How to get rid of whitefly in the garden forever: a review of effective methods, videos and reviews

How to deal with whitefly - the most effective ways

When growing many garden crops, it is important to protect them from pests that can significantly reduce yields and even completely destroy the plant. Information on how to deal with whitefly is helpful, as inconspicuous butterflies can do serious harm.

General information

Before talking about how to get rid of the whitefly in the garden, you should get to know this insect better. In Latin, the name of the pest sounds like this: Aleyrodidae. The whitefly is an incomplete transformation insect. However, despite this fact, Aleyrodidae has a rather complex development. Their eggs have a small stalk. The flat, mobile, oval-shaped larva finds a site on the plant suitable for feeding. She presses herself against the surface and draws her legs under her. The glands secrete wax, which forms a kind of barrier around the larva, which is quite tightly attached to the bark or leaf.

Whitefly growth stages

It takes 25-40 days for the egg stage to turn into an adult pest. The time span depends on humidity and temperature. The higher they are, the less time it takes for the egg to turn into an adult insect. From the moment the eggs are laid, the whitefly goes through developmental stages. In each of them, the white fly does different harm to the culture in which it lives.

Tramp larvae. They hatch from eggs after 11-12 days. Their size is about 0.3 mm, and they are already able to spread through the leaves in search of a better place to live and feed.
Nymph larvae. They attach securely to the inside of the leaves and pierce them to obtain nutritious juices. This happens about 5 days after the completion of the first stage. Moreover, they are absolutely motionless. It is difficult to see such whitefly larvae, as they are green and look like thin scales. At this stage of development of the butterfly, waxy armor forms, which makes it resistant to insecticides.
Doll. This stage completes the formation of the pest and takes 7-30 days. At this stage, all methods of getting rid of the whitefly are ineffective.
Formation of the imago. Adult insects are ready to eat the leaves on their own and to reproduce further.

The diet

Before figuring out how to get rid of a whitefly in a garden, it should be said that begonia, fuchsia, passionflower, balsam, lantana, and pelargonium are considered the favorite plants for an insect. If there are no favorite crops, then the pest attacks most of the known indoor flowers. In greenhouse conditions, whitefly is often found on cucumbers. The insect also lives on other cultures. Whitefly is also found on tomatoes. In a greenhouse, an insect can cause great harm to plantings. In open areas, it often damages many herbaceous plants. Shaded places are considered favorite. Whitefly is common on strawberries.

Why is it dangerous, and how to identify a whitefly?

Adults and larvae can completely destroy the plant. In addition to eating a bush, they can infect it with some diseases that they carry on their paws. The list of diseases includes the following:

chlorosis; leaf deformation; phytopathogenic viruses.

From these diseases, many crops can not only grow poorly, but also die.

Insects feed on sap from plants, and they can live both on bushes growing in a greenhouse and on those that develop in the ground. In addition, the pests multiply quickly, in 3 weeks the larva already becomes a full-fledged individual. The period of development of the insect caterpillar is destructive for all plants, since the larva eats a lot.

Most often, whitefly can be seen on eggplant, beans, cabbage and other vegetable crops.

After the vital activity of the parasites, the leaves on the plants begin to turn black, and fungi form on them. In most cases, the plant cannot be saved from fungi. The bush stops its development and dies. The process is complicated by the fact that insects can feed on any crop, including houseplants.

The whitefly resembles a small midge in shape, but is distinguished by its large dimensions and pronounced wings. You can identify it in the following ways.

Shaking the bush. A large cloud of insects should fly off from it. By the larvae, which are usually located on the inside of the leaf and have the shape of white capsules. It can also be identified by the state of the plant, which after a certain time becomes covered with white liquid or black spots.

If you do not know about its appearance in time, the culture will perish. In addition, other plants will be threatened, as the insect will move in search of food.

additional information

Adult insects are pale yellowish in color, about 1.3 mm long. Whiteflies have two pairs of wings, which are covered with waxy pollen. In addition to the fact that the insect can fly, it also jumps well. In spring, the female lays miniature eggs on the lower part of the leaves. White bloom remains in place of the masonry. The larvae draw juice from the leaves. Whitefly is observed en masse on strawberries. "How to deal with this insect?" - the main question for many summer residents. After all, the pest almost completely destroys the leaves. In areas of damage, you can see subtle, small spots of a yellowish tint. Having reached the third instar, the larvae turn into puparia. Soon, adults fly out of them. During the summer, the insect develops in three to four generations.

