What types of pests are there? Pests of indoor plants. Overview of the main types. The main types of pests on indoor plants and measures to combat them

How to avoid indoor pests? No one is immune from this. An attack by pests such as aphids or scale insects can be considered a disaster, because... They attack many types of plants, while other pests are more selective and prefer certain species. If a pest or signs of its appearance are detected, urgent measures should be taken:

1. If any pest of indoor plants is detected, you should try to remove the pests mechanically by wiping the leaves and stems with a sponge soaked in soapy water or alcohol.
2. It is imperative to remove all damaged buds, flowers, leaves and shoots.
3. Immediately isolate the affected plant.
4. If a pest is found on one of the plants, then all other plants should be immediately inspected. If some adult pests are visible to the naked eye if you look closely, their numerous larvae are completely invisible.
5. Eliminate the causes, if possible, accompanying the appearance of pests. For example, dry air contributes to the appearance of spider mites - take measures to increase air humidity.

It is worth remembering that all pest control chemicals are not safe for humans and animals, birds and fish. They all release toxic substances. Therefore, if it is possible to fight pests with folk remedies, i.e. herbs, alcohol infusions, etc., as well as biological plant protection products, then you should definitely try them first.

Be aware that not all plants are equally susceptible to pest damage. Some, for example, roses - who doesn’t eat them - and aphids and thirpses and scale insects and mites. Moreover, if from other plants the same mite can be easily removed using a soap solution, then with such susceptible plants as roses this will not help; most often only a strong remedy can give a positive result.

If you decide to fight with pesticides, then take precautions when working, do not abuse these products, thoroughly ventilate the rooms after working with them. And most importantly, keep chemicals out of the reach of children and animals!

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PESTS

Whitefly.

These small flying insects, up to 3mm in size, look like small white moths. The body is yellowish, 2 pairs of wings are covered with a white dusty coating. They are usually found on the underside of the leaf. The larvae are oblong-oval in shape and pale green in color. Pest eggs can be found in the form of small grayish grains on the leaves. Larvae and adult insects suck the juice from the leaves and leave a sugary secretion on which a sooty fungus develops, polluting the plants. Damaged leaves become covered with whitish spots, turn yellow and fall off. Whitefly infestation has a depressing effect on the plant. The most dangerous thing is that it is a carrier of viral diseases. It multiplies quickly.
Severely harms fuchsias, pelergoniums, begonias, balsams, hibiscus, jasmine and affects other indoor plants with soft leaves, especially in summer.

Control measures:

Whitefly is difficult to control. The number of adult moths can be reduced by hanging flypaper or other yellow sticky tape near the plants. Eggs and larvae should be washed off the leaves regularly. You can spray the underside of the leaves 3-5 times at intervals of 6-7 days with a solution of green soap (10-15 g per 1 liter of water). Among herbal remedies, garlic infusion helps. If this does not help, spray the leaves once every three days with an aqueous solution of nicotine sulfate (2-3 cm3/l) or parathion (0.5-1 cm3/l).

Grape elephant.

The beetles attack the leaves, but the real danger comes from the larvae, up to 2.5 cm long, cream-colored, which live in the soil and eat roots, bulbs and tubers. It is difficult to fight it - by the time signs of wilting appear, the root system of the plant is already affected. Water the soil with a systemic insecticide, the same can be recommended as a preventative measure if beetles appear on the leaves of cyclamen or primrose.

Caterpillars.

These are mainly garden pests that can sometimes attack indoor plants if the plant is placed in the garden for the summer. A sure sign of their presence is eaten holes on the leaves.

During the day, the caterpillar hides under leaves and in the ovaries of flowers, and at night it comes out and eats leaves and young shoots, so carefully inspect all the secluded places on the flowers and pick up insects.

Control measures:

Manually remove pests from plants. As a preventive measure, you can spray with insecticides, but if the plant is standing in the open air, the chemicals are quickly washed off.

Weevil.

