Worms in a pot of flowers. There are worms in the flower pot

What are these white worms in an indoor flower?

• Fly larvae;
• Nematodes;
• Enhythrea;
• Fungus gnat larvae (sciarids);

Fly larvae, sciarids up to 4 mm in length, white. Adult hatchlings have wings. They reproduce equally in moist and dry soil - they are more attracted to the environment in the room where they are comfortable.

Since most midges and worms in indoor flower, we'll dry it soil mixture to kill pests.

How to remove white worms from an indoor flower:

• Stop watering the plant;
• Fill in expanded clay, dry hydrogel, beads - it prevents stagnation of water and prevents the laying of larvae;
• To catch and poison midges - spread sticky tape over the pot and spray the midges with dichlorvos (attention: ventilate the room before sleeping);
• Mix into the soil wood ash+ tobacco shavings;
• Clean the sulfur from the match head;

The listed methods will help kill white worms in indoor flowers, but if there are too many of them, you will have to use chemicals.

How to treat flowers against white worms:

• "Aktara";
• "Bazudin";
• "Agravertine";
• "Fitoverm";
• Anti-worm medications;

Soil treatment against white worms in flowers

The soil mixture is steamed or spilled with a solution of potassium permanganate before use. Try not to over-moisten the soil in the pot, lower the humidity and air temperature to a level comfortable for indoor flowers. Carry out insecticide prevention once a year.

IN Lately a lot of information about the benefits of earthworms. But it's in the garden. And for indoor flowers? Many people believe that they need to be destroyed in a pot. Is it so?

Opinions about earthworms are extremely contradictory. Some praise their virtues and even breed them at home, others see them as an unpleasant creature, like a voracious caterpillar.

You can find many stories on the Internet that give examples of how earthworms “bitten a poor flower in a pot” (hereinafter - quotes from various forums). However, such statements raise serious doubts. And first of all, in the education of their authors.

Here's the quote that begins one story: "Earthworms are generally regarded as beneficial insects...".

What follows is a description of the poor flower, which was “fading before our eyes.” After it was taken out of the pot, it turned out that there was an earthworm (and more than one!). Apparently, “these worms gobbled up all the roots, leaving only pitiful bits of them.”

Of course, we know what earthworms look like. Let's try to figure out whether they can harm plants.

Let's start with the fact that earthworms are not insects (as they were called on the forum). The offensive word “worms” is also not about them. Earthworms The ones we see in the garden are terrestrial invertebrates. Here's what it looks like according to scientific classification: Kingdom - Animals; Type - Annelids; Class - Beltworms; Subclass - Oligochaete worms; Order - Haplotaxida; Suborder - Earthworms; Family - Lumbricidae.

Large eyeless worms 10-30 cm long belong to this family. The genera and species of this family differ in the shape of the head lobe (the so-called upper lip), in the position of the girdle and in the number of rings.

Several dozen species from the genera Lumbricus, Dendrobaena and Allolobophora are found in Russia.

Representatives of this family are the best helpers for increasing soil fertility, and at the same time they are a popular bait for fishing.

Accusations that an earthworm “bitten” the poor flower are completely unfounded. U earthworm there are no gnawing organs, unlike, for example, wireworms. Therefore, healthy plant roots are too tough for him.

An earthworm feeds on semi-decomposed organic matter, including roots, which are already rotten and softened. So in the pot he could easily “eat up” the roots of the flower if they were rotten. But with such roots, the flower itself would have died, without the “help” of the worm.

If he ate the rotten roots, then, rather, he did some good, since he eliminated most infected tissue. This can be compared to the amputation of a leg affected by gangrene. Doctors sacrifice part of the body to prevent its death as a whole.

So the worm is not eating the healthy roots in the pot. What happened to the plant that began to wither?

There may be several causes of the disease. Most likely, the flower was simply flooded. Stagnation of moisture in a pot is harmful to any plants. The top layer of soil may look dry, but the soil below remains moist.

Stagnation of moisture occurs when the plant is watered frequently and abundantly, when there are no drainage holes or the holes are too small and clogged with soil. Sooner or later this leads to rotting of the roots.

Also, the roots begin to rot from the hypothermia of the earthen lump on the windowsill or from a high dose of fertilizer. Another reason is diseases whose pathogens penetrate from the soil into the root system.

