White fly on indoor flowers. Midges in indoor flowers - how to get rid of at home? How to distinguish sciarid from other insects

If you have flies in flower pots- how to get rid of them, it is necessary to decide very urgently. Indoor plants bring a lot positive emotions, pleasing to the eye, and the air in the apartment becomes clean from them, which means you need to properly care for them so that you continue to have the opportunity to benefit from vegetation, and not harm.

Reasons why flies appear

Every person who deals with flowers or they are simply present in an apartment or house tries to create ideal living conditions for them. But sometimes various troubles can appear in flowers, but the main one is earth flies. How to get rid of them flower growers often suffer? Their presence does not bring much joy to either the flowers or the owners. But they also cause many diseases.

There are a lot of reasons for the appearance of such insects in vegetation. The most famous are:

1. Too wet ground.
2. Purchased land: it may be contaminated or simply of unsatisfactory quality.
3. Too frequent use of make-up such as “coffee”, “meat” water.
4. Untimely removal of diseased leaves.

How to get rid of flies in flowers?

There are a huge number of ways to get rid of midges in flowers, but some of them help, while others do not.

The simplest actions that you can immediately perform as soon as you notice unwanted insects in your home:

1. Dry the ground if it is very wet, and then water the flower less and loosen the soil more often.
2. Change all the earth in colors.
3. Try watering with a very weak solution of potassium permanganate, because if you make it very strong, it will simply burn this plant.
4. A weak soapy solution will also help - pour it all over the ground.
5. Take the garlic and cut it into slices. Put on all flower pots.
6. Stick a few orange peels into the soil. Both fresh and dried zest can be used.
7. AT flower shops special insect repellents are sold. Take advantage of them.

To be sure, you need to get rid of not only flies, but also their larvae. There are a lot of ways to do this, from traditional to unusual. You will find all the most effective ones in the chapters of this article below.

Chemical control methods

Water the soil with chemicals precisely if the fly larvae are in the soil.

Important! The most commonly used tools are "Raptor", "Bazudin", "Thunder-2", "Flycat".

The rules for using such funds are very simple:

1. Be sure to look at the instructions for use - it will clearly be written there when and how to water your flowers.
2. Before any treatment with chemical or home remedies, you need to change all the earth to a new one. The depth of penetration of the larvae depends on the diameter of the pot. As a rule, it is no more than 5 cm.

Important! Such products will not harm adult plants, but young plant can easily get hurt. But they help not only to get rid of larvae, but even black flies, so their use is still advisable, but only in compliance with the dosage and irrigation scheme.

Folk remedies for insect control

For the destruction of flies in flower pots, there are various means home use.

wood ash

1. Take wood ash.
2. Sprinkle potting soil.

Important! Significantly reduces the number of insects from the first application. After repeating the procedure, the problem of how to get rid of flies in flowers will stop bothering you. And ash is also an excellent fertilizer, which means you will simultaneously solve the issue of feeding your green friends.

Mustard

If you have dry mustard powder available, do the following:

1. Take a glass of water.
2. Dilute mustard in it - you need 1 tablespoon of powder.
3. Pour the solution over the top.

Important! A solution of potassium permanganate is also used. It will help get rid of whiteflies. The insect got its name because of the almost transparent color.

aromatherapy

Another effective folk way to get rid of midges in flowers is aromatherapy. We have already mentioned citruses and garlic above, but they also use ashes from plain paper.

Matches

1. Take matches.
2. Break off sulfur heads.
3. Put them in the ground.
4. After a while, there will be no insects.

Important! You can use all these tools, but you need to remember that not all flowers are able to survive such processing. So pick up suitable option for the specific type of plant in your home.

1. Flowers are processed several times, but there should be a break of a week.
2. After treatment, do not water the plants for several days, so as not to reduce the concentration of the drug.
3. The main cause of flies is excessive moisture, so water the plants properly. They usually prefer the liquid to come from below. This is very easy to do if you pour water into special trays.

In this material we will tell you how to get rid of midges in indoor flowers with folk and special means, namely from the following 3 types:

• Drosophila, which are also called fruit or fruit midges. They look more like little flies.
• Sciarid, other names are flower midges or mushroom gnats, and they really look very much like small black gnats.
• Whitefly or Aleroidid, which look like small white or light gray little aphids. They nest mainly under the leaves.

