Pepper is a culture that can be found in almost every summer house; a picky vegetable may not grow fruit if aphids start on it.
There are several species of this insect, but they do the most harm - black midge and aphid green. This pest, grows up to 5 mm, feeds on juice from leaves and young shoots, as a result, the plant stops growth and dies after a while. Tiny midges additionally secrete a sticky substance, which serves as a breeding ground for sooty fungi, which also cause serious harm to pepper.
Insects feed on sap, both young and old plants, throughout the entire warm period. Appearing in the spring, the pest will not leave your plants alone until autumn. Aphids can live and breed successfully, not only on vegetables, it lives on various flowers, berries, trees, not only young plants, but also adult specimens.
Why pepper attracts aphids
This insect eats plant sap, it is not surprising that nutritious and tasty peppers are an excellent source of food for it. The fight against it is difficult - the insect quickly increases in number without a stage of pupae. Eggs of certain species of aphids are even able to winter on the remains of plants, so that when warm days begin, they hatch and multiply again.
The invasion of aphids, sucking juices, causes a delay in the development of pepper:
• Vegetable growth is delayed, with a severe defeat, it stops completely;
• Leaves begin to bend, turn yellow after a while and begin to fall off;
• The inflorescences cease to be laid and develop, those already grown showered.
In addition, aphids provoke the development of viral diseases, passing them between plants, serving as a kind of carrier of diseases. Pepper seedlings, it is difficult to cope with this pest on your own, for this reason, the fight against it should begin immediately when a problem is detected.
Humid and warm air, for example, the microclimate of the greenhouse - temperature more than 22 degrees and humidity more than 75%, favorable conditions for the development of the pest.
Biological methods of struggle
To destroy aphids on pepper seedlings with the help of their natural enemies, it is necessary to create conditions that attract them. Birds - sparrows and tits will help in the fight, wasp aphids, ladybugs, flower girls, female flies feed on insects. To attract them, plant yarrow, parsley, marigolds, chamomile, or several buckwheat bushes on the plot.
A deterrent property is possessed by a solution of chamomile, which is called feverfew, it is placed in a container near pepper seedlings. A substance is produced from this solution that repels and can even kill the pest. Experienced gardeners are advised to plant together with seedlings of pepper - coriander, mint, garlic, lavender, and in the holes when planting seedlings, it is nice to pour onion husks.
Attention! They will help to attract beneficial insects for the destruction of aphids on pepper seedlings, such plants as abundantly blooming sideral crops, fragrant herbs growing nearby, and nettles.
Pepper seedlings aphids
You can destroy aphids on pepper seedlings, using folk fighting methods. In this case, decoctions and infusions of various plants are used. This can be an infusion of ash, soap solution, herbs or seasonings:
• make soap solution from planed soap (about 5 grams) dissolved in hot water (1 liter). This mixture is insisted for 5 hours, after which it is filtered, and pepper seedlings are washed or sprayed;
• Flask of Ash, made of 2 glasses of wood ash and a bucket of water, it is insisted for 24 hours, after which 100 g of soap solution is added to the solution;
• To make tobacco infusion 50 tobacco dust or grains, insist day in 1 liter of heated water, and then mix with soap;
• Also used to process pepper seedlings, mustard infusion - 10 grams of mustard powder, insist in a bucket of hot water;
• To combat aphids, use hot pepper infusion, 20 grams of ground pepper insist in 250 grams of hot water;
• Herbal decoctions, help scare away or destroy the pest at an early stage of development. These are freshly picked, pre-dried, or dried yarrow, rhubarb, bitter wormwood, tansy. It is necessary to take 1 kg of grass, boil for 15 minutes in a bucket of water, then strain and add 40 g of laundry soap to the solution;
• Spruce needles, can help against the pest, both indoors and seedlings already planted in the garden. The solution is prepared on the basis of spruce needles - 500 g of needles are poured into 2 liters of water, and left for one week. It is advisable to put the finished solution in the shade. Before use, the infusion is diluted in the proportion of 20 ml of the obtained product, per 500 ml of water.
Pepper seedlings aphids
If neither biological nor folk recipes can defeat the pest, then special chemical compounds will have to be used. Although they are unsafe, the result of their use will be certain. Chemical processing in the premises can not be carried out, but by transferring the seedlings of pepper to the greenhouse, you can safely destroy the pest.
Among gardeners, such means for killing aphids are popular:
1. Actellic - an organophosphorus compound that instantly destroys aphids can be used indoors;
2. Bullshit - an effective weapon to destroy the pest;
3. Fury - The chemical used to treat fruit and vegetable plants cannot be used during flowering.
Important! Chemical treatment of pepper plants, permissible only at the age of seedlings, less than a month before harvesting, they must be stopped. Also, you can not use such drugs to kill aphids during flowering plants.
After transplanting pepper seedlings on a bed, the number of aphids can be reduced by collecting it manually. This will not completely destroy the pest, but will reduce its number and delay the spread of other plants for a while. It is best when combating aphids in the garden, to combine the manual collection of insects with other folk methods, although this does not guarantee complete destruction of the aphids.
Preventive measures against aphids on pepper seedlings
Even the most effective means cannot repair damaged seedlings. Injuries to plants already exist, even if the damage is small. For this reason, the best way to combat aphids on pepper seedlings are preventative measures.
To reduce the risk of breeding aphids on seedlings, you need to do this in advance:
• Regularly inspect seedlings, without fail during inspections pay attention to the lower part of leaf blades;
• When growing in the garden, it is necessary to constantly remove weeds;
• Treat all surfaces of the greenhouse and utility rooms, tools with bleach or caustic soda;
• Plant garlic and onions in the vicinity of seedlings, which repel insects;
• Disinfect the soil for seedlings;
• Create optimal conditions for seedling growth, properly feed pepper seedlings, which will help it resist the parasite.
If preventive methods could not prevent the appearance of aphids, it will have to be destroyed.