But in all these cases, the owner of the flower is “to blame,” because he did not fulfill the requirements of the plant or did not carefully monitor it and missed the onset of the disease. It is clear that we do not like to blame ourselves. It is much more convenient to blame everything on the earthworm, especially when it turns out to be “at the crime scene.”

SHOULD I KICK OUT OR LEAVE THE EARTHWORM?

Earthworms (as well as their eggs) enter the flower pot with garden soil or compost, which is added to the soil mixture. IN store soil these inhabitants usually do not exist, since the soil is steamed.

A sure sign that there are earthworms in a pot with a houseplant are small black pellets on the surface of the soil. If the activity of earthworms in the soil is considered beneficial, then flower pot there is no place for them. This is due to the fact that in a pot the worms are forced to live in a small volume of soil. In search of food, they make many moves and actually “spin” in one place. Thus, they interfere with the growth of thin suction roots that nourish the plant. It takes on a depressed appearance and develops slowly.

With all due respect to earthworms, it is better to remove them from the pot. They don’t respond to a polite request to leave; you’ll have to kick me out. This method is used for this. The pot is placed in a container and water is poured to ground level. Soon the worms will run out of air and crawl to the surface. There they can be collected and transferred to the garden or city front garden. However, this method does not guarantee that there are no earthworm eggs left in the ground.

It is better to transplant the flower into new soil, while choosing uninvited guests. Earthworm eggs are also easy to select. They are round, yellow or brown and quite large (2 to 4 mm). More precisely, these are cocoons containing from 2 to 20 eggs.

When replanting a flower, sometimes they find many small red worms in the pot at once,

who bear little resemblance to useful assistants. They immediately try to destroy these “worms”. But this is what a young earthworm that hatched from eggs looks like (on the first day, the babies are only 1 mm long). Together with the soil, they also need to be released into the beds.

In addition to removing worms, replanting indoor flowers is also recommended because it allows you to carefully examine the plant for root rot.

Diseased roots can be easily distinguished by their color: black or dark brown. Sometimes the roots become translucent and soft to the touch.

The affected areas of the roots should be cut off with sharp scissors and sprinkled with crushed coal (or an activated carbon tablet). After transplanting, water moderately and aboveground part cover with a jar or bag.

To treat the disease, you need to water the plant with some fungicide, for example, phytosporin.

If the roots were healthy and you simply removed the earthworms, then the plant will soon recover.

Earthworms- a family of worms from the class of oligochaetes, such as annelids. The length reaches from 10 to 30 cm. With thick skin, red blood, without eyes. The body consists of rings, or segments. All segments, except the anterior one, bear 8 short small hooked setae, which serve as support during movement. They reproduce by laying cocoons with eggs in the ground. Each mature individual lays 18-24 cocoons during the summer, each of which contains 1-21 eggs. After 2 - 3 weeks, new individuals emerge from the eggs, and after another 7 - 12 weeks, the “newborns” themselves are able to bear offspring. Worms live 10 - 15 years. Young sexually mature individuals weigh up to 1 g. The cultivated red Californian worm provides 18 - 26 times reproduction in the local climate and 500 times reproduction in special greenhouses, while wild relatives provide 4 - 6 times reproduction. They live in the soil, where they move by pushing its particles with their heads or swallowing them. They are nocturnal. During the night, the worm can “walk” along the surface of 15 - 20 meters. They come to the surface only after heavy rains

- Earthworms

The soil suffocates due to lack of oxygen (hence the name). The peculiarities of digestion make earthworms detritivorous, i.e. they feed on detritus - decaying plant organic matter with soil particles located on the surface or in their underground burrows, as well as in the soil itself.

Earthworm species can be classified according to three morpho-ecological criteria: They live in the upper layers of soil rich in organic matter. These are small worms with a rapid succession of generations. A representative of this class, Eisenia Foetida (known as the Red Californian worm), is widely used in industrial biotechnology for the production of vermicompost.

- Endogeic Representatives of this class live in soil less saturated with organic matter, and their diet includes large quantity minerals. They build horizontal branching burrows at shallow depths and play a very important role in soil formation. They continuously mix and aerate the soil.

- Anecics Bouche This name includes species that build permanent vertical burrows that penetrate deep into the soil. They play a very important role in soil formation as well as fermentation organic matter. The main species in this class are Lumbricus terrestris and Aporrectodea longa.

