are the nutrient medium of the fungus. Cucumbers suffer from a pest and a disease attracted by it. Both multiply quickly, plants die without help.

On top of the sheet plate - numerous small holes. You can also see the whitefly itself: lift the leaf - it will take off in a flock.

Whitefly "guest" subtropical. Likes heat, needs moisture. Therefore, the whitefly lives in the South, but in greenhouses: it is warm and humid.

It can overwinter in the ground - in the stage of an immature larva (imago), which has finished feeding.

This is a puparia - an almost formed insect covered with wax, like a chrysalis (pseudo-pupa).

For wintering, the puparia needs shelter - plant litter, grass. And a harsh winter.

This feature helps to destroy wintering puparia by loosening the soil surface.

Getting rid of whitefly is a difficult task. If it is recognized in time, captured single plants, it is more correct to remove them, burn them together with the pest of all stages.

In case of mass infection, the algorithm is different:

• A butterfly that has flown out can be washed off with a jet of water under pressure.
• Gently loosen the surface under the cucumber plants.
• Sprinkle the soil with ash.
• Hang sticky tape traps in the greenhouse (as for flies).
• To settle in the places of accumulation of a harmful butterfly of its biological enemies. These are predatory insects (bug macrolofus, encarsia) and mushrooms (boveria), specializing in feeding on whiteflies.
• Chemical preparations of the organophosphorus group are an extreme option, they are toxic. Apply only when agricultural technology and biological measures have not helped.
• You can pollinate or fumigate plots with plants with tobacco dust. This method is also destructive for aphids, bedbugs, flies.

sprout fly

Sparse seedlings of cucumber are not always an indicator of poor quality seeds.

Often, on seeds that have already hatched, on sprouts, cotyledons, a fly is robbed, named for this - sprout.

The fly hatching in the spring is hardly noticeable: only 3 mm. It can double up. It is not the fly itself that harms, but its small larvae.

The female lays her eggs closer to the nutrient medium of future children: directly into the soil.

The larva is strong, viable. And although the growth of the newborn is 1 mm, it easily overcomes the path to the cucumber seedlings in the soil.

She doesn’t even have a head, instead she chewed. With them, she “sharpenes” seedlings, feeds, destroys them. Grows up to 7 mm.

Along the way, it can eat the larvae of other insects, the remains of plants. Therefore, it is very durable.

In the soil, deepening up to 10 cm, the grown larva pupates in the puparium.

Fly larvae hibernate closer to the roots of perennial grasses. In the spring, the most voracious larvae of the first generation will emerge from these false cocoons.

They gnaw through seeds, damage cucumber sprouts and other crops. In the middle of spring - the years of the fly and the repetition of the cycle of development.

In the fight against the sprout fly, first of all, connect agricultural equipment:

• A fly is a fly, even though it is sprout and small. If there is such a pest in your area, you need to plow the manure on the site in the fall. Or do a deep dig. Otherwise, the fly will react to manure and take a fancy to this area.
• Do not leave uncleaned plant debris - a dining room for a pest.
• Plant cucumber seedlings: these are no longer seedlings; a sprout fly is not terrible for strong seedlings.
• When sowing cucumbers with seeds, use pickled material. Gluttonous larvae will not like it.

Spraying seedlings with Spark is also an option. If chemical treatments are necessary, choose minimally toxic drugs. Spark is one of those.

The pest will be destroyed, your health will be preserved.

Tobacco thrips

Small winged pest - 1 mm, striped body, transparent wings. Thrips of different ages are similar to microscopic tadpoles.

But they have legs, and thrips run well. The tips of the legs are swollen and with hooks.

This family is called the Bubblefoot. Both the larvae and their parents are not harmless - both feed on cucumber juice.

They fly in to feast on many other garden crops.

Stems and fruits are deformed. Thrips is a real disaster for cucumber, the plant is “bitten” by them all.

Spots, stripes, flowers fall on the leaves, the leaves dry.

Thrips is resistant, it is not easy to fight.

It is always worth starting with home remedies - with any pest:

• Interestingly, thrips is indeed tobacco, this plant is a favorite item on its menu. But a strong infusion of tobacco -10% - destroys thrips, a nicotine lover.
• You can take thrips with celandine - insist it and spray the cucumber. Garlic infusion will do as well.
• Thrips do not like moisture. You can use this by arranging a “bath” for him in the greenhouse: washing off the leaves from the hose with a sprayer - under pressure.
• Hanging sticky traps in sectors of the greenhouse - adult thrips fly, go for bait.
• On a small plot, simple shaking off and subsequent dusting of plants with tobacco dust gives a good result. It should be noted: you can shake off the pest, but carefully. You should not move the lashes of the cucumber. The culture is tender, does not like resettlement. The moved whip will “hide” for several days, stop growth.

It must be applied under three conditions, it works when:

• Dry;
• Warm;
• Dark.