We will consider ways to deal with fruit and flower flies in the first chapter, but if white flies have settled in your plants, then you can find out how to get rid of them in the second part of the material.

How to get rid of fruit and flower midges (drosophila and sciarid)

Midges in flowers are not only flying small flies, but also their larvae that live in the ground. In one pot, several generations of insects can simultaneously develop - from eggs to adults. Also, keep in mind that fungus gnats can spread fairly quickly from one plant to another. Therefore, in order to remove insects forever, you need to deal with them comprehensively and often repeatedly.

Because of what midges appear in indoor flowers: a common reason is that they could appear when the plant was transplanted into purchased land that was already infested with eggs and larvae. In addition, midges could simply fly into the summer or autumn period out the window and settle in your flowers. One way or another, the main factor in the emergence and reproduction of sciarids and fruit flies is moist, overflowing soil, which attracts midges and creates favorable conditions for the transformation of sleeping eggs into larvae. By the way, fruit flies could get into your apartment along with purchased vegetables, fruits, or fly to the smell of a stale product, and after that they take a fancy to your flower pots.

Damage inflicted: adults are harmless in themselves, but their larvae, feeding on the juice of the roots, destroy the plant. Flower midges are especially dangerous for seedlings and young plants.

Prevention: watering plants as 2 cm of the top layer of the earth dries, as well as periodic loosening and timely removal of diseased leaves. Moderate watering will make the soil less attractive for egg-laying adult midges and less fertile for the development of larvae.

Fighting methods

Instruction 1. Using folk remedies

Step 1. Let the soil dry after the last watering so that at least 2 cm of the top layer is dry.

Step 2. Catch all adults. You can do this with:

• Traps: special (eg, a regular fly-catching tape will do) or homemade ones. To make your own bug traps, you will need yellow cardboard (or yellow-painted cardboard) and honey. Yellow cards should be smeared with a thin layer of honey and hung (arranged) near the pots. Don't forget to change traps as needed.

• Vacuum cleaner: remove the nozzle or put a small nozzle without a brush on the hose and simply work it on the ground and window sill. The vacuum cleaner will easily suck in insects even in flight. After that, the bag must be thrown away (if it is disposable) or emptied outside the apartment, and then treated with dichlorvos.

Step 3. So, we got rid of the adult egg-laying midges, now we need to cultivate the land to get rid of the larvae. To do this, loosen the dried soil and water the plant with one of the following folk remedies:

• Garlic infusion: make garlic infusion at the rate of: 1 grated head of garlic + 600 ml of boiling water for 1 flower pot. Let the product brew for 2-4 hours, then water and spray the plant with it, and deepen the remaining pulp into the ground. You can also stick 1 cut into three parts head into the soil of each infected plant. Do not worry, the smell of garlic in the apartment will not appear.

Instruction 2. Using insecticides and creating a "toxic greenhouse"

This method is efficient, economical and, if done correctly, safe for humans and plants. With it, you can kill both larvae and adults.

Step 1. Wait until the soil is dry after the last watering.

Step 2 Gently loosen the ground.

Step 3. Put the plant pot in an ordinary bag, spray a little Dichlorvos into the soil and tie the bag tightly so that only the pot is completely covered. After 4-5 hours, the midges in the ground should die.

• If the midges wound up not only in the ground, but also settled under or above the leaves, then you need to do all the same steps, but pick up a bag of such a size that the whole plant fits in it. full height", and spray Dichlorvos not only into the soil, but also onto the bag (!). In order not to damage the plant, it is important that the product does not get on the leaves, and so that they do not get crushed, you should fix the bag with tape at the right height to the furniture, door or floor lamp. Another way to create a "greenhouse" is shown in the picture on the right. The tool will destroy insects both in the ground and on the leaves in 7-10 hours.
• Dichlorvos can replace Raptor, Neo or Raid. In addition, instead of sprays, you can use solutions from special insecticides for plants, for example, Groma-2, Aktara, Bazudin, Aktellik and Karbofos. In this case, before wrapping the plant in polyethylene, it must be watered and sprayed with a product.

Step 4. Hang special or homemade traps so that the remaining midges that did not fall under the package sit on them.

Step 5. Repeat the procedure after 8 days to eliminate the possibility reappearance midges.