Earthworms are unique creatures! Their extremely positive role in the processes of creating fertile and living soil is widely known. Worms feed on decaying organic debris (leaves, grass, manure, etc.), which they drag into their passages. Absorbing along with the soil great amount plant residues, protozoan nematodes, microbes, fungi, algae, earthworms digest them, excreting them together with

coprolites (piles of earth secreted by worms) a large amount of humic acids, their own microflora, amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, and other biological active substances, which suppress pathogenic microflora. Earthworm excrement (coprolites), containing a lot of crushed earth particles and organic matter processed in the intestines, is deposited on the surface of the earth. This is valuable organic fertilizer. Thus, earthworms help increase the fertility of the arable layer of the soil, at the same time, with their burrows they loosen the soil, and by dragging in plant residues they increase the organic content in the soil. An earthworm in the ground is a continuously working factory for the production of organic fertilizer. They loosen the soil, penetrating it with burrows, which promotes aeration and moistening of the deep layers, mix it and accelerate the decomposition of plant residues. Over the summer, in search of food, the worm is capable of digging up to 1 kilometer of passages underground. In the garden, in the flowerbed, in the vegetable garden, earthworms are undoubtedly very useful inhabitants.

The debate about the dangers or benefits of earthworms in a flower pot continues , especially on the Internet. By the way, do not confuse them with very bad worms: cutworm and weevil larvae that feed on roots. Among some flower growers, there is a widespread belief about the absolute harm that earthworms bring. I'm just These are nasty pests. They They gnaw roots in pots, eat young shoots and seedlings, sprouts, and seeds. They cannot do this due to the structural features of the oral apparatus.

It turns out that there are no teeth in the worm's mouth. Therefore, they cannot gnaw or bite or feed on living plants. Normally, they feed on plant debris. Food should be soft enough and partially decomposed so that it can pass through a small mouth opening. Some see earthworms as dangerous pests, while others recommend specially bringing worms from the street and putting them in pots. Thanks to the numerous passages and burrows of earthworms, aeration and drainage are significantly improved. In principle, for large plants in large tubs, the earthworm is not a pest at all; it fertilizes, aerates and loosens the soil. This is useful if the tub is filled with heavy clay garden soil; it improves air access to the poor substrate. However, in a pot with a high-quality peat substrate there is no need for additional aeration. Earthworms do not cause direct harm to indoor plants, but in a small flower pot the benefit of their presence is very doubtful. IN the process of movement in the substrate worms actively dig rather wide passages, expose part of the roots, and can mechanically damaging and disturbing is very gentle y young homies . If there are a lot of worms then this is bad for the flower. Crawling along the surface of the substrate, worms leave not very beautiful mucus. Some people just don't like them. In general, this is a matter of taste. But when buying a houseplant in a store, there should be no earthworms or any other worms in the pot. Can worms be brought in with purchased soil? Yes. But this is a problem of low-quality products, especially if the mixture includes turf or deciduous soil, poor vermicompost, compost. There is a worm in the peat Very rare guest And can get in two cases: during careless storage or when exposing plants outside. Earthworms, despite the huge amount of undecomposed organic matter, do not live on industrial peat bogs. extraction, transportation and processing of peat, as well as delivery of the substrate to the consumer in packaged form, infection with live worms or their eggs is excluded. Worms do not live in high-moor peat, so with a high-quality peat substrate, worms cannot get into the pot. Most often, worms or their eggs get into the pot when using unsterilized garden soil. Usually, they come with unsteamed soil in the form of eggs. External signs of earthworms Characteristic lumps of earth appear on the surface of the substrate and on the pallet, thrown out of their passages; the earthen lump is riddled with characteristic passages; the soil dries quickly. Preventive actions Use a high-quality peat substrate. Store the remainder of the substrate in a closed container in a dry place. If you take the plants outside in the summer, place the pots on pallets so that earthworms cannot get into them. If you independently prepare soil from the garden and use other high-risk components (turf soil, compost, deciduous soil, vermicompost of dubious origin), it is highly advisable to sterilize them with thermal or chemically. This is true both for soil from your garden and for unreliable cheap store-bought mixtures. Ways to fight When transplanting, it is easy to collect large worms. Carefully inspect the earthen lump. If characteristic passages are detected, remove the plant from the pot and carefully, using tweezers, without disturbing the roots, gather the uninvited"guests". Place the pot in warm water (you can use a weak pale pink solution of potassium permanganate) and hold for 15-20 minutes. The earthworms will not have enough air and will crawl to the surface on their own. Collect crawling worms.