If this phytoverma is not provided, the drug loses its effectiveness, only harm to the gardener himself gets.

gall nematode

Indoor pest. The malicious worm is small, it is possible to notice by the symptoms of a cucumber lesion.

The difficulty of diagnosis is in finding the worm. It develops in the roots, forming growths - galls. Therefore, it will be possible to detect the nematode by exposing the roots, or pulling out the plant.

When cucumbers are stunted, depressed, and there are no signs of damage to the aerial part, inspect the roots.

If they are swollen, have extensions, growths (galls) - the cucumber is affected by a nematode.

In the greenhouse, the affected plants are destroyed. A clod of earth at the roots is also removed and poured with disinfectant (bleach, lime, formalin) along with the plant.

In the future, it is worth changing the earth - with a layer of up to half a meter, otherwise the nematode is difficult to eradicate.

Carry out prevention, it is almost impossible to get rid of the gall nematode completely:

• Do not plant onions next to cucumbers - the nematode settles on onions (they love onions and thrips), it will easily move from there to the cucumber plot.
• Choose planting material meticulously, do not take untested, avoid spontaneous roadside markets.
• Alternate "drought" with "tropics" in sheltering plantings - the nematode is a retrograde, loves constancy. Settling in unusual conditions is uncomfortable for her. Cucumbers also respect constancy, but they will more easily endure temporary overdrying than suffering from a nematode.
• Fraudulent method. The nematode loves legumes. Stripes are sown - traps with peas, vetch or soybeans. The nematode immediately populates the roots of seedlings. Until she feeds and does not start laying eggs, after two weeks, these areas are dug up.
• The nematode can get to cucumbers from the house if it affects a houseplant. The larvae are carried by hand, with tools. Even purchased vegetables can contain pest larvae. Therefore, it is important: to the greenhouse - with clean hands.

Chafer

A beetle familiar from childhood, flying into the light, seems harmless. But it is a voracious pest in all phases, moreover, a polyphagous one. Even trees are not spared.

Vegetables have a hard time - the larvae of the beetle gnaw the roots completely. Delicate cucumber roots cannot resist a large voracious larva. Crops are literally mowed down.

You can reduce the number of pests by:

• By shaking off the beetles in the garden on the litter during the daytime - during the day the beetles are not active, they are on the trees near the garden;
• Double digging - autumn and spring - soil on the site. This is disastrous for the larvae;
• Collection of larvae seen during digging; destroying them.

Medvedka

Only northern gardeners do not know this pest. The lands of the south and the middle strip of the bear are willing to populate, then rob in all cultures.

Even called a garden pirate.

The insect is peculiar. It has short wings (Orthoptera detachment) and its own separate family - bears.

Medvedka is large: 5 cm, some individuals are larger. The forelegs are powerful and serrated. Medvedka easily digs passages and holes with them.

The pest lives underground, rarely comes to the surface, mainly in the dark, when it is not in danger.

Medvedka equips a nest in the ground, where larvae will hatch from a clutch of almost 400 eggs in three weeks.

These are small gray copies of an adult insect. Eggs, then - the female guards the offspring.

Regulates the temperature. So that the development of the embryos is not disturbed, the mother bear cuts everything that grows above the nest.

Therefore, planted seedlings mown by a bear are not even worth planting - she will remove them.

Find the nest first, remove it. It is located no deeper than 20 cm, it's worth the trouble.

Otherwise, another three weeks and several hundred young "diggers" will get out of the nest, go to eat your cucumbers and more.

It is difficult to breed a bear, especially in areas thoroughly fertilized with manure and compost.

A compost heap is good for a garden, but a paradise for a bear.

Many ways have been invented, like a lime bear. It is not completely possible, but to reduce the number is already a matter.

Here are some methods:

• Before winter, in late autumn, dig a hole half a meter deep in different places. Fill with manure. Mark places with pegs. When frosty weather sets in, the manure is removed from the pits - the bears have already settled in it for the winter, and is scattered. Insects freeze.
• In the spring, manure will also help. Laid out in heaps, it is attractive to females, they arrange nests there. Three weeks later, after stirring up the heaps, you can find and destroy both the female and the eggs there.
• Exotic method: beer trap. Pour a little beer into the bottle, tie the neck with gauze. Dig obliquely into the ground, sprinkle a little soil on top. Medvedka "walks" close to the surface, the insect's instinct is excellent. It is difficult for her to resist beer, having found a trap, the bear gnaws through gauze, rushes into the bottle. There is no way to get back. In a couple of weeks, you can catch a lot of lovers of alcohol.

Insecticides are also toxic to humans, so it is better to use biology methods.

If the bear is very annoying, it is worth getting such a remedy.

Ants

Ants do not specifically attack cucumbers. But, settling in covering soil - greenhouses, hotbeds, they arrange dwellings, as it is convenient for them.

At the same time, they streak the soil with many moves, gnaw through the roots of plants. An anthill in cucumbers is always out of place.

Therefore, ants, for all their usefulness, are also pests of cucumbers.

