What does a cruciferous flea look like. How to protect eggplant from cruciferous flea? Dry pollination of the earth between rows

Every gardener knows perfectly well how difficult and troublesome it is to grow healthy and high-quality seedlings. It is very disappointing if all efforts end in failure. It is especially bitter when the culprit of the trouble is a small, inconspicuous, but very malicious bug. This insect is called the "Cruciferous flea". In the people, an insect is called an earthen or garden flea.

The pest has a particular predilection for plants belonging to the cruciferous family. The victims of the voracious insect include cabbage, radishes, spinach, turnips, lettuce and other vegetables. The flea does not disdain some flower crops; alyssum and mattiola may well become objects of attack.

In nature, the bug feeds on wild plants such as shepherd's purse or wild mustard.

The insect is easy to distinguish from other pests. It is capable of jumping a long distance. It is for this quality that they call a flea. In fact, the beetle has nothing to do with the flea family.

It comes in black, green or blue. There are striped individuals among them - it all depends on the habitat of the insect. It is quite small, its length is no more than 3 mm.

The pest hibernates under the remains of unharvested vegetation, under the top layer of soil.

As soon as spring comes, the fleas become active and start eating the first weeds. After a while, horseradish and radish sprouts appear.

Small pests are happy to move to these crops. But beetles are especially delighted with cabbage seedlings. During the period of tying a head of cabbage, insects attack the vegetable.

Adult beetles feed on the upper, juicy layer on cabbage leaves. They seem to scrape off the pulp, leaving solid holes in the damaged areas. Pests are able to gnaw whole moves in a head of cabbage.

Cruciferous fleas breed in hot weather. For a comfortable existence, the air temperature should be at least 15 degrees.

At this time, females lay their eggs in the upper layers of the earth. After some time, larvae emerge from the eggs. They feed on young plant roots. The larvae develop within two weeks, then pupation occurs. This stage in the development of insects falls on the first days of August.

The young change crawls out of the upper layers of the soil and attacks the plantings with a vengeance. With the onset of autumn, cruciferous fleas settle down for the winter.

In rainy weather, the rapid activity of pests subsides, active reproduction does not occur.

The insect is distributed almost everywhere. The only exception is the extreme north.

Types and their features

In the middle and western parts of Russia, the wavy flea is active. It is black in color, and yellow stripes can be seen above the wings.

In Yakutia and Primorye, you can find notched cruciferous flea beetles. They not only gnaw out the top layer of the plant, but also completely skeletonize the leaves.

The light-legged flea lives in the forests of the southern regions of Russia. This black bug boasts yellow paws.

The most aggressive representative of the glorious family is the southern cruciferous flea. She has a black body, shimmering with a metallic sheen. The head is dotted with coarse dots.

If the number of pests is growing exponentially every day, serious measures must be taken. Chemicals will come to the rescue.

Overview of effective chemicals

The safest drug is the good old naphthalene. To achieve the result, it is enough to scatter it along the vegetable beds. An excellent tool is "Aktara" or "Sherpa". It is best to spray just before sunset, since the bulk of insects sit on the leaves at this particular time.

If we talk about more powerful drugs, we can note such means as "Decis" or "Lightning". However, it should be remembered that the dosage must be observed especially carefully, as young seedlings may suffer.

Folk methods of struggle

As folk remedies, dusting seedlings with ground pepper, ash or shag can be called. The easiest way to do this is with a sieve.

A good result can be obtained by spraying vegetable crops with an infusion of freshly cut dandelions. To do this, pour 250 g of dandelions with a bucket of warm water. Let it brew for a few hours. Before spraying, add a bar of soap to the infusion. This is necessary for better adhesion.

You can make a sticky trap for pests. This will require a piece of cloth lubricated with adhesive and a stick. The fabric needs to be attached to the pole, you get a "flag". Resin can be used as an adhesive. Passing a flag along the tops of plants, you can catch a lot of specimens. Pests will simply stick to the trap.