Appearance, features and signs of the appearance of a whitefly

Before poisoning a pest butterfly, you need to know what it looks like, where it most often appears and how to find it.

Often, due to the sticky substance that whiteflies secrete, soot fungi appear on infected plants - a dangerous fungal disease. This greatly aggravates the situation and interferes with treatment.

Description:

whitefly — a small insect;
adults can be up to 2 mm in length;
the body is yellow;
wings - slightly longer than the body, covered with pollen;
this pest is very fond of legumes and vegetables, especially tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers and beans;
the whitefly lays its eggs (up to 280 per season) on the back of the leaves;
eggs - outwardly very similar to small semolina;
the larvae are translucent, can move along the leaves of plants, feed on their sap and leave behind a trail of a transparent sticky liquid that attracts ants and causes fungal diseases.

The photo shows the whitefly and its larvae. You can check if the plant is affected by butterflies by disturbing its leaves. If there are whiteflies on the plant, they will fly apart.
Signs of appearance:

the larvae of butterflies suck out the sap of the plant, it becomes weakened, bears poor fruit, develops slowly, the root system also becomes weaker;
larvae and adult whiteflies can be seen on the leaves, usually on the back;
black spots appear on the plant - a fungus;
whitefly punctures and discolored spots are noticeable on the leaves.

Signs of defeat

As mentioned above, insects settle on the underside of the leaf. On the parts of the plant located below, you can see a shiny bloom (honeydew). This is insect excrement. On this plaque, sooty fungi subsequently begin to develop. Because of this, the surface of the leaves is first covered with white bloom, and then it turns black. It is the sooty mushrooms that can harm the plant more, and not the whitefly. How to destroy a pest? What are the ways?

How to identify signs of infection

Regular inspection of plants will allow you to quickly identify the presence of a pest and begin an active fight against it.

Signs of infection:

At any touch, a cloud of small, white midges rises from the plant.
On the inside of the leaves there is a sticky substance - honeydew and translucent scales - larvae.
On the leaves there are dark, putrid spots of the fungus.
The sheet curls up, begins to die off.
The development of the plant is inhibited, it withers.
The pest can provoke the development of chlorosis and curly leaves.

For infected plants in the garden and in the greenhouse, it is necessary to begin complex processing using chemical and folk remedies. Indoor infested flowers are sent to a separate room for quarantine and processing.

Whitefly: fighting it with chemicals

The biggest problem is the insect in dry weather. How to get rid of whitefly in a vegetable garden using chemicals? Today, gardening stores offer a fairly wide range of products. All drugs are produced by fairly well-known manufacturers, have instructions with recommendations for use and precautions. Generally, chemicals must be diluted in water immediately prior to use. The manufacturer indicates the optimal ratio in the instructions. For many gardeners, one of the main problems is the whitefly in the garden. Every summer resident should know how to get rid of an insect.

Whitefly ammonia

A simple and affordable way to get rid of insects is ammonia, the smell of which scares away "intruders." Do not use concentrated alcohol as it may cause burns. The fight against whitefly in the greenhouse with folk remedies is carried out using a solution for which you need to take 1 tbsp for 9 liters of water. a spoonful of ammonia. Procedures can be carried out only before flowering or no later than five days after its beginning. It is not recommended to use this processing method at home.

Whitefly traps

A safe way to fight insects are special traps - plates with a sticky poisonous surface. These can be purchased in stores. The traps are hung in the greenhouse, and they move due to gusts of wind, which increases the number of whiteflies caught. It is worth noting that the devices are painted in a bright color, which attracts pests. Traps are effective at getting rid of various insects.

Folk remedies for whitefly can be independently made in a greenhouse, for which take a piece of thick cardboard or plywood and paint it yellow. Apply a sticky layer on top, for example, melt the rosin in a water bath and add castor oil, petroleum jelly and honey in equal amounts. Bring the mixture until smooth and apply to cardboard or plywood, and then hang the traps.

Method of processing crops

The option for applying the drug will depend on the type of crop and its vegetative stage. Urgent measures against an insect should be taken if it is seen on seedlings, since enormous damage to the plantings can be caused if the whitefly begins to spread en masse in the garden.How to get rid of a pest on seedlings? The whole ground part of the plant should be treated with the prepared solution. The concentration can be increased if necessary, if the instruction does not prohibit it. But, as a rule, there is nothing to worry about, since the chemical component will decay by the time the ovary forms. It should be said that the insect inflicts quite tangible damage on flowers. If you do not plan to cut ornamental plants, then the use of insecticides is not limited. It must be remembered that flowers cut and brought into the house can cause infection and home crops.