This method of fighting is the best. In extreme cases, chemicals can be used. Herbicides have fairly low toxicity to worms; fungicides and fumigants are poisonous to them.

Sincerely, Yuri Kardash

Fly larvae, sciarids up to 4 mm in length, white. Adult hatchlings have wings. They reproduce equally in moist and dry soil - they are more attracted to the environment in the room where they are comfortable.

How to remove white worms from an indoor flower?

How to remove white worms from an indoor flower:

• Stop watering the plant;
• Fill in expanded clay, dry hydrogel, beads - it prevents stagnation of water and prevents the laying of larvae;
• To catch and poison midges - spread sticky tape over the pot and spray the midges with dichlorvos (attention: ventilate the room before sleeping);
• Since most of the midges and worms are in indoor flowers, we will dry the soil mixture to kill the pests.
• Clean the sulfur from the match head;

The listed methods will help kill white worms in indoor flowers, but if there are too many of them, you will have to use chemicals.

How to treat flowers against white worms:

• "Aktara";
• "Bazudin";
• "Agravertine";
• "Fitoverm";
• Anti-worm medications;

Soil treatment against white worms in flowers

The soil mixture is steamed or spilled with a solution of potassium permanganate before use. Try not to over-moisten the soil in the pot, lower the humidity and air temperature to a level comfortable for indoor flowers. Carry out insecticide prevention once a year.

If you find white worms in a flower pot, it's time to sound the alarm, because they are by no means harmless. Because of these pests, not a single new plant will be able to sprout in the ground, and an adult one may die.

Preventive actions

Control measures

Soil disinfection

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What do sciarids look like?

This midge has many names; in addition to the fungus gnat, it is also called the tomato midge and soil midge. The adult insect is up to 4 mm long and has wings. The larvae are whitish, translucent, and have a black head. It’s easy to detect them; if you knock on the pot, midges will fly out, and if you stir up the top layer of soil, you will see white worms and even piles of skins from the molting of adult fungus gnats near the roots of the flower.

Sciarids end up in a flower pot with purchased soil or a purchased flower. Typically, midges live in waterlogged soil, but if you do not remove them immediately, but only reduce watering, they will not disappear, but will quickly get used to the new conditions and will reproduce well in a dry substrate.

How to kill black midges in flowers

As we have already written, sciarids love such a humid environment where the process of decay takes place. Many people water the ground under the flowers with water from an aquarium, tea leaves, water used to wash meat, mullein, and so on. Naturally, this makes the plants grow better, but bugs also quickly appear in flower pots. Therefore, pest control comes down to a set of measures:
Transplanting a flower into new pot and new soil if there are a lot of midges.
Simultaneous treatment of the premises with dichlorvos or other means.

If there are few midges, do not replant the flower, but do this:

1. Dry the soil in the pot - do not water for several days.
2. Pour a layer of expanded clay, you can even use beads, the main thing is that it is dry and it is not comfortable for midges to lay eggs.
3. Kill flying flies with dichlorvos.
4. Hang sticky tape over your flowers.
5. Sprinkle the soil with ash mixed with tobacco dust.
6. Stick matches into the soil, head down.

And to prevent midges from entering from the street, always have a mosquito net on the windows.

These are all folk methods, but why spend so much time fighting these annoying bugs if you can exterminate the pests with poison. Buy one of effective means, How:

• agravertine
• decis
• Aktar
• actellik
• fitoverm
• inta-vir
• kinmix.

It is enough to water the soil 2 times with an interval of 7 days and all pests will die. And flying ones too. They will not be able to lay new eggs in the treated soil and will gradually disappear. Just don’t need to water the plant for 5 days.

You can also use thunder 2 granules, basadine. They are scattered on the ground and lightly mixed with the top layer of soil. The action is slow, but the black midges in the flowers die.

And in order not to bring these pests home in the future, always bake the purchased soil over steam; freezing will not help, it has been tested.

Pests indoor plants

Appearance of white spots

Brown spots

Withering

Description of pests

Spider mite

Aphid

Shields

• lemons;
• oranges;
• tangerines;
• asparagus;
• oleanders;
• ivies;
• palm trees

Thrips

White Podura

Mealybugs

These are white worms; they love the back of the leaf in the places where the vein runs.
The seeds are large, up to half a centimeter, very fertile. They build houses for their offspring that look like balls of cotton wool, and lay eggs in them. The hatched larvae are mobile and quickly conquer space on the flowers.