Prevention

For the conservation of vegetable crops, prevention is of great importance. Timely watering, weeding and sheltering seedlings with a piece of lutrasil can be called as measures.

In autumn, it is advisable to dig up the ground, so pests that have settled down for the winter will die from frost.

As soon as the first shoots appear in the spring or plant seedlings, they are immediately occupied by insects that have starved for the winter. The cruciferous flea is the most active in the garden. A small dirty trick has nothing to do with true fleas. He got this name because of his jumping abilities. And cruciferous is called for the love of the cultures of the same name. A large population of cruciferous fleas can destroy immature young plants in a matter of days. Therefore, knowledge about what a pest looks like and what available methods can be effectively dealt with will not be superfluous.

Biological features of the cruciferous flea

Insects belong to the leaf beetle family. Widely distributed in Europe, the Caucasus, Asia, Western Siberia. All representatives are characterized by an elongated body, the dimensions of which do not exceed 3 mm. Color is predetermined by species. In the photo of the cruciferous flea, attention is drawn to the long antennae, consisting of 11 segments.

Cruciferous fleas can be distinguished from other small pests by their characteristic jumps. "Jumpers" are able to migrate and overcome long distances, due to which they are rapidly spreading to new territories.

Species diversity

There are several types of cruciferous pests in the world fauna. The most common include the following:

• The southern cruciferous, also known as black, is the most dangerous member of its family in flea habitats. Adults gnaw out the leaves, the larvae damage the young root system. The main difference between fleas is the black color of the body with a metallic sheen. Head and elytra covered with coarse punctures. Body length from 2 to 3 mm.
• Light-legged - an inhabitant of the forest strip in the southern regions. Imagoes gnaw out leaves, young individuals harm by mining leaf blades. A distinctive feature of the light-legged cruciferous flea is a resin strip on the elytra, which gradually narrows in the anterior fragment, and the color of the back and head is black with a bottle tint. Body length from 2.5 to 3.5 mm. Paws are yellow.
• Notched is characterized by a black wide suture strip in the middle part of the elytra or a yellow edging with deep dents. Dimensions do not exceed 2.5 mm. Notched cruciferous fleas are crop pests in Yakutia, Primorye, and the Amur Region. Imagoes skeletonize the leaves, while the larvae live in the ground and damage the roots.
• The wavy species lives in the northern part of Europe, in the Urals, in Siberia, in the Far East. Adult beetles, like relatives, gnaw out foliage. The larvae prefer lateral roots. A characteristic feature is a wide black seam stripe with bordering yellow, light brown stripes. The pronotum and head are black.

On a note! Insects damage not only agricultural crops, but also decorative and wild ones. Cruciferous fleas inhabit mustard, shepherd's purse, colza, rutabaga, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, radish, young horseradish leaves, turnips, rapeseed, alyssum, mattiola.

Lifestyle

Regardless of the species, cruciferous fleas spend the winter period in their adult state in the surface layers of the earth, under plant debris. With the onset of heat, they leave their shelters and migrate to weeds, which perform the function of intermediate nutrition. When the first shoots of horseradish and radish appear, cruciferous fleas move to them. Insects are not particularly picky about food, but pests still show special love for cabbage seedlings and its young leaves during the period of rosette formation. Also, farmers note the appearance of cruciferous flea on rapeseed in the first, second decade of May.

Adults scrape the skin from the leaves and absorb juicy nutritious tissues, leaving behind specific holes. At a temperature of + 15 ° C, fleas begin to actively multiply. Females lay tiny, oblong, yellowish eggs in the soil, where larvae subsequently develop, feeding on plant roots. The size of the eggs is only about 3-0.4 mm in length. The larvae have a thin caramel-colored body on 3 pairs of legs.

The exception is the light-footed cruciferous fleas that lay their eggs on the leaves of radishes and radishes. The development of the larvae takes place inside the leaf mass, where they make mines. Egg laying starts from the end of June and continues until the end of July. Dates may vary depending on geographic location.