Prevention measures

Whitefly prefers to settle in greenhouses, because they have optimal conditions for its nutrition and reproduction. Elevated air temperature, humid microclimate, a large number of plants planted in a small area. To avoid trouble, you need to follow preventive measures:

Observe the recommended spacing between seedlings and do not thicken the planting.
Timely carry out the formation of bushes with the removal of excess shoots.
Weed and loosen the soil.
Do not leave plant residues in the greenhouse after weeding or processing bushes.
Ventilate the greenhouse regularly.
Do not close the greenhouse for 30-40 minutes after watering.
As for tomatoes, which are more often than other vegetables affected by white-winged, the plants are watered abundantly, but not more often than 2 times a week.

Prevention or not, but nowadays it has become popular to add predatory insects - entomophages - to the greenhouse. The natural enemies of the whitefly are encarsia, the macrolophus bug, ladybugs, and lacewings.

Interesting fact!

According to many growers, the whitefly rarely lingers in places where dill grows.

Pest control products

A lot of trouble is the whitefly. The fight against it is made by such popular drugs:

Means "Actellik". Available in ampoules. Take 1 piece for one liter of water. Processing is carried out during the appearance of the insect. Two liters of mortar is enough for 10 m2. No more than four treatments are carried out. The effect can be expected on the third day.
The drug "Verticillin Zh". The product is diluted at the rate of 25 ml per liter of water. Treatment is carried out by double spraying. The interval between them is 7 or 10 days.
Means "Confidor". The consumption of the drug is 0.1 ml per 1 liter of water. Spray once.
The drug "Pegasus". Diluted in a ratio of 2 ml of product per liter of water. Double spraying is carried out with a break of 7-10 days.
Means "Phosbecid". The product is diluted in the ratio of 5 ml of the drug to 5 liters of water.
It is possible to reduce the amount of damage on squash, cucumbers and zucchini by treating the plants every 10 days with the "Bud" remedy. 10 grams of the drug is diluted in 10 liters.
In case of a massive appearance of an insect, the drug "Rovikurt" is recommended. For 10 liters of water, 10 grams of the product is needed.

Preventive measures when preparing the greenhouse for winter

There is a whole range of measures and substances with which to process a polycarbonate greenhouse in the fall:

Immediately after harvesting, a general cleaning of the entire structure is carried out, including washing the windows, regardless of whether glass or polycarbonate, with a solution of potassium permanganate. Particular attention should be paid to cleaning the grooves in the metal frame of the window. All parts from a wooden beam and elements of a stone (brick) foundation are coated with lime pulp.
Removal of all plant residues from the greenhouse, as well as the ropes with which the strapping was made and the boards limiting the beds (if used).
Disinfection or earth replacement.
Treatment of the entire room with disinfecting drugs by fumigation, spraying or sprinkling with various drugs.

Traps

Many summer residents are interested in whether an insect such as a whitefly can be eliminated without chemicals.Folk methods of struggle, I must say, are very common among experienced gardeners. Here's what summer residents advise: to catch adults, you can use glue traps. They are pieces of hardboard or plywood, painted white or yellow. After drying, the surfaces are lubricated with castor oil, honey with rosin or petroleum jelly. Pests are attracted by a bright color (preferably yellow), they sit on the bait and just stick. After a lot of insects have accumulated on the plywood, it is wiped and soaked again. Glue traps designed for flies are also effective.

Alternative measures

The most difficult thing, as practice shows, is to eliminate the whitefly in the greenhouse. It is undesirable to use chemicals here. This is due to the fact that aggressive substances accumulate in the soil, from where it is almost impossible to remove them. In this case, it is better to apply alternative methods. Mechanical removal is considered the most harmless. Insects can be knocked off the ground part of the plant with a stream of water. After that, you need to loosen the soil around the stem.

Spraying plants with garlic tincture is also effective. The whitefly will be scared off by a pungent smell, and it will fly to look for a more attractive place. To prepare the infusion, you need to take crushed cloves (about 150-170 gr.) And pour a liter of water. It should be insisted for five days in a tightly closed container. For processing, 6 grams will be enough., Diluted in a liter of water. A thick solution with laundry soap is considered an excellent remedy. It can handle strawberries. This product does not pose a danger to humans, and the method of its application does not depend on the vegetative stage of the plant. To protect tomatoes, a weak solution of lime or copper sulfate is suitable. Processing the leaves will reliably protect them from insect invasion.