The weevil or vine elephant most often affects primroses and cyclamens. However, any plant placed in the garden for the summer can become the target of a weevil attack. Beetles eat leaves, leaving holes in them, like the Colorado potato beetle. But the real harm is caused by the cream-colored larvae, up to 2.5 cm long. The larvae live in the soil and devour roots, bulbs and tubers. If the pest is not detected in time, the roots will be completely eaten and the plant will die.

Control measures:

If the root system has not yet been completely eaten, i.e. the plant has just begun to wilt, then water the soil with a systemic insecticide (fufan, inta-vir, etc.) and treat the leaves. It is better to replant the plant in fresh soil.

Drosophila.

Small dark brown midges about 2-3 ml long. They easily start up in souring foods or in the trash. In itself, this insect does not cause direct harm to the plant, but, flying from flower to flower, it can carry pests and pathogens.

Mites.

For all types of mites, dry air and heat- very favorable conditions for development. They reproduce very quickly, 6-7 days pass from laying eggs to the appearance of an adult.
Mites damage many houseplants throughout the year, but are especially active in early spring. Mites bite into the skin of the stem, damaging it, leaving uneven grayish or yellowish spots. As a result of damage, the skin of the stems and leaves becomes dead and cracks. The plant develops poorly.
Ticks are very small in size, so they are difficult to detect in a timely manner. In the later stages of the lesion, a cobweb is visible on the plant, along which small dots move - these are mites.

Prevention:

The simplest preventive measure is regular spraying with water. The tick does not like high humidity, although it can adapt to it.

Control measures:

Since ticks are very serious pests, they have to be fought regularly and with all available means. After the first victory, do not rest and carefully inspect the plants to see if the pest has appeared again. Even if it is not visible after the first treatment, do another one a week later for prevention.

1. Spider mites do not tolerate ultraviolet rays, so in nature they hide under leaves from the daytime sun. If you have an ultraviolet lamp, you can irradiate plants with it. Sessions of 1.5-2 minutes once a week greatly reduce the number of mites and increase plant resistance to many diseases. Try to ensure that the rays illuminate the lower surface of the leaves, where the mite is most often found. It is also unfavorable for the mite to take the plant out onto the balcony or into the garden, where, in addition to ultraviolet radiation, its natural enemies may be found. The most noticeable of them is the large predatory mite (not to be confused with pest mites - it is much larger and does not form a web!), which feeds on small spider mites and their larvae.

2. Try safer methods first:

Spray the plants with water, then pollinate them with pyrethrum powder or ground sulfur (colloidal sulfur and sulfaride);

Among folk remedies To combat ticks, tobacco or garlic infusion is sometimes recommended, but these remedies are not radical; they can reduce the number of ticks, but not completely eradicate them. Therefore, chemical control measures are also used. Remember that most drugs have no effect on spider mites. Therefore, be sure to ask for instructions for using this or that product, evaluate whether you can use it in the living room where there are plants, and whether it will work on ticks.

3. CHEMICALS: metaldehyde, thiophos, "Aktelik", "Neoron", "Nurell-D", "Fitoverm". The latter is based on natural substances and is therefore safer. Metaphos and phosphamide are toxic, so they are used only as a last resort. Mites can adapt to chemicals, so it is better to use different ones, alternating them.

4. Alcohol treatment. Treat the leaves with undiluted medical (96%) alcohol from a fine spray bottle or wipe with a swab dipped in alcohol. This is a radical means of control, which, however, is more suitable for plants with dense, leathery leaves (rose, monstera, palm trees). It is important to briefly wet the entire surface of the leaves so that the alcohol evaporates quickly without causing the leaves to burn. The method is contraindicated for pubescent plants, since evaporation from them occurs more slowly than from smooth leaves, which causes burns. For plants that have a waxy coating or waxy epidermis (cacti, succulents), treatment with alcohol can only be done locally in small areas. In any case, you must first check on several leaves how the plant will survive the operation. Alcohol treatment is also easy to destroy mites located in cracks and cracks of the window.