Repel ants:

• Sprinkling the earth with lime;
• Dusting the soil with ash;
• Destruction (digging) of anthills;
• Poisoned bait: sugar syrup - 100 g, borax - 5 g;
• The leaves of wormwood, mint, tomatoes, laid out in a greenhouse, will not please the ants, they will leave the anthill;
• Do not allow aphids to appear - it is for an ant, that for a cat - valerian;
• Ant tracks can be sprinkled with mustard powder or ground pepper;
• Using the harm of alcohol. If you add yeast to jam, it will ferment. But it will remain attractive to ants. Drunken ants go astray, quit their jobs, care for the larvae, the queen. A few "banquets" and the anthill will be empty.

Slugs

A polyphagous malicious pest of horticultural crops, the slug is very harmful.

Its oral apparatus is arranged like a grater. This grater contains up to forty thousand hard teeth. It is not surprising that this "combine" mows everything clean.

He loves everything and in all phases. A cucumber gets a slug on a tooth in the phase of germination, fruiting, and growth.

Protecting crops and seedlings, the surface of the soil is sprinkled with ash. The slug does not like her, will bypass her.

If the ash fell on the pest itself, it will shed the surface mucous layer, then it will be safely removed.

Repeated sprinkling can ruin it.

Like the bear, the slug can be lured into bottle traps - with beer.

You can try the action of the aptly named granular drug "Slug Eater". The granules are scattered over the soil. Apply before fruiting - once a season.

A modest but beloved vegetable, the cucumber is attacked by various pests. The gardener will have to arm himself with knowledge in order to determine who attacked.

Tactics for pests, getting rid of them, in each case - is different. It is important not to make a mistake - to recognize the "robber" and send him out of his site in time.

Then a crispy cucumber will delight you both in summer and in winter - in the form of blanks.

See you soon, dear readers!

Thinning seedlings is not always the result of buying bad seeds. Sometimes a sprout fly is to blame for the death of a newly hatched greenery. It is found almost everywhere, reaches a maximum of 6 mm in length and has a yellow-gray color with brown stripes. On a dark body, large faceted eyes of a yellow-orange hue stand out. A photo of an insect can be easily found on the Internet, as it is notorious for absolutely all summer residents.

This pest can be found on cucumbers, tomatoes, gourds and, in general, on most plants cultivated by country lovers with such difficulty. The insect gives out as many as three generations per year. The first flies emerge at the end of April, the next in mid-June, and the last in July. The pupated larvae overwinter in the ground at a depth of about 10 cm.

Caterpillars of the sprout fly are plump, whitish transparent, unpleasant in appearance. Black mandibles stand out on the front of their body. Larvae reach 7 mm in length and damage plants at the base. Their favorite food is the cotyledon leaves of germinating vegetable crops, so the first generation is the most detrimental to the future harvest, since as a result of fly damage, a large part of the plants simply do not appear above the ground.

The next generations will nibble on the roots of the seedlings and even feed on the dead larvae of other species. It is because of this omnivorous nature that the pest is very tenacious and numerous.

The sprout fly lays its eggs in moist soil. In dry, overheated soil, they die quite quickly.

Protection against sprout pest

It is often possible to get rid of this unpleasant pest with folk remedies. In particular, the fight against fly larvae with the help of the so-called autumn plowing is very effective. It lies in the fact that in late autumn weeds are carefully weeded on the site, and the earth is well dug up and fertilizers are applied to it. The overturned clods of earth "chill", and the fly cocoons die.

Do not forget also that the insect does very little harm to mature plants planted in open ground in the form of seedlings. If for germinating seeds the larvae represent a real disaster, then adult bushes, in extreme cases, will slow down in growth. However, it all depends on the concentration of pests in the area.

In practice, measures to combat the sprout fly are most often more prophylactic in nature. So, when fertilizing the soil with manure, it should be placed not at the surface, but with deepening. As for plants that cannot be grown as seedlings, they should be sown outdoors as early as possible so that the young bushes have time to get stronger before the pests become active.

Just in case, you should know this and how to deal with this insect, if all other recommendations have been powerless. This is where chemicals come into play.

Granular insecticides that need to be applied to the soil before planting are well suited. In addition, many summer residents recommend spraying the Aktellik preparation. In any case, it is worth using a serious poison with an increased concentration of flies.

To determine it, you need to wave the net over the affected bed several times on a dry, clear day. If you catch more than 5 flies in ten swings, then it's time for chemistry.

Fly sprout

Adults are gray in color, body length does not exceed 5 mm. The larvae are white with a body length of up to 7 mm. Adult insects appear during the flowering period of birch. Females lay their eggs in well-moistened and humus-rich soil. The period of egg development lasts 2-10 days. The fly is ubiquitous. It attacks shoots of beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, beets and spinach. The pest causes the death of seedlings of cucumbers, penetrating into young stems and gnawing out passages in them. During the summer, the female hatches 2-3 generations of larvae.