The larvae hatch in 4-14 days. The final stage of development - pupation occurs in the soil in early August. Young beetles that have come to the surface continue to harm the gardens, and in the fall they go into the ground for the winter.

On a note! The increased activity of cruciferous fleas passes in hot weather. Significant population growth is recorded during periods of drought. Rainy weather keeps pest numbers down.

Harmfulness of small insects

On cabbage, cruciferous fleas gnaw out depressions that look like sores. Interestingly, they only eat juicy young leaves, and do not touch the old ones. Beetles pose a great danger to seedlings and young shoots. In fragile seedlings, on which insects have settled, the leaves turn yellow, they begin to wither. If there are 50 individuals or more on the plant, tiny aggressors can completely destroy the planting in 2-3 days.

How to get rid of a pest

How to deal with the cruciferous flea is determined by the population size, the phase of plant development. It is worth noting that manual collection is an ineffective measure, given the miniature dimensions of the bug and its jumping ability.

Agrotechnical measures to combat cruciferous flea:

• Insects spend the winter period in the soil or in plant litter. Therefore, timely cleaning of all plant debris from the garden will significantly reduce the number of fleas and other pests.
• For the same purpose, deep plowing of the land is carried out in the autumn. Once on the surface, wintering beetles will die from frost.
• Constant cleaning of weeds, especially cruciferous. It is also important to ensure that weed seeds do not fall off during disposal. Having lost the source of food that individuals use after wintering, pests will have no choice but to migrate to other areas in search of a food base.
• Feeding plants with fertilizers will help reduce the harmfulness of cruciferous beetles.

The fight against cruciferous flea on cabbage begins at the stage of planting seedlings. It is recommended to plant as early as possible or plant seeds in early spring under a film, in greenhouses. So, by the time a population of beetles appears, the plant will have time to get stronger, the leaves will coarsen and insects will not be tempted by seedlings.

Plants such as turnips and turnips are often planted, on the contrary, very late. As a result, seedlings appear when the peak of cruciferous fleas has already passed.

Wells with planted seedlings are mulched with stepchildren of tomatoes or tansy. On hot days, the beds are shaded or covered with agrofiber. The edges should be fixed and sprinkled with wood ash or hot pepper around the perimeter. To scare away the cruciferous flea, agricultural or ornamental crops are watered with vinegar, chopped garlic cloves, wormwood or dandelion leaves, dill, cumin.

Beetle trapping

Traps are an effective, safe remedy for cruciferous flea. Making fixtures does not take much time and does not require significant financial costs. How to make your own trap:

• Build a semblance of flags from improvised means. These can be pegs with attached canvas or plywood, cardboard blanks. Lubricate one side of the cloth with any adhesive (glue, honey, garden pitch, grease). Pick up the received attribute and walk with it along the beds, running the lower part over the plants. Fleas are very shy and will begin to actively jump and stick to the adhesive fragment. When a fair amount of insects stick, remove them and repeat the process. Flag exercise is most effective during hot hours and in dry weather.
• Make a cone out of cardboard so that it can completely cover the plant. On the inside, also grease with glue and alternately cover the seedlings. A certain part of the fleas will stick to the cap.
• A less time-consuming option is to lay plywood with glue applied along the beds. When moving along the ground, between plants, insects will stick to simple structures. You can also use a rag soaked in used car oil.
• A similar effect is given by low flat containers of water, to which a little kerosene or vegetable oil must be added so that the captives cannot get out of the trap.

Important! Traps with glue, kerosene, diesel fuel should be removed during periods of rain so that harmful components do not soak into the soil.