Now about ticks in more detail:

Cyclaminous mite.

It is impossible to see individual insects with the naked eye; mites are very tiny. A large cluster of mites appears as a layer of dust on the underside of a leaf. This is a monophagous pest, i.e. It does not attack other plant species; it affects cyclamens, impatiens, pelargoniums and gloxinias. Unlike spider mites, this pest prefers to live in damp conditions. Symptoms of plant damage include slow growth, wilting of buds, curling of leaf edges, and twisting of stems.

Red flat mite.

The mite, 0.25 mm in size, brownish-reddish in color, is the most dangerous pest of cacti. It also affects aucuba, citrus and other plants.

Spider mites are one of the most difficult pests to eradicate indoor plants. In apartments with central heating, the tick finds favorable conditions - dry air and high temperatures. At the same time, only 7 days pass from the laying of eggs to the adult tick. Outbreaks of mite activity are especially frequent in early spring, but at other times of the year it also infects plants, causing great harm.
The most unpleasant thing is that most flowering indoor plants are affected. At the very beginning of the lesion, small yellowish spots appear on the leaves, later turning brown. In the later stages, a web is visible on the plant, along which small reddish-brown dots move - this is the spider mite.

These include several different types mites, which have in common the fact that they damage the underground parts of plants. Among root mites, the most common are the Bulb root mite and the Bulb mite.

These mites primarily harm bulbous plants (gladioli, hyacinths, tulips, orchids, etc.) The mites are very small in size - the bulbous root mite is approximately 0.5 - 1 mm, a wide oval body of light yellow color, narrowed towards the end, and four pairs of legs. The bulb mite is slightly larger - up to 1.5 mm long, has an oval body and two pairs of legs. They gnaw out the tissues of the bulb, laying eggs there in huge quantities - about 300 eggs from one female bulbous root mite.

At the initial stage of the lesion, the eaten away places and passages of the mites are visible, gradually the mites gnaw out the entire bulb. A damaged bulb will easily fall apart in your hands or break, all the internal tissues in it are eaten away, only white dust remains, and mites are visible to the naked eye. Root mites actively reproduce and develop in a wide range of temperatures - from 10 to 25 ° C and even higher; when conditions change, they do not die, but enter a state of diapause.

Prevention:

Root mites multiply especially strongly at high air humidity. Therefore, one of the measures to prevent the appearance of root mites is to store tubers, bulbs and root vegetables in a cool, dry room, with a humidity not exceeding 60%.

Control measures:

Before planting, carefully inspect the bulbs. Conditions of high soil moisture promote the appearance of root mites. At the same time, there is no need to water the plant less than it requires; you need to prevent stagnation of water in the roots, i.e. make good drainage and drain the water from the pan. Affected bulbs and roots of plants are kept or watered with a solution of a systemic insecticide (for example, Neoron, Actellik, Apollo).

These whitish or dark brown insects, similar to a caterpillar with numerous legs, can harm indoor plants placed in the garden for the summer. Millipedes eat the root areas of plants and lower leaves, as evidenced by eaten away areas in healthy plant tissues.

Control measures:

Drying the surface of the soil in the pot, sprinkling the soil with dry sand or ash. Centipedes hide in dark and damp places, so you can detect and collect pests by placing a wooden plank or a small piece of linoleum or an opaque bag on the soil near the plant. Centipedes will crawl under such a trap, from where they can be collected.

Affected plants wither and die from lack of nutrients as a result of the death of damaged roots. Warmth and dampness promote rapid reproduction of nematodes. They damage many species of tropical and subtropical plants.

Prevention:

Quarantine for new plants. Disinfection of dishes and tools (the simplest measure is scalding with boiling water). Sterilize the substrate in a water bath at a temperature of +50-55C for at least 10 minutes. You can neutralize the soil with chloropicrin, formalin or carbon disulfide.

