2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Greenhouse thrips can be found wherever various crops are grown indoors. It damages mainly cucumbers, eggplants, peppers and tomatoes, as well as a number of ornamental crops in flower greenhouses. Harm is caused not only by the larvae of this pest, but also by adult insects. They spread at an incredible speed and hide very skillfully, so getting rid of greenhouse thrips is a rather troublesome and very difficult task. However, this is an extremely important matter, because gluttonous parasites are also carriers of all kinds of diseases, for example, the cucumber mosaic virus
Meet the pest
Adults of greenhouse thrips are endowed with a narrow dark brown body, the length of which ranges from 1 to 1.5 mm. The front wings of these pests are yellowish, and the abdomens are brownish-brown.
Bean-shaped transparent white eggs of greenhouse thrips reach a length of 0.3 mm. Larvae differ from adult thrips by the absence of wings and smaller size. Their color can be either yellowish or white. Also, all the larvae are endowed with red eyes.
These parasites overwinter mainly in the upper soil layer, as well as in debris and under plant debris. In early spring, females lay about 25 eggs on the back of the leaves under a thin skin. The larvae hatch from them approximately in mid-April. Over the course of thirty days, they are first transformed into pronymphs, and somewhat later into nymphs. At the final stage of their development, harmful larvae burrow into the ground near the plants to a depth of about 7 cm, and a week later, adult thrips appear.
Adult insects and larvae feed on the undersides of the leaves. Each generation of greenhouse thrips develops on average from twenty five to thirty days. In one season, as many as four generations of pests can grow, capable of causing serious damage to the future harvest. And in conditions of protected ground, they are able to develop throughout the year.
The development of these polyphagous pests is favored by high humidity and temperatures in the range from 24 to 30 degrees. But humidity below 50% in combination with dry air contributes to the death of greenhouse thrips - however, the eggs laid by them in such conditions can survive.
On plants affected by these gluttonous parasites, you can see black dots of excrement, as well as whitish-yellow specks. The leaves attacked by greenhouse thrips dry up, the development of vegetable crops is noticeably inhibited, and the flowers deformed by pests look rather deplorable.
How to fight
Good preventive measures against greenhouse thrips will be deep autumn plowing, the elimination of post-harvest residues, and crop rotation in the crop rotation. It is undesirable to grow vegetables in the same area next to flowers. Greenhouses and the soil in them must be regularly disinfected, while removing a layer of soil from five to seven centimeters thick - it is there that the pronymphs and nymphs of the pest are often concentrated.
The use of glue traps also helps to reduce the number of greenhouse thrips. These parasites also have natural enemies, among which one can note the orius and antokoris bugs, as well as the predatory neoseiulus mites.
If necessary, you can also spray with insecticides. On testes, they should be applied before and after flowering. Among the most effective insecticides are Karate, Vertimek, Fitoverm, Agravertin and Karbofos.
It is also important to know that it is unacceptable to use insecticides on onions grown on feathers. And before sending the onion for storage, it is recommended to treat the pre-dried onions with sulfur gas - it will take about 50 g for each cubic meter of the room.
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