Proven folk recipes

Folk remedies for cruciferous flea have been accumulating for decades. The most effective and well-established among gardeners are the following:

• Dusting plants with wood ash or tobacco dust, lime, shag, ground pepper. It is noticed that the beetles are unusually "clean" and do not encroach on dirty leaves. The most inventive gardeners sprinkle the young shoots with oven soot. After precipitation, the procedure is repeated.
• Planting along the beds of plants that will scare away the cruciferous fleas with aroma. These include garlic, dill, calendula, coriander, marigolds.
• Fresh or dried wormwood grass is laid out near the holes.

Plants can be treated for cruciferous flea with the following decoctions and tinctures:

• a bucket of water, 2 cups of ash and 50 g of crushed tar or green soap;
• to spray the leaves, mix a liter of water and a glass of vinegar;
• Grind 250 g of freshly cut dandelions together with rhizomes and pour 5 liters of warm water, let it brew, add a bar of soap to improve adhesion;
• a mixture of tomato tops (1 glass) and a glass of garlic is prepared in a similar way;
• infusion of chicken manure (1:20) is infused for several days, after which they are sprayed with foliage.

On a note! It is advisable to spray plants in the morning or evening hours.

Chemicals

If with the help of folk remedies it was not possible to stop the aggressor, then insecticides from cruciferous fleas will help. More than 5 beetles on one plant is a serious reason to think about the use of chemicals. It is recommended that the tool be initially tested on one object. If after a day his condition has not worsened, then you can process the rest of the plants.

On a note! In the case when after processing it suddenly started to rain, the procedure is repeated again.

Preparations for cruciferous flea for cabbage are presented in specialized stores in a large assortment. Here are just a few of them: Decis, Intavir, Karate, Aktaru, Aktellik, Fagot, Tsapellin, Tabazol, Fitoverm, Aktofit. Before using the products, you should carefully read the instructions and avoid overdose when diluting the working mixture.

Cabbage is very easily attacked by pests. Climbing inside the fork, the insect becomes invisible. The presence of some representatives can be detected by external signs, the presence of others will become clear only when the plant begins to die. The characteristic external manifestations of the attack of the cruciform flea are torn holes, localized both along the edge and in the center of the sheet. In order to preserve the crop, the flea must be urgently removed. This can be done in different ways.

What is harmful cruciferous flea

Growing a plant such as cabbage requires an understanding of the characteristics of agricultural technology and has its own subtleties. Cabbage is loved not only by people. Pests are also not indifferent to it, for example, cabbage (cruciferous) flea. This is a small terrestrial insect belonging to leaf beetles. Differs in the small size, not exceeding 3 mm. It is ubiquitous in Russia.

Depending on the type, the color of fleas may be different:

• black;
• blue;
• grey;
• green.

Adult black fleas on cabbage feed exclusively on leaves, while young ones bite into the root system of the plant. A characteristic feature of the pest will help to accurately “diagnose” the cabbage fork: when danger arises and anxiety arises, the flea begins to make high jumps.

In the cold period - in autumn and winter - the insect hides under fallen leaves, or burrows into the ground, but not deep. With the onset of spring at a steady temperature above 15 ° C, it comes to the surface.

At first, cruciform flea beetles eat weed leaves. Reproduction under good weather conditions is extremely fast, and if the summer is warm, then three generations per season may appear. Such a number of insects is quite capable of infecting the entire garden and destroying all seedlings and all young plants within a couple of days.

The leaf, gnawed and becoming like a sieve, quickly dies. In addition to cabbage, turnips, turnips, horseradish and radishes show greater susceptibility to the pest.

If you do not fight fleas, you can lose the harvest of several crops at once. Tools that will help in the fight are always at hand. At the first appearance of suspicion, insect elimination should begin.

How to deal with a flea

You need to start fighting the cabbage flea as soon as the pest has shown itself. In order for flea control measures to be most effective, it is necessary to take into account some factors:

• early ripening varieties must be saved using exclusively folk remedies, the same applies to young plants;
• mid-season, late varieties, adult plants are treated with chemicals;
• when removing fleas from all types of plants, you can use some agrotechnical techniques, for example, apply covering material.

