2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The nightshade miner damages a huge number of species of wild and cultivated plants. Indoors, this harmful creature harms almost any vegetable crops, it will not give up legumes, but the greatest harm is still caused to tomatoes. For this reason, the nightshade miner is often also called the tomato leaf miner. Alfalfa, melon, pepper, cucumbers, eggplants and a number of flower crops also suffer quite strongly from its vigorous activity. In order to preserve the harvest and maximally protect the planting of tomatoes from this uninvited guest, it is important to identify its presence on your site in time
Meet the pest
The nightshade miner is a fly with a black back, the adult size of which reaches 1, 5 - 2 mm. The sides of the breast, shield and head of this pest are yellowish, and the belly is yellow below, and black above. In this case, the edges of each segment on the abdomen are set off by bright yellow stripes.
Transparent eggs of pests are bean-shaped and reach a length of 0.3 mm. The length of the creamy headless larvae is 2 - 3.5 mm. Their mouth hooks are at first black, and just before pupation they acquire a straw tint. Oval pupae, reaching a length of 2 mm, live in fake cocoons. On the underside, they are slightly flattened, and the color changes from pale yellowish to more intense golden brownish as pupae develop. The best temperature for their development is considered to be 25 - 30 degrees.
The pest overwinters in the surface soil layer in the fake cocoons mentioned above. In greenhouses, flies start flying in February - early March. The nutrition of these insects is the sap of plants flowing from the wounds - the wounds are made by the females with the help of the ovipositor. Mass injections provoke the subsequent death of the leaves in the places of their damage. Eggs are laid by females on the surface of the leaves. Maximum each female can lay up to seven hundred eggs. The larvae reborn from these eggs make numerous ribbon-like, winding passages in puff plates. Such moves look like little white stripes and are called mines. Severely damaged leaves, turning yellow, fall off.
Pupation of harmful larvae occurs in the soil at a relatively shallow depth. Nine to ten days later, at a temperature of 20 to 25 degrees, flies of the next generation fly out. One development cycle of the generation of the nightshade is completely within the range from eighteen to twenty-four days. In greenhouses, these parasites often give about five to six generations.
The spread of the nightshade mineral is largely facilitated by cut ornamental vegetation, infected planting material, as well as leafy vegetables, along with other crops seeded with puparium, larvae and eggs.
How to fight
The greenhouse substrate should be disinfected chemically or thermally, since the wintering of pests often takes place on its surface. Leaves damaged by larvae are immediately removed. And in order to close the access of the nightshade miner to greenhouses, it is extremely important to systematically destroy weeds in the adjacent territories.
Strict adherence to all kinds of quarantine measures will also come in handy. The method of fumigation of planting material also helps in pest control.
A good effect is also provided by timely spraying of vegetation with various organophosphorus compounds. Especially effective will be neonicotinoids, pyrethroids and some other modern insecticides. Fosbecid, Aktellik, Fitoverm and Karbofos are widely used.
Another method of control is the release of a number of parasitic parasites: opius, diglyphus and dacnusa. One such rider is quite enough for ten pests.
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