Control measures:

There are no radical measures to combat the nematode. Heavily infected plants are destroyed along with the soil. You can try anthelmintics medications, for example, "Dekaris". 1 tablet is dissolved in 1 liter of water and the plant is watered well several times.

Root root nematode

When infected with root-knot nematodes, the plant turns completely yellow and growth stops, so-called dwarfism. The flowers become smaller, the shoots become bent.
Measures to combat root-knot nematode:
The contaminated soil is treated with formaldehyde or bleach.
The completely affected plant is dug up and destroyed. The soil is thrown away.

Pratylenchis, or penetrating short-bodied nematodes

Plant roots are affected.
First, small, elongated brown spots appear on the roots of the infected plant. After two to three weeks, the infected parts die off. The plant as a whole withers and stops growing.
Measures to combat pratylenchus:
The affected parts of the roots are separated and destroyed, and the plant is replanted in an uninfected soil mixture. If the entire root system is damaged, the plant is completely destroyed.

Stem nematodes

The base of the stem and the upper part of the roots are affected. Serious disturbances occur in the development of the plant.
Measures to combat stem nematodes: The affected parts of the plant are separated and destroyed. When the entire plant is infected, it is destroyed.

Leaf nematodes

They are round, small earthworms. The size of the leaf nematode is 1 mm or even less.
In an infected plant, light green oil spots appear on the leaves. Over time, they darken and rot. Damage to the buds and young shoots also occurs. The stem on top dries out along with the flower buds and upper buds. The plant dies.
Insects spread when watered with contaminated water or when a healthy specimen comes into contact with an infected one.
Measures to combat leaf nematodes:
It is most effective to treat an infected plant with a heterophos solution. If the plant is completely infected, it should be destroyed along with a lump of earth.
As a preventative measure, the soil should be steamed at a temperature of 100 °C for 30 minutes. The pots are treated with a 10% formaldehyde solution, which is washed off after 2 hours.

Small jumping wingless insects white, 1-2 mm in size. They appear and multiply in large numbers with frequent excessive watering. They develop in the soil, feed on plant debris and small plant roots. With strong reproduction, they may appear at the bottom of the pot near the drainage hole or on the surface of the soil in the form of a white mass. They do not cause much harm, but their appearance indicates an urgent need to reduce watering to prevent acidification of the soil and rotting of the roots.

Prevention:

To prevent the appearance of dura, moderate watering is necessary.

Control measures:

When pests appear, you must carefully remove the top layer of soil by 2-3 cm and sprinkle the soil with dry sand. Sprinkling the soil with tobacco dust helps.

Slugs

The most frequently attacked plants are those used for landscaping balconies and loggias: carnations, gladiolus, iris, phlox. Infection with this pest leads to the appearance of ulcers on the leaf pulp between the veins and on the petals.

Measures to combat naked slugs

The ground around the plant is sprinkled with stove ash, or lime, or a mixture of both (four parts ash and one part lime).
The plant is pollinated with a mixture of tobacco dust and lime, taken in equal quantities.
The procedure is carried out every 1-2 hours during one day.

Sciarids (fruit or fungus gnats, black flies) are black flies with an elongated body about 3-4 mm long, which lay their whitish, translucent eggs in the roots of plants. Young, newly emerged mosquitoes can be about 1.5-2 mm light gray in color. The mosquitoes themselves, if they start, usually fly in large numbers, but do not cause harm, except for the diseases they carry and the larvae of other pests. And the larvae of the fungus gnat - whitish worms about 3-6 mm long with a black head - eat the root system of plants, as a result of which it withers, lags in growth, does not bloom, often reaching complete death. Sciarids, like all flying insects, can enter a room through open windows, ventilation and simply open door. It is possible that you can bring home an infected plant from a store or introduce larvae with purchased and not disinfected soil. But a fungus gnat entering an apartment does not always mean immediate multiplication of the colony. Their reproduction is associated with excess soil moisture and the use of a substrate rich in organic matter.