Traditional methods

If you do not want to use chemicals in your garden, then in this case, you can use folk remedies to combat the whitefly. For the most part, these are preparations of contact action, that is, they are able to destroy the parasite only when it hits its body. They do not penetrate into plants, and therefore are safe for human health.

Rubbing the leaves with water is the most harmless, but at the same time, quite laborious way to get rid of the whitefly. Leaves of infected crops should be wiped with a damp sponge every week. As a result, you wash away the larvae that are on the underside of the leaves and gradually destroy the entire population of whiteflies. You can add a little liquid soap to the water to be effective.
On a note! This method is considered suitable for a small vegetable garden. If there are several greenhouses or the plantings are quite voluminous, then this method will be unreasonably difficult!
A solution of laundry or tar soap. A bar of soap should be chopped with a knife or grated, then dissolved in water - for 1 part of soap shavings 6 parts of water. The finished product must be beaten well until a strong foam is obtained and applied to the stems and leaves with a regular sponge. The same preparation is used in another way - for spraying (without whipping!). They treat the aboveground parts of plants and spray the soil around them.
Important! When spraying, be careful not to let the soapy water penetrate into the deep layers of the soil! In addition, do not exceed the concentration of soap, otherwise you will burn the delicate leaves of the plants!
Garlic infusion. Peel two medium cloves of garlic and pass them through a press. Pour the resulting mass with a liter of water and leave everything in a dark place for 24 hours. After the indicated time, we filter the infusion and use it to spray the infected culture. A week later, we do the second treatment, another week later - the third.
Yarrow. We take about 100 g of plant leaves and fill it with a liter of boiling water.We leave for a couple of days, then we filter and spray the plants with the finished product. It is advisable to use it twice or thrice with an interval of seven days.
Tobacco infusion. If there is tobacco in your area, then it should be pre-dried. As a last resort, you can use tobacco from some stolen cigarettes, for example, "Prima" (you need one pack). Fill the tobacco with a liter of hot water and put it in a dark place. After five days, we filter the infusion. We spray the plants with the finished product every three days until all whiteflies die.
Dandelion. Here we will use both the roots and the leaves of the dandelion. Grind 80 g of raw material well and fill it with a liter of boiling water. We leave for three days, after which we filter. We process infected bushes and trees twice at weekly intervals.

Preventive actions

As experienced gardeners say, the appearance of a pest can be prevented. In late autumn, it is recommended to dig up the area, destroying the weeds and removing all the tops. The compost heap should not be placed directly on the site. This is due to the fact that it will be a very attractive wintering place for whiteflies and other pests. As a rule, insects appear where high humidity is combined with high temperatures, where there is insufficient ventilation, and plants are placed very close to each other. That is why, first of all, the plantings need to provide optimal conditions. As a preventive measure, you can also use drugs that strengthen plants.

Greenhouse treatment after aphids. What should have been done in the greenhouse in the fall?

The processing of the greenhouse in the fall should be started after the harvest. In fact, the structure is not preparing for wintering, but for next spring, because with the onset of a new season, there is usually simply no time to do this. Ignoring some stages of greenhouse preparation in the fall can lead to unnecessary financial costs, since you will have to buy equipment that has not survived the winter and is out of order.

Processing the greenhouse in autumn is primarily about taking care of future plantings. If you do not prepare it for the new season in the hope that frost will disinfect everything inside, already at the beginning of summer the plants planted in it will be affected by pests and diseases: tomatoes - spotted, aphids, whitefly and late blight, cucumbers and peppers - by ticks, aphids, peronosporosis, bacteriosis, root rot and the same whitefly.

After harvesting, pests, weeds remain in the greenhouse, the soil in it is depleted. To get a good harvest in the future, these factors must be eliminated.

Correct conservation of the greenhouse in the fall involves the following measures:

If the building has a light, there is an electrical heating system, temperature and humidity sensors are installed, before the onset of winter, all this must be de-energized, removed and stored in a dry, heated place. If this is not done, unfavorable weather conditions will ruin the equipment.
Rinse and dry the irrigation system, otherwise the water frozen inside the hoses and pipes will rupture them. They must be purged, cleaned and disinfected with a solution of phosphoric acid or Pekacid.
Empty and disinfect water containers, if any, in the greenhouse.
Place drip irrigation systems and bed limiters for storage indoors.
Remove all plant residues that can serve as a source of infection, and dig up the soil, selecting all the roots remaining in it. It is recommended to burn the green biomass rather than throw it into a compost pit. Many of the pests remaining in it tolerate low temperatures, with the arrival of spring, actively starting to reproduce, so only burning will help protect future plantings from parasites.