The sooner the process of getting rid of insects begins, the more future heads of cabbage will be saved.

Folk remedies

Natural methods are quite effective. Agronomists advise processing cabbage on fleas with the following home remedies:

• Wood ash. Processing with this tool should be carried out as carefully as possible. All sides of the leaf must be pollinated. The procedure must be repeated several times, the interval between "sessions" is 3-4 days. Ash is perfectly combined with soapy water. To prepare such a product, it is necessary to dissolve (as far as possible) 3 kg of ash in a bucket of water. After two days of infusion, 40 g of laundry soap shavings are dissolved in this composition.
• Tobacco dust. Used in combination with wood ash in a ratio of 1:1. Cabbage seedlings and the soil under them are treated from fleas.

• Slaked lime. Also used in combination with wood ash. Substances are mixed in equal quantities. The resulting mixture is used to treat both the soil and the leaves of plants.
• Red pepper. Fine grinding of hot pepper is diluted with water. Cabbage is processed to kill cruciferous fleas after watering.
• Decoction of tomato stems. To prepare such a home remedy for a cabbage flea, you need 4 kg of finely chopped tops, which are poured with water and left for 12 hours. After that, the resulting infusion must be boiled. After the mixture has cooled, add 3 tablespoons of planed laundry soap to it, and the solution is ready for use. You can store it for a long time by covering it with a dense polypropylene lid.
• Herbal infusion. Plants such as garlic, dandelion, potato tops, wormwood are used. It is prepared in the same way as a decoction of a tomato stalk.

In addition to specially prepared decoctions and infusions, you can fight the cruciferous flea on cabbage with boiling water. Watering them with a landing site, you can destroy the insect. This must be done either early in the morning or before sunset. During these periods, fleas stop jumping, the number of individuals destroyed will be maximum.

Chemicals

Insecticide preparations are excellent helpers in the defeat of late varieties or adult plants. For high-quality processing, it is necessary to follow the rules for preparing the composition, not to exceed the concentration norms and the recommended frequency of use.

When using insecticides, you need to remember about your own protection. Such a drug is poisonous, so the treatment should be carried out with gloves, the face and body should be well covered with special clothing and a protective mask.

Among the large number of chemical means of combating cruciferous flea, the most popular among summer residents are:

1. Actellik. Use 20 ml per bucket of water. Plant processing is carried out from different sides.
2. Intavir, Aktar, Decis. Also, like Actellik, they are bred in a ratio of 1:500.
3. Karate. An effective tool, the use of which has a small nuance: not the whole plant is processed, but only the bugs themselves.
4. Vinegar essence. To process cabbage from a cruciferous flea, it is necessary to prepare a 70% solution. Dry seedlings are treated with vinegar. It is better if it is evening, but before dew appears on the leaves.
5. Shampoo for dogs. Some of its species contain components that can rid the animal of fleas. A wonderful composition for treating a plant will turn out if you dilute 40 ml of such a product in a bucket of water.

Early varieties of cabbage should not be treated with insecticides. If folk measures to combat the cabbage flea do not help, the chemical treatment of such species should be abandoned.

As a supplement, you can use glue traps, which must be placed directly on the garden.

You can fight cruciferous flea without chemistry. But it is better to prevent the appearance of pests. To do this, it is recommended to remove weeds, which become a source of the spread of insects. By digging up the soil before the onset of winter, you can contribute to the freezing of the flea. Proper arrangement of plants in the garden area will also help to cope with the problem.

» Preparations

As soon as the first shoots appear on the beds, or seedlings are planted in a permanent place, the sprouts are invaded by a huge number of small black bugs - cruciferous fleas. It happens that a few days are enough for them to render all plants unusable for further growth.

• wavy;
• light-footed;
• notched;
• blue;
• black and others.

Beetles are painted in black, blue, green tones, there are also two-color insects - a sinuous strip of yellow is clearly visible on a black background. The length of insects is different - from 1.8 to 3 millimeters. The pest can be found in almost every region of the country, except for the northern ones. It is rightfully considered the most dangerous enemy for cruciferous plants.