If there are a lot of larvae in the soil, and you are sure that the plant will survive the transplant, then it is best to do this by transplanting the flower into new, previously cultivated soil. To do this: loosen the soil and carefully pull it out, then manually or with a small brush clean the roots of the infected soil, then quickly rinse the roots with water or one of the above home remedies and finally, transplant the plant into a clean pot with uninfected soil. To prepare the land, it must be calcined in the oven at a temperature of 100-120 degrees for 1 hour, and then restore the microflora with some kind of fertilizer.

How to get rid of whiteflies

To get rid of the whitefly, you also need to carry out comprehensive measures for the destruction of adult insects and larvae 3-4 times with an interval of one week.

Damage inflicted: whiteflies themselves do not harm the plant, but because of their feces on lower leaves soot fungi may appear, which can severely damage the flower. In addition, white midges can infect the plant with a viral infection. On the right is a photo of a leaf affected by white-winged.

Fighting methods

Step 1. First you need to catch all adult flies. You can do this in the following ways:

• Set up special or homemade traps described in the first instruction.
• Catch all midges with a vacuum cleaner.
• Pour jam into a saucer, place it next to the pot and wait until the whiteflies flock to the bait and get stuck in it.
• In the morning, create a slight coolness in the room where the flowers are located, for example, by turning off the batteries or opening the window. The lower temperature will prevent the flies from taking off. Then follow the procedure below.

Step 2. Once most of the adult whiteflies have been caught, take the plant to the bathroom and wash the leaves of the remaining insects, eggs and nymphs.

It is not necessary to be a professional florist and study in depth the rules for caring for indoor plants if you want to create a green corner at home or decorate a window sill with flowers in pots.

But elementary knowledge about plants is still worth adopting, otherwise, in addition to aesthetic pleasure from home flora, you can also get trouble in the form of flying insects.

flower pests

What are these pests that make life difficult for flowers and their owners? There are two types of insects that are the most common inhabitants indoor plants:

1. black midges - sciarids;
2. midges of white color - springtails, they are springtails.

In order to establish the cause of the appearance of unexpected guests and develop the right tactics to deal with them, it is important to understand what flower pests are.

Sciarids. Representatives of two-winged insects, the second name is mushroom mosquitoes. These are small, barely noticeable midges, reaching a maximum of 2 mm in length. Sciarids can be gray, black. It is not difficult to notice them, because a swarm of midges flies not only around plants, but also spreads throughout the room. Female insects reproduce by laying eggs in moist soil. After a few days, transparent larvae appear in the soil, which begin to actively harm the plant. Sciarids find ideal conditions for themselves exclusively in a moist substrate in which decaying organic matter is present. Most often planted in violets, ficuses, azaleas.

Springtails (springtails). Jumping or crawling wingless insects. Very small in size, whitish or gray in color. They reproduce and develop on moist soil, feed on parts of plants. The larvae are able to destroy the entire root system of flowers. The appearance of springtails occurs more often in winter and spring. Pests prefer plants with delicate foliage: begonias, orchids, fuchsias.

Reasons for the appearance of midges in indoor plants

Flower pests can start in any plant, regardless of whether it is cared for by an experienced grower or an ordinary home green lover. The reasons for the appearance of midges are quite simple and commonplace.

When an infection of your favorite plants with pests is detected, the question arises - how to get rid of midges in indoor flowers? Of course, if the problem has arisen recently, then it will be much easier and faster to deal with it. If the hordes of midges have already bred so much that the soil is teeming with larvae, then you should prepare for a long and difficult struggle.

It is clear that folk ways to get rid of midges in flowers will only help early stages soil contamination. If insects multiply disastrously fast, and plants begin to die, then “heavy artillery” should be used - chemical agents.

Chemical assistants in the fight against midges

Understanding diversity chemicals For the destruction of insects, consultants in specialized stores will help.

Before you start using chemicals, carefully read the instructions for use. correct use. Each drug has its own characteristics in breeding, methods of processing plants.

Any product can be harmful to humans and animals, so safety measures must be observed without fail. Work with toxic substances is possible only in rubber gloves, goggles and clothing, wearing a respirator. At the same time, it is extremely important to ventilate the room.

An extreme way out in a situation of plant damage by pests is transplanting into a new, disinfected soil. This procedure should be carried out very carefully so as not to injure the root system of the flower. The planter must be disinfected, and the roots of the plant thoroughly washed. It is desirable to pre-disinfect a new substrate.

Prevention measures

In order not to complicate your life in the future with questions: where did the black and white midges in indoor flowers come from, how to get rid of pests, by what means to fight - use preventive measures.