It has also been noted that fungus gnats tend to appear when water from an aquarium is used for irrigation, along with fish waste products. If you notice several insects, you need to check all the pots. If at first sciarids appear in pots with a waterlogged substrate, then with intensive reproduction of these insects, moderately moist soil will suit them, and then, if they are hunted, they will agree to fairly dry soil. So you need to check all containers where there is earth.

If you shake or lightly tap a pot with a plant and a flock of flies flies up above the surface of the ground, then most likely there is a clutch of eggs there. If you look closely, you will notice that the flies fly at different ages: light gray ones are still translucent and larger ones are already black. In such a pot, it is better to immediately replace all the soil. Since it has most likely already been processed by worms and is in a rotten state, and, in addition, it is necessary to check the condition of the roots of the plant. If you take the plant out of the pot and scatter the soil into a tray, then in the damp soil you can see whitish, translucent larvae with a black head, up to 5 mm long. It is much easier to detect the larvae if you water the soil in the affected pot with an insecticide - they usually crawl to the surface and you can see them writhing.

Prevention:

Proper watering of plants, avoid unnecessary waterlogging of the soil. Careful use of organic fertilizers. For sowing, use a peat-sand substrate that does not contain humus.

Control measures:

If a swarm of fungus gnats is discovered, it is better to immediately take radical measures. You need to fight the sciarids in two directions - from the air and on the ground. If you poison only flying individuals, then new sciarid larvae will hatch in the soil every day.

To destroy the larvae, you need to use a solution of insecticides. I would like to immediately warn you that the more powerful the drug, the more effective the fight. Decis or karbofos, Inta-vir are best suited. Do not be afraid of causing harm to the plant; almost all produced drugs for controlling pests and diseases are not phytotoxic. If “nests” or clutches of fungus gnats are found in more than one pot and the flies fly, as they say, in flocks, then it is better to re-treat with an insecticide during the next watering.

You will also have to fight flying insects; for this it is better to use the same means that are used to fight flies. Adult insects can be caught using flypaper or other yellow adhesive tape, using Raptor or Fumitox plates, but they are usually not very effective. . It is better to use aerosols, such as the well-known dichlorvos and the like. Treatment of the room and pots with plants with aerosols against flying insects, as well as watering the soil with insecticides, may have to be repeated, preferably until the pests completely disappear.

Aphids.

There are many varieties of aphids. Its color ranges from yellowish-greenish in the greenhouse aphid to matte black in the beet aphid. However, the symptoms of damage and control methods are similar. Aphids settle on the soft parts of plants and suck the juice from them. These pests especially attack indoor plants in spring and summer. Usually, aphid infestation is fairly easy to recognize. Aphids live in large groups on the underside of leaves, around growing points, on young shoots, buds, and pedicels, feeding on plant juices. They pose a danger because they weaken the plant, reduce its resistance to disease, and can also be carriers of viral diseases. In damaged plants, the leaves curl and turn yellow, form nodules, buds do not develop or produce ugly flowers. A sticky coating appears on mature leaves, in which fungus can settle. Roses, carnations, fuchsias, and many aroid and forcing bulb crops are especially affected by aphids. Aphids are unpleasant, but in principle easily eradicated pests.

Prevention:

Care that promotes the development of healthy shoots that are less susceptible to attack by aphids and do not favor their rapid development. Overfed and having little fresh air plants form weak shoots - soil for the rapid development of aphids. Keep it clean, remove all dried leaves on which young insects often sit.

Control measures:

Aphids are a nuisance but eradicable pest. When you find the first insects, just crush them with your fingers and, for prevention, wash all the plants with laundry soap.
When the aphids are already hanging on the plant in clusters, you will have to fight them. Isolate affected plants from healthy ones and wash them with soapy water or brush them to remove most of the pests. When cleaning, you need to remove all the ties, scrape the pegs to which the plants were tied, because a lot of eggs are hidden in all the cracks and corners.
If young stems and leaves are completely covered with aphids, then it is best to cut them off completely and destroy them along with the insects, especially since especially severely affected branches, no matter how thoroughly you clean them, usually dry out.
After this, treat them with one of the following preparations 3-4 times with an interval of 5-6 days.
- Spraying with infusion of tobacco, wormwood, dandelion, onion, yarrow, sophora, tansy or marigold.
- Spraying with soap-ash solution.
- Washing infected plants with a solution of green potassium soap (20 g per 1 liter of water), after covering the ground with a plastic bag.
- Treatment with pyrethrum diluted in water (2 g per 1 liter of water).
- Pollination with pyrethrum, wood ash, tobacco dust or sulfur.
- Use of chemical preparations based on pyrethroids: “Inta-vir”, “Cypermethrin”, “Karate”, “Fas”, “Decis”, “Khostakvik”, etc. in accordance with the instructions. These drugs are non-volatile and have low toxicity.
- Aphids are sensitive to most poisons that are used to protect plants from insects, for example, Actellik or Fitoverm.
- As a last resort, you can use pirimor (a very strong drug), as it is highly toxic.

Aphids get used to the chemicals used against them, so each product can be used 3-4 times during the spring-summer season.

Root aphid (root mealybug).

Symptoms of damage include cessation of growth, loss of shine and pale color of leaves in the absence of other pests. When damaged by root aphids, plants are very susceptible to fungal diseases. With severe damage, the leaves wrinkle and the plant gradually dries out. It is very harmful to cacti and other plants during dry wintering.

Prevention:

In spring and autumn, 3-4 waterings with an interval of two weeks with insecticide solutions.

Control measures:

At an early stage of damage, the plant can still be saved. If you suspect a root aphid attack, the plant should be removed from the pot and the roots examined. If a pest is detected, it is necessary to wash the roots and cut off damaged roots. If there are a lot of them, prune the plant's crown to compensate for root loss. Destroy the soil, disinfect the pot or throw it away. Immerse the washed roots in an insecticide solution for 10 minutes, dry and plant in fresh soil.

Mealybug (mealybug).

Prevention:

Control measures:

1. If the number of scale insects is still small, wash it off the leaves and stems with a soft cotton swab dipped in a soap solution. Then spray three times with an interval of 7-10 days with a solution of green soap (10-15 g per 1 liter of water), tobacco infusion, garlic infusion or cyclamen decoction. Alcohol treatment (see "mites") or treatment with a pharmacy tincture of calendula gives a good effect.

2. CHEMICAL METHODS. In case of severe damage, in addition to manual destruction, spray at intervals of 7 days with one of the following preparations: thiophos, "Aktelik", "Vertimek", "Nurell-D", "Fozalon", "Fitoverm", "phosphamide" , "metaphos" (highly toxic).

Greenhouse thrips or bladderwort. The insect is 1-2.5 mm in size. The body is oblong, black or dark brown with two pairs of wings with ciliated hairs. The larvae are white at first, and when the wings appear, they are light yellow, and have a transparent bubble on the back of the body. Externally, mobile larvae are similar to adult insects. Full development of insects occurs in 25-30 days.
Thrips live in groups on the undersides of leaves, especially along the veins. Eggs are laid in leaf tissue. Thrips fly or crawl from leaf to leaf, leaving behind characteristic silvery streaks. On damaged leaves, brownish-brown spots appear on the lower side and whitish spots on the upper side. With severe infection, the leaves turn yellow, dry out and fall off. Thrips cause the main damage to flowers, which become stained and deformed. It causes the greatest damage in summer, in hot weather. Thrips damage palm trees, dracaenas, fuchsias, cordylines, aspidistras, azaleas, cacti, ficus, roses, begonias, citrus fruits and many other indoor plants.

Prevention:

In summer, you need to frequently spray the plants with water to prevent dry air.

Control measures:

1. To remove the pest, wash the surface of the leaves with warm water and laundry soap. This event greatly reduces the number of insects, although it does not completely destroy them.