Adult individuals are capable of overwintering under the plants remaining on the beds, fallen leaves, in the upper layers of the earth, greenhouse and greenhouse cracks. They wake up in early spring when the soil thaws. As a rule, this time falls on April - May.

For the first time, weeds make up their diet, but as soon as seedlings appear on the beds, the flea moves to garden plots, damaging the foliage of plants, leaving depressions resembling ulcers on them. On young leaves, the flea gnaws through holes. The peak of their activity is in the morning and evening.

The female lays her eggs in most cases directly on the ground. The larvae that emerged from them hide for the first time in the soil, feeding on the roots and root crops of plants for several weeks. Then they pupate, and after a week and a half, you can observe the appearance of a new batch of young beetles, actively destroying plants.

What plants are affected by the pest?

How to deal with a flea in the garden?

Experienced gardeners will always be able to protect their garden from a pest, using not only chemicals, but also folk tricks to fight.

The use of special preparations

For the destruction of a flea, insecticidal agents known to many are quite suitable:

Any of the drugs can be purchased at a specialized store. It is best to process the beds with them in the evening, when the sun has already set. The fleas are still on the foliage.

When working with chemical compositions, one should strictly adhere to the requirements of the instructions for their use.

The use of folk remedies

— humid environment- the easiest way. You should only water the beds abundantly, as the flea does not tolerate damp places;

—dry pollination method- performed with a gauze bag, which must be shaken over the plants. Wood ash can be placed in the bag in its pure form or with the addition of tobacco dust. It is best to perform such procedures in the morning, so that the repellent settles on the leaves that are damp from dew. The flea is afraid to sit on dirty plants. By the way, the aisles can be treated with naphthalene or tobacco dust;

— the use of infusions and herbal decoctions:

• ash at the rate of 1 to 3 is steamed with boiling water, infused for two days. Add laundry soap to the infusion;
• garlic and tomato stepsons (one glass each) are passed through a meat grinder. Everything is diluted in a ten-liter bucket of water, filtered. You also need to add a spoonful of soap. Before spraying, the solution must be slightly warmed up;
• dandelion leaves and roots in the amount of five hundred grams are passed through a meat grinder, everything is poured into a bucket of water, filtered. It remains to pour a spoonful of soap, and you can use the infusion for processing;

• two hundred grams of tobacco is poured with hot water (ten liters). Pour a spoonful of liquid soap onto the resulting mixture;
• pour a glass of ordinary vinegar into a bucket of water. You can replace it with a couple of spoons of essence;
• green wormwood is infused, you can add garlic chopped into gruel into the water (one hundred grams per bucket). After straining the infusion, they should be watered with small droplets of the plant;
• four kilograms of potato tops are poured with ten liters of water, everything is brought to a boil. The broth is allowed to cool, filtered, diluted twice with water. Processing must be carried out in the evening;
• the same recipe, only tomato stepchildren are used.

A simple remedy is to cover the beds with seedlings with covering non-woven materials. They perfectly pass light, water and air, reliably protect seedlings from fleas.

Make flags from dense material, fix them on sticks, spread with something sticky - resin or grease. Flags must be waved over plantings, barely touching the leaves. The procedure is recommended to be carried out during the day, when it is very hot.

After wetting a piece of cloth in machine oil, place it next to the bed. It is best if such traps are arranged at intervals of three to four meters. After a couple of days, simply turn the fabric to the other side.

Preventive methods for the appearance of a pest on plants

You should try to prevent the appearance of the pest. It is necessary to constantly remove cruciferous weeds by all available methods.

In the autumn season, the garden needs to be dug up. This will help get rid of the flea, which will be on the surface and freeze in the winter.

Do not neglect the feeding of plants with organic compounds, regular watering, loosening the soil. All this will help accelerate the development of plants.