Whitefly

If there are white worms in the soil, but small black flies do not fly around the plants, then enchytraea, or saprophytic species of nematodes, are probably developing in the soil.

Enchitraea look like small white worms about 1-2 cm long. These are the closest relatives of earthworms. Lovers aquarium fish They are specially bred for food. They live in the soil at a depth of about 10 cm.

They can be noticed if you remove the plant from the pot. They harm potted plants - they eat roots and tender shoots. Damaged plant begins to lag in growth, the leaves turn yellow and wither, and eventually the plant dies. High soil moisture and the presence of undecomposed pieces (organics) of plant residues contribute to the appearance of enchytraea. In places rich in food, enchitraea are found in whole balls.

Preventive actions

Do not allow the soil in the pots to become waterlogged. When moving plants outdoors, be sure to use trays to prevent insects from entering pots from open ground.

Control measures

• Keeping potted flowers drier.
• Immersion of flowerpots completely in hot water to flush out insects.
• Replanting plants that have been affected by this scourge: rinse the pot and roots of the old soil and plant the plant in fresh soil. But such a procedure for a flower is not painless.
• Most effective way– water the soil with an insecticide solution (Aktara, Bazudin, Inta-Vir, Fury, Fitoverm) or anti-helminth medications (repeat twice with an interval of two weeks). In the spring, transplant the plants into new soil, carefully clearing the roots from the old soil.
• Land must be purchased from branded flower shops. First of all, check that the package is not torn and pay attention to the expiration date. Do not buy soil in counterfeit bags that do not have the manufacturer’s brand name and address.

Soil disinfection

The soil must meet all standards and be free of any pests, pathogen spores and weed seeds. But it’s still safer to disinfect the finished soil yourself.

You can pour boiling water or a hot (90°C) solution of potassium permanganate over the soil poured into a bucket and cover it on top to maintain the high temperature for a longer time.

But better soil steam using any large old pan or bucket. Pour water (1/4 volume) into the bottom of the container. At a height of 1/3 from the bottom, install a lid with drilled holes(grid, colander bowl), which is covered with a large piece of cloth so that the soil does not spill. Or pour the earth into a cloth bag. Cover the top tightly with a lid and boil for at least 40 minutes.

Disinfecting soil in the oven requires caution. The layer of earth should be no more than 8-10 cm, and the temperature should not be higher than 60-80°C. Heat treatment causes death not only pathogenic microorganisms, but also useful.

Sterile soil is very quickly (within 2-3 weeks) populated by new inhabitants, both harmful and beneficial. To ensure that there are as few of the former as possible, it is recommended to add vermicompost (1:10) to the disinfected cooled soil.

indoor.usadbaonline.ru

We have small white worms up to a millimeter long in our greenhouse. At first glance, it seems that all the beds are sprinkled with semolina. No matter how hard we tried to get rid of them! They sprayed the soil with dichlorvos, watered it with a solution of potassium permanganate and even creolin.

The worms that our reader writes about belong to the order springtails (collembole). Springtails appeared on Earth much earlier than insects and higher plants, therefore they have adapted to feed on algae, fungi, and lichens. More often they live among rotting plant remains and in the surface layer of soil, but they can go deeper. Less commonly they live on plants and in water bodies.

Species living in the soil are white; those that live on green plants are greenish; in the forest floor – grayish and brown; There are brightly colored or with a metallic sheen. The body length of the worm is 1 mm. Head with antennae and eyes on the sides. Three pairs of legs allow active movement on the surface, and thanks to the “fork” under the abdomen, even jumping. White springtails, living in the ground, do not have a “jumping fork”; they can only crawl with the help of short chest legs.

Springtails reproduce in a unique way. Males deposit spermatophores in the form of droplets (seminal fluid) on stalks. Females capture spermatophores with their genital openings and, after fertilization, lay eggs in damp places. The eggs hatch into small springtails that look like adults.

Collembolas, or Springtails

Springtails are not bothered by cold weather, they are active even in frozen soil, and the development of eggs does not stop up to plus 2-3°C.

Are springtails harmful? Yes and no.