Paying due attention to home flora, controlling the condition of the soil, observing simple rules watering and fertilizing, the grower will provide his plants comfortable conditions for growth and flowering without annoying pests.

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Among the reasons for the appearance of midges are:

1. Frequent, unnecessarily watering indoor flowers. Insects flying into the room from the street through open windows have a goal: to lay eggs in the soil of a flower pot. Larvae emerge from the eggs, which feed on the juice of the plant's root system, from which it fades over time. A favorable environment for the development of worms is warm soil, supersaturated with moisture.
2. Planting a plant in soil that has been infested with eggs and larvae.
3. The presence in the apartment of purchased vegetables, fruits, on which small flies live.

Types of midges

Often indoor flowers attack:

• sciarids. Adults are black in color and do not harm houseplants. Such black midges annoy with their presence only to people around them, constantly sitting on the body and getting into plates and cups. Sciarid larvae are easy to recognize - white small worms with a black mark on the head in the form of a black dot. The object of attack by black midges is often flowers with leaves of a dense consistency: orchids, ficuses, violets, etc.
• fruit midges. They are more common in vegetables. Wet, overflowing, poor-draining soil is an excellent habitat for fruit flies.
• springtails(ores). Adult insects have White color, sometimes with a yellow-brown tint. Small (from 1 to 5 mm) white midges become active with the beginning of spring or winter. Such earth midges prefer to settle on plants with soft leaves, for example, fuchsias and begonias, geraniums and asparagus.
• . Pests of this species live on roses that are suitable for growing in city apartments. Thrips - black, very small in size - you will not immediately find insects. The consequences of their vital activity on roses become noticeable over time by the appearance of spots, holes on the leaves, the formation of buds irregular shape. Thrips often settle in orchids.
  Effectively help fight midges not only specialized store tools, but also folk ones.

Sciarida

Destruction of pests by folk methods and means

If midges are wound up in the flowers, and there is no extra money to buy special chemicals, then you can use folk remedies to fight insects, among which are known such as:

• Potassium permanganate. Watering the affected land with a weak solution of potassium permanganate once a week will help destroy the larvae. It is important not to allow watering with a solution of strong concentration - the plant may die. If indoor flowers have clear signs wilting, one watering is not limited. It will be necessary to transplant into another flowerpot with a new disinfected soil, and the damaged roots of the plants must be immersed in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 10 minutes before planting.
• garlic cloves. The cut garlic cloves vaporize substances that protect the flower from flying insects. If chopped garlic (3 heads are enough) is poured with water (1 l) and the solution is filtered after 4 days, you will get an excellent tool that destroys larvae in the soil. And when the plant is sprayed with such a solution, the adult thrips that live on the leaves and inside the rosebuds die.
• soap solution. It is better to prepare a weak soapy solution as follows: 50 gr. soap dissolve in 2.5 l hot water. Treat the flower with a ready-made agent by spraying. Repeat the treatment procedure once a week.
• wood ash. Vegetable ash is an excellent remedy for midges and fertilizer. Sprinkle the soil in flower pots with ashes - the right way repel insects.
• Duct tape. Annoying flower midges will stick to the tape hanging next to the flowerpot, the number of flying pests will decrease significantly.
• Chalk from cockroaches. For protection against indoor midges you should sprinkle the surface of the flowerpot with crushed chalk from the cockroaches "Mashenka".
  When folk remedies do not help to cope with insects, you should try to use the chemical version of the fight with specialized means.

Specialized chemicals

The range of hardware stores is replete with chemicals that come with detailed instructions explaining what to do and what precautions to take. Proper observance of the instructive steps guarantees to get rid of pest problems in a short time at home. The following insecticides sold in stores are widely known:

dichlorvos. Insects die over time from its effects, as the drug depresses nervous system insects. An instruction is known that allows using dichlorvos to lime not only individuals living outside, but also larvae developing indoor plants in the ground. To do this, you need to wait until the soil becomes dry and loosen the ground. Put a bag on the flowerpot with the plant, which must be fixed at the right height so that it does not crush the leaves. Spray dichlorvos into the ground. Tie the bag tightly. Wait 5 hours. Repeat the procedure after 1 week.

