Aphids are an insect that often affects indoor plants, usually in the spring-summer period. The fight against it is a simple process, but only if the tulip was noticed right away. If not, the plant may disappear if the leaves and stems are not properly treated. About how the struggle against aphids on houseplants is carried out, and what preventive measures exist, we will tell in this article.
Pests of indoor plants: aphids
The aphid gets on indoor plants in the warm period of the year through open windows. Also, a plant can become infected with a disease from a flower brought from a store or from an ordinary bouquet of fresh flowers.
Aphids, settling on a plant, dig into it with its proboscis and begin to suck out the cell sap. The aphids multiply very quickly: one fertilized female gives up to 150 larvae. The result is a rapid growth in the number of insects. The plant gradually begins to die: its leaves are twisted, their color changes.
Discovering an insect pest, despite its small size, is simple. Aphids on indoor plants can be white, green or black. It settles on the reverse side of the leaf and at the base of the leaves and stems. In the habitat of aphids, a sticky substance appears, on which a fungus, similar to soot, subsequently forms. When the latter appears, the treatment of the plant must begin immediately.
Destruction of aphids on houseplants
Depending on how much the plant is damaged, the control of aphids can be carried out in different ways.
Aphids: mild disease of houseplants
If aphids were found at an early stage of the disease of the plant, there are several ways to fight it:
- Mechanical removal . The aphids can be simply crushed, after removing it from the leaves and stems with a brush. After that, for reliability, the plant should be washed with a solution of laundry soap. Soap should be without perfumes and dyes. Earth in the pot when processing the plant with soap should be covered with a film, avoiding getting a solution.
- Intense repellent scent . Next to an indoor plant affected by aphids, you can put a fragrant geranium . A foul will leave the plant in a few days because of the intense odor.
- Green potassium soap . Potassium soap is an excellent means of fighting insects. In terms of efficiency, it is better than the economic one. Soap solution is diluted in a ratio of 20 g of soap per 1 liter of water, they should wash the whole plant. Preliminary sheets with aphids, if there are few, can be cut.
Aphids: severe damage by houseplant disease
With a strong defeat of plant aphids, the fight against it will take place in several stages. Regardless of whether chemical or natural remedies are used in the destruction process, treatment is carried out three times with a break for 5 days, a maximum, one week. It is necessary to ensure that the new progeny of aphids do not have time to develop resistance to drugs and drugs, otherwise the fight against aphids will be prolonged.
- Chemicals. Effective in the control of aphids, chemical preparations are sold in any of the shops of indoor plants. Depending on the type of affected plant, sellers will prompt the most suitable (inta-vir, fac, decis, karate, cypermethrin, hostakvik and others).
- Preparations on an oily basis. Means for fighting oil-based aphids are more natural, they form a film on the surface of leaves and stems, while protecting the plant and destroying the aphids.
- Folk remedies. To control aphids use various infusions, for example, on crusts of citrus. To prepare the infusion, take 100 g of dry crusts, they are poured with 1 liter of warm water and infused for 3 days.
Similarly, you can prepare an infusion of onion peel, it will need about 6 grams per liter of water.
Also effective is the infusion on the crushed tops of tomatoes, with the addition of laundry soap. Components are taken in the ratio: 400 grams of tops, 4 grams of soap per 1 liter of water. The resulting solutions are completely sprayed with the plant.
Preventing the appearance of aphids
To reduce the risk of infection of aphids, new flowers should be kept separate from other plants for several days. Do not put next to indoor plants bouquets of fresh flowers, especially roses and chrysanthemums.
For plants in the period of the most frequent infection should be monitored more carefully, examining the leaves and stems.