Do not neglect the weather conditions - sow early crops while the flea is still sleeping, or do it in June, when the pest activity is reduced.

Remember that fighting a flea is a must! This will help you save the future harvest of not only vegetables, but also berries, strawberries for example. If timely measures are not taken, then all plants will be destroyed in the early phase of their growth.

As soon as the first signs of the presence of a flea in the garden appear, the fight should immediately begin, otherwise you can be left without a crop.

Small bugs with a shiny curved back are an insect that is quite harmful to the garden, which belongs to the leaf beetle family. These insects are capable of destroying not only leaves, but also buds with flowers or pods.

These insects are called fleas because of the peculiarity of their hind legs to have extreme jumping ability, which can be compared with grasshoppers or real fleas. Overwhelmed by anxiety, these insects actively use this feature.

What does it look like?

Cruciferous fleas include several types of insects. Among them are wavy, notched, black, light-footed, blue and others.

In fact, they can be of various colors: both black, blue or green, and with a specific metallic sheen or two-tone tone - black with a yellow stripe above the wings.

A flying bug 1.5-3 mm long, having an oval-oblong body, as well as antennae that correspond to the size of at least a third of the body.

What harm does it bring?

The larvae of the cruciferous flea feed on rather thin roots of plants, which interfere with the full development of the already young and weak stem. An example of the vital activity of an insect can be ulcerative gnawing of leaves, interveinal gnaws, as a result of which the plant turns yellow or completely dies.

Significant damage to the stems and leaves contributes to the formation of sores, which quickly become huge holes, seedlings can die in a matter of days, especially if warm enough weather contributes to this.

What cultures are striking?

When the surface temperature reaches 15 °C, representatives of the cruciferous flea can be found on cabbages. The risk group includes such garden crops: leaf mustard, swede, watercress, radish and radish, rapeseed, young horseradish, turnip, spinach, etc.

This group also includes cultivated flower plants, including levkoy, rose, mattiola, etc.

Cruciferous flea on cabbage, radish, eggplant

The cruciferous flea on radish, eggplant and cabbage is able to multiply quite quickly and in a few days, if not significantly spoil, then completely destroy these plants.

For earlier representatives of these cultures, folk methods of control and prevention should be used. For later crops, more aggressive chemicals can be used.

Control measures for cruciferous flea

Control measures are distinguished agrotechnical, folk and with the help of chemicals.

It is unequivocally true that an effective way to deal with cruciferous flea will be a well-thought-out, integrated approach.

Depending on the results and the procedures already performed, it is possible to adjust the recipe for processing crops. The right strategy will help you deal with pests with the least amount of effort.

Dry leaf pollination

Dry pollination is done using a gauze bag, shaking which in the early morning over the plant, you can ensure that repellent dust adheres to the leaves. Insects do not really like soiled dirty leaves, due to which a kind of scare is carried out.

You can fill the gauze bag with the following mixtures:

• A mixture of wood ash and fluff lime in a ratio of 1: 1.
• A mixture of ash with tobacco dust.
• A mixture of ash along with ordinary road dust.

Dry pollination between rows can be done with tobacco dust or mothballs.

Spraying with decoctions and infusions of herbs

You can start spraying by preparing solutions according to the following recipe:

• The ash steamed in boiling water is insisted for two days. For better efficiency, liquid or laundry soap is added.
• Combine a glass of chopped garlic with the same number of leaves of tomato stepsons. This mixture is diluted in 10 liters of water (slightly warm). No more than 1 tablespoon of liquid soap is added to the filtered liquid. Spraying is carried out with a warm solution.
• 200 g of tobacco is poured into ten liters of water. Soap (1 tablespoon) should also be added to this infusion. Sprayed, after filtering this liquid.
• 9% table vinegar is dissolved in 10 liters of water. Vinegar needs a glass, and if it is not available, vinegar essence will do (for 2 tablespoons)
• Small-drop watering with infusion of green wormwood with garlic(per 10 liters of water 100 g). Water pre-filtered.
• Potato tops (4 kg) are boiled in 10 liters of water. Strained infusion is diluted twice with water. This infusion is effective for spraying in the evenings.