Solutions. Among the solutions, the most popular are: Fitoverm, Thunder-2 and Kinmiks. When preparing solutions, it is important to observe the proportions. After treatment with the agent, you can water the plant with water only after 3 days. Before the soil disinfection procedure of the ground part indoor flower chemical, it is recommended to vacuum all the slotted openings of the room and additionally place sticky traps, do not open windows during the day.
The use of chemicals requires safety precautions. Before processing flowers, you must wear thick rubber gloves, a respirator, goggles and a protective gown.

How to remove midges if they reappear? Compliance with the rules of prevention will save you from uninvited guests.

Prevention rules

To not get started small midges again, you need:

1. Observe the regime of watering plants and monitor the volume of water.
2. Make holes in the pots and pour special granules on the bottom to ensure drainage - the water will not stagnate in the pot.
3. Loosen the soil regularly to prevent soil rotting.

When midges in indoor flowers could not be removed on their own, you should seek the advice of a specialist.

Caring for plants is painstaking but enjoyable work. In order for indoor flowers to always please the eye, you need to try to detect and remove the source of the problem in time, leading to a deterioration in the condition of the plants.

Every flower grower is familiar with this small flying misfortune. Sooner or later, a flying trifle starts up in flower pots, and sometimes it is not at all easy to survive from there. To successfully control a pest, you need to understand the reasons for its appearance. It's not enough to come up with something to bring out flower midges. We must learn to avoid its appearance.

Flower midge: who is she?

Do not confuse flower midges with fruit ones. The fruit fly, or Drosophila, is somewhat larger, looks plump and businesslike. Drosophila feeds on yeast cultures, starts in rotting fruit, wine and beer residues, and sour food residues. She is indifferent to flowers and carries absolutely no danger to them on her wings.

A completely different matter is the flower midge. Tiny, little black dots stupidly pushing near flower pots, the adult fly itself is safe for plants. But from the eggs laid in the soil, voracious larvae of flower midges hatch, which feed on young plant roots.

With a strong infection, the larvae can completely destroy the roots and the flower will die.

Reasons for the appearance

There are only two reasons:

• poor-quality soil infected with larvae;
• over watering the plant.

You can bring an infected plant from a flower shop, or transplant it into poorly cultivated soil. Midges can start in any pot if the soil is constantly moist.

If you do not notice the appearance of flower midges in time, after a while a whole swarm of unpleasant insects will curl around the flowers.

Folk pest control methods

The people, as you know, are much more inventive. Not all ways to get midges out work flawlessly, but in most cases, folk notions justify themselves.

1. Dry the soil. In dry soil, the larvae die, and adult flies will not lay new eggs in dry soil. If the plant infested with gnat larvae is a succulent, you just need to stop watering it until the soil is completely dry. Then the surface is sprinkled with clean calcined sand or glass granules, after which you can water the plant with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. A layer of sand on top of the soil is generally capable of preventing the ground from laying eggs by the flower fly.
2. Take a few ordinary matches and stick them head down into the top layer of soil, water lightly. As the head dissolves, replace the matches with fresh ones. Usually 4 changes of matches are enough.
3. Spread on the surface of the soil, cut into thin slices fresh garlic or water the soil with garlic infusion.
4. Water the plant with a mild soap solution. Only to prepare the solution, you need to take not liquid or toilet soap, but the simplest household soap.
5. Use Favorite folk remedy from everything in the world - Vietnamese balm "Asterisk". Midges terribly do not like its pungent smell. Lubricate the edges of the pot with balm, and put a few pieces of paper soaked in odorous substance on the surface of the soil. It has a similar effect on flower midges essential oil tea tree.
6. If none of the suggested methods helped to get the midges out of the flowers, transplant the plants. When transplanting, carefully clean the root system from the soil and rinse in a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate. Throw away the old soil. Change the vase. Warm fresh soil well in the oven. Water gently afterwards to avoid over-wetting.

Agrochemicals

The chemicals offered in flower shops for pest control are quite effective. But they have one major drawback - they are harmful not only to midges, but also to people.

Most chemicals require care in handling, protective equipment and good ventilation.

1. You can spray your flowers with any of the flying and crawling insecticides. You can cover the plant with a plastic bag, tie it tightly after spraying and keep it like that for a day.
2. From special means the most effective are Grom-2, Aktellik and Mukhoed. "Aktellik" is used for spraying and watering, the granules of the drug "Grom-2" are mixed with top layer soil. When using all agricultural chemicals, you must strictly follow the instructions!

And in order to timely notice the appearance of harmful flying trifles, place pieces of sticky tape for flies near indoor flowers.