On the one hand, the vital activity of springtails enriches the soil. They feed on decaying organic matter, bacteria, and animal excrement. In the north, it is they who destroy fallen leaves, enriching the soil with nutrients.

Collembolas, or Springtails

However, there are also representatives of white springtails that eat into the succulent roots of plants. Undoubtedly, they oppress plants both in the greenhouse and in the garden bed. This results in crop losses.

What do you recommend? Considering that the development of springtail eggs is possible only in a humid environment and they are very sensitive to drying out, try drying the soil during the process of partially replacing it in a greenhouse (in a baking tray on a fire or on iron sheets in the sun).

www.botanichka.ru

Symptoms to recognize harmful insects

What needs to be done to save pets? First of all, find out what harmful insects have infested the flowers. To do this, a thorough examination of the plant itself and the soil is carried out. After this they begin a merciless struggle various methods. Remember, any delay is fraught with disastrous consequences.

Insects live in the soil (on roots), on leaves, stems, and gnaw buds.

Pests of indoor plants

Plants react to each pest in a special way: they can change the color of leaves and slow down their growth. When visually examining a houseplant, you can notice changes in the leaves and stems.

Appearance of white spots

White spots are a signal of the appearance of:

• Mealybug or rootbug. You need to examine all parts of the flower. If you notice “cotton” lumps, it means there is a pest.
• When whiteflies appear, the leaves become sticky and may fall off.
• The presence of a red spider (clover) mite can be determined by the whitish mesh, spider mite by the cobweb. Leaves at large quantities insects die off.

What do yellow spots signal?

If yellow spots appear on the leaves, you need to inspect the leaves. If fingers stick to them, these are marks left by scale insects. The cause may be the appearance of enchytraea. Tiny white worms live in the soil right at the root.

Brown spots

The presence of brown, brownish spots on the bottom of the leaf and white streaks on top indicates the action of thrips.

Deformation of green parts of the plant

If the shoots and leaves on the flowers begin to deform, it means that the flower is affected by aphids or cyclamin mites. Aphids leave behind sticky residues. It sucks the juice from indoor plants, which can cause them to dry out. If dust appears on the leaves from below, they curl - the mite is in control.

Withering

The cause of drooping leaves and shoots is fungus gnats, leaf or root-knot nematodes.

Description of pests

Pests of indoor plants can cause harm and lead to the death of green spaces if they are not dealt with. Let's look at the most common insects and their destructive activities.

Spider mite

Spider mites are the most common “guest” on indoor plants. Due to their small size, they cannot be seen with the naked eye. You need to examine the lower part of the flower, because these pests do not tolerate light and moisture. Insects may appear in a dry and hot room. In such conditions, development spider mite swift.

If you have geraniums, hibiscus, palm trees, aspidistra, then they need to be inspected constantly. Insects pierce the tender part of the leaves and suck out the juice. As a result, the leaves become faded and crumble.

Aphid

Aphids can be seen despite their small size. They come in black and green. Insect colonies multiply rapidly: the female lays at least 150 larvae, which after 7 days themselves enter the reproduction stage.
Females of the third generation have the ability to fly. They move onto any indoor plants and lay larvae. Diseases are transferred to flowers on their paws, for example, different types flower mosaic. Getting rid of aphids is not as easy as it seems.

Shields

Scale insects on indoor plants are a dangerous pest; they love to settle on cuttings, leaves, and stems. It is not difficult to detect: it is flat, oval, with the lower part of its body tightly adjacent to the substrate.

These pests are different. Real scale insects hide under their shells, just like turtles. False scale insects do not have this possibility, since this part of the body is inseparable.

The favorite colors of these pests are:

• lemons;
• oranges;
• tangerines;
• asparagus;
• oleanders;
• ivies;
• palm trees

Scale insects settle on the lower part of the leaf. Colonies develop quickly. Slowly moving dots appear on the leaves, somewhat reminiscent of plaques. The leaves around their habitat turn yellow. Insects suck out the juice of tender plants and shoots, depleting the plant. If you do not start a timely fight, indoor flowers die.

Thrips

Ficus, begonia, dracaena, palm trees are affected by the jumping beetle small sizes- thrips. The females make holes in the leaves or flower buds and lay eggs. The damage is microscopic and impossible to notice with the naked eye. A signal that thrips are on indoor plants is a silvery pattern appearing on the leaves. The insects themselves live on the back side of the leaf.