Agrotechnical methods include such recommendations:

• Monitor regular and timely destruction of weeds, which belong to cruciferous (wild mustard, shepherd's purse).
• Mandatory autumn digging and plowing of the soil. This is due to the fact that the habitat of the insect is the upper layers of the soil, and once on the surface at nighttime temperature drops, it will quickly die.
• When planting seedlings of cruciferous crops, other varieties of cruciferous plants are planted, which are capable of releasing phytoncides (substances that have a specific smell that repels fleas). These plants include potatoes, calendula, garlic, tomato, coriander, etc.
• Plant seedlings as early as possible when the flea is still in hibernation, or at the end of June, when a kind of pause forms between the generations of fleas, and they will bring the least harm to the plants.
• Sufficient crop care, provide maximum watering, because this insect does not tolerate abundant moisture.

Glue traps

Traps are mainly used as an aid in the fight against cruciferous flea.

For greater efficiency, it is better to prepare traps from small pieces of cloth that must first be moistened with diesel or automobile oil. They are laid out between the beds, turning over to the other side after a few days.

If you wave such Velcro over flea-damaged crops, they will start jumping in a panic and, accordingly, stick to the fabric.

Chemicals

Insecticides are quite effective, but subject to the obligatory observance of the rules of preparation, concentration and frequency of use.

Quite high efficiency is given by such chemicals as:

• "Aktellik";
• "Actara". Here you can read.
• "Decis";
• "Bankol";
• "Intavir";
• "Karate".

It should be remembered that using household chemicals, you can get a less potent result, and at the same time, it is less dangerous compared to chemical insecticides. To prepare solutions that can be used to combat the cruciferous flea, you can use vinegar essence, ammonia, even shampoo for dogs is suitable.

Folk remedies

Folk remedies do not have a toxic effect on plants, but have a negative effect only on the insect itself.

The folk methods of dealing with a flea include:

• Dusting with various mixtures.
• Spraying with decoctions of herbs and tinctures.
• Mechanical trapping of insects. In this method, any devices will be good: from special or home-made traps to collection with a car vacuum cleaner.
• Abundant watering with the addition of substances to the water that have a rather pungent odor that repels the pest. Substances with a rather pungent odor include valerian tincture, flea shampoo, sold in veterinary stores. With a sufficiently strong aroma, there will be a solution prepared on the basis of corvalol (10-15 drops per bucket of water) or aromatic oils of fir or, as an option, pine (in the same proportion).

Prevention - protection against cruciferous flea

There is nothing less harmful in numerous methods in the fight against harmful insects than timely and high-quality prevention.

Preventive methods will help not only preserve the crop, but also improve its quality, because timely procedures in pest control will avoid the use of more difficult methods of control (chemical).

Preventive methods include:

• Adhere to certain planting dates.
• Timely removal of cruciferous weeds.
• Maintaining the humidity level at a sufficiently high level.
• Shelter of crops with non-woven fabric (spunbond, lutrasil, agrospan). These are fabrics that perfectly transmit light, moisture and air. Insects actually do not have the opportunity to crawl under a dense shelter, due to which protection is carried out.
• The use of numerous folk remedies.

Ways to protect garden crops are diverse and quite effective even without the use of potent chemicals. Each gardener determines for himself the set of highly effective means that are most convenient for him.

Conclusion

In addition to fighting the cruciferous flea, the modern gardener has many different things to do. It is not possible to deal exclusively with the fight against one type of insect.

Timely prevention and knowledge of the most effective ways to destroy a harmful insect will help to solve this problem optimally quickly and with minimal time and financial resources.

A correct assessment of the situation, which is the most acceptable way of fighting will give a quick and excellent result, will be the key to a good harvest.