2. Next, one of the following means is used.
Herbal preparations:
- spraying plants twice every 7-10 days with pyrethrum diluted in water (2 g per 1 liter of water),
- spraying with infusion of yarrow and tobacco,
- spraying with infusion of Persian chamomile and green soap,
- spraying with a decoction of cyclamen tubers.

Chemicals:
- after spraying the plants with water, dust them with pyrethrum powder or ground sulfur (colloidal sulfur, sulfaride), DDT dust,
- spraying three times with the following mixture: 2g nicotine sulfate or anabasine sulfate and 4g soap per 1 liter of water, then pollinate with pyrethrum,
- thiophos in a concentration of 0.1-0.2%,
- "Vertimek", "Nurell-D" (slightly toxic),
- phosphamide (moderately toxic),
- metaphos (highly toxic).

Another name is tick. A well-known garden and home pest of the order Leatheroptera with a dark brown body and two pincer-like appendages. It is called the earwig because of the belief that it crawls into the ears of those who are sleeping. This insect is difficult to detect on indoor plants because it hides during the day and eats leaves and petals at night, so that holes form on the leaves, until the leaf tissue completely disappears.

Control measures:

Insects are caught manually by looking under leaves and shaking off flowers, or using thinly rolled tubes of strong paper, hollowed out sticks, etc., which are placed on pots. The mite hides in such shelters in the morning and can be destroyed.

Earthworms.

It would seem that earthworms are not pests of indoor plants; some even believe that they are useful because they loosen the soil. However, this is not so; earthworms can feed not only on organic residues in the soil, but also eat the roots of plants. This usually causes the plant to become lethargic and stunted in growth.

Control measures:

Earthworms can be collected in so-called traps, just like centipedes. You can water the soil in the pot well with a pink solution of potassium permanganate.

Scale insects and false scale insects.

Regular inspection of the stems and leaves of plants, especially from below.

Control measures:

It is easiest to destroy these sedentary insects at the very beginning of their appearance. Regularly inspect plant leaves, especially the undersides. If the scale insect has so far settled on one leaf or twig, which you can sacrifice, then it is better to remove it along with the affected organ. In case of more severe damage to the pests, it is necessary to remove them from the plant with a soft brush or a cotton swab moistened with soapy water or anabasine sulfate solution, or even better with alcohol (for alcohol treatment, see the article “Mites”). Remains of shields and dust must be washed off with a brush or swab and a weak solution of vinegar. In addition to adult insects, larvae invisible to the naked eye will probably remain on the surface of the leaves. To destroy them, you can spray them three times (within 2 weeks) with a solution of green potassium soap (20-30 g per 1 liter of water) or spray with garlic infusion; treatment with insecticidal preparations is possible. There are no specialized chemical insecticides to combat scale insects, so choose an insecticide with the broadest spectrum of action.

These insects, which look like small white worms, can be seen if you remove the plant from the pot. They eat the roots, so the affected plant begins to lag in growth, the leaves turn yellow, the plant withers and eventually dies. High soil moisture promotes the appearance of enchytraea.

Control measures:

If these pests are detected, you need to wash the roots from the old soil and plant the plant in fresh soil. If the plant cannot be replanted for some reason, then you need to water the soil with an insecticide solution.

02/02/2015

5 popular types of insects living on indoor flowers

1. Aphids

2. Mealybugs

These oval, thin-skinned insects with a light waxy coating reproduce very quickly and in a short time completely cover the entire plant, killing it. Typically, scale insects live on the undersides of leaves or branches.

3. Spider mite

Small millimeter-sized spiders are relatives of ordinary spiders. Spider mites not only entangle leaves with cobwebs, but also suck chlorophyll from them, which often leads to illness and death of domestic flowers.

If you notice a flower being infested with spider mites at the initial stage, rinse the plant under normal water pressure. But, if the process has already started, use insecticidal soap or horticultural oil (oil spray for indoor flowers).

5. Whitefly

The whitefly is a tiny white moth that likes to fly from flower to flower and hide under leaves. Both young and adult individuals feed on plant sap.