White Podura

These creatures can also jump. This is a soil insect that lives directly in pots. It is distinguished by an elongated body, on which sparse hairs are visible. There are antennae on the head. Most often they appear in soils rich in humus.

The basis of nutrition is plant residues, but it does not disdain the living root system. It is clear that the eaten roots can no longer cope with their function, the plant slows down its growth and may die.

Mealybugs

These are white worms; they love the back of the leaf in the places where the vein runs. Females are large, up to half a centimeter, very fertile. They build houses for their offspring that look like balls of cotton wool, and lay eggs in them. The hatched larvae are mobile and quickly conquer space on the flowers.
Gardeners who grow azaleas and cacti need to constantly inspect their plants for signs of mealybugs. These pests of indoor plants prefer them and it is necessary to take immediate measures to combat them.

Whitefly

Whiteflies by by and large greenhouse insects. If you purchased flowers in these places, do not be lazy to examine them carefully. Even one female whitefly on indoor plants for a short time will produce huge offspring. Then the question will arise of how to fight. The pest's favorite flowers are fuchsias, ferns, and geraniums. The two-millimeter insect feeds on plant sap, and as a result it weakens and withers.

Fungus gnats

It often happens that flower growers notice small flies flying around their flowers, but do not attach any importance to it. And in vain, because the fly lays larvae in moist, fertile soil. The larvae are microscopic, so their appearance is not immediately noticeable. The danger of insects is that the smallest creatures feed on the root system of plants. As a result, the flower dies.

How to control pests on indoor plants

Many novice gardeners are wondering how to deal with pests of indoor plants. The answer to this is important, since insects multiply rapidly, time must not be wasted.

Exist different ways to help get rid of pests:

1. mechanical;
2. biological;
3. folk;
4. chemical.

If pests of indoor plants are correctly identified, and measures to combat them will be effective.

Mechanical

You need to start with the measures that are safest for humans, especially since they often help a lot. Before starting work, you should disinfect and sharpen your tools. Cut off all damaged leaves and shoots; the cut areas need to be sprinkled activated carbon.
Bugs and visible larvae are selected manually: scale insects, slugs, caterpillars. Leaves with pests such as aphids can be wiped with a cotton pad. A contrast shower and spraying with water helps get rid of pests living on the green parts of the plant.

Biological

How to fight harmful insects with biological means? Such preparations are created based on plants. Most often used:

• "Fitoverm";
• "Agrovertin";
• "Iskra-Bio".

Before use, you should read the instructions. Since they destroy pests, they contain poison in small doses. The plants are treated early in the morning and left in a shaded place until all parts of the plant are dry. The room where the treatment was carried out is ventilated. You need to wash all exposed parts of your body. warm water with detergents.

Traditional methods

If there are indoor pests plants, treatment can be carried out with proven centuries folk remedies. For this, decoctions and infusions are prepared from:

• yarrow;
• chamomile;
• dandelion;
• marigolds;
• nettle;
• garlic;
• Luke;
• peels of oranges, tangerines, lemons.

These environmentally friendly and harmless plants can effectively destroy harmful insects. Steamed citrus peels can be buried in the soil. Insects don't like their smell.

An infusion of tobacco, stove ash, a solution of potassium permanganate, furatsilin or soda works well. To prevent the liquid from immediately draining from the plants, laundry soap is added to it.

Chemical

When using chemical pest control products, rapid success can be achieved. It is better to resort to their help as a last resort if other methods have not given a positive result. It should be remembered that such products are unsafe for humans and beneficial insects. To Work with chemicals It is necessary with the window open, removing children and animals from the room. In addition, when working you need to use personal protective equipment. After work, you need to thoroughly wash your hands and face.
The treated plants are placed in the shade until the solution is completely dry. The area where the treatment was carried out must be washed hot water with detergents.

Remember that chemicals are toxic, therefore, they should be stored in places inaccessible to children and pets. Popular and effective means from pests of indoor plants:

• "Karbofos";
• "Chlorophos";
• "Syphos";
• "Trichlorometaphos";
• "Pyrethrum";
• "Decis";
• "Fury."

They are capable of destroying almost all harmful insects.

Getting rid of harmful insects

The shell of insects makes them invulnerable even to toxic drugs. If there is a large concentration of pests, you should clean them with a toothbrush and moisten them with alcohol.
From chemicals better to use:

• Actellicom;
• Detis;
• Intavir.