At first glance, fragrant vegetables, onions and garlic do not have natural pests. But practice shows the opposite. Onion fly is one of the most annoying insects, the fight against which requires a huge amount of time and effort. Having bred on the site, the pest will destroy other crops. Heavily infected soil becomes unsuitable for planting. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem on time.
What does an insect look like?
Onion fly looks like the most ordinary fly, so it’s easy to recognize. It carries a great danger to your garden. In winter, she hibernates in the form of pupae in the soil, to a depth of 20 cm. During the mass flowering of dandelion, they fly out and lay eggs on the soil, near the plantings. After some time, white worms are born. They quickly sink into the soil and penetrate the bulb. Here they live and eat. After this, the larvae leave in the soil and pupate.
What happens next? Onion fly in one season takes many generations. Larvae will again emerge from the pupae and begin to gnaw the plants. They penetrate not only the bulb, but also inside the green stems. As a result, the plant turns yellow and dies.
Ways to fight
Most gardeners do not need to tell what an onion fly is. As the bed dries, and damaged bulbs, even after digging, soften and rot, have an unpleasant smell. Therefore, methods of dealing with it have been studied for a long time. Gardeners pass on to each other folk methods of control, which the pest can get used to over time, so you should alternate between them. Today we will review the most popular and effective methods of struggle.
Pest repellent
The fight against onion flies begins in order to prevent its appearance on the site. And for this you need to know what this insect does not like. Despite its love of onions, it avoids spicy aromatic plants with a strong odor. Therefore, parsley, basil, dill and other popular seasonings are planted around the garden with onions.
Really does not like a fly marigold. These are bright, border flowers that repel almost all pests. But this measure is often not enough. Therefore, if you see single, affected plants, then they must be immediately pulled out and burned.
Preventive measures
Since getting rid of an onion fly can be problematic, you need to think in advance about creating conditions that are unsuitable for the normal life of the pest. This is a whole range of measures that is required from the gardener of time and effort, but as a result it pays off:
- In late autumn, after harvesting, you need to carefully dig the land. This is the best way to protect against the pest, because it does not leave the larvae a chance to survive.
- You should regularly change the landing site. In one place, onions can be planted only once every four years.
- If the gardener detects plants affected by the larvae, it is recommended that they be destroyed immediately to avoid infection of other plants.
- Beds with bulbs are required to constantly be loosened, so it is very important to plant plants at a distance from each other.
- Planting should be done as early as possible in spring, as soon as the danger of frost recedes. This will save time until the first generation of flies.
- Weed control is a very important matter. Weed plants create ideal conditions for the reproduction of flies.
When done with onions, these pests will destroy all the flowering plants on the site. Moreover, it is almost impossible to save the affected bushes. Especially larvae of plants of the bulb family. These are gladioli and tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and many others.
Just before landing
It is required to warm vegetables at a temperature of +25 degrees. To do this, before landing, you need to fill it with salt water for 3 hours. For a liter of water you will need to take a tablespoon of salt. After that, rinse and fill with manganese solution for 2 hours. Rinse and dry again.
Plant in prepared grooves, alternating with stripes of carrots. This will help to kill two birds with one stone. Carrot scares off an onion fly, and onion scares a carrot. After harvesting, be sure to dig the bed, and with the onset of a new planting season, find a new place for the bed.
Folk methods of struggle
What to do if you already have an onion fly in your garden. How to deal with it? It’s best to start with simple and affordable methods. And the most popular among them is saline. To do this, in ten liters of water you need to dissolve 300 g of sodium chloride. With the resulting solution, it is necessary to water the bed on which the plants began to turn yellow.
The second treatment should be completed in two weeks. Now the amount of salt should be increased by 100 g. A stronger solution ensures that the pupae also do not survive. Three weeks after it, another treatment is done. In this case, the concentration of the solution is doubled.
Soap solution
This is another way that allows you to destroy the onion fly. The photo of the garden affected by the pest is further proof that it needs to provide decent resistance. To prepare this tool is very simple. To do this, take 50 g of laundry soap and dissolve it in a bucket of water. With this solution, all affected beds should be treated without exception. If it was not possible to achieve complete destruction of the pest, then you need to add to it one of the listed methods.
Helper Methods
You can not call them 100% effective, but they can all do their job to the gardener:
- Tobacco dust. A bucket of hot water will require 200 g of tobacco powder. The solution should stand for several days, after which process the bed. The fly must go.
- An effective method of struggle is kerosene. He is bred in water and also three times perform the processing of the site.
- Ammonium top dressing can also be called an effective way to save the crop. The presence of ammonia in the soil allows you to get rid of pest larvae.
- Decoction of dandelion. To prepare it, you need to pour 200 g of roots with boiled water and insist for several hours. This infusion should be diluted in 10 liters of purified water. With its help, the processing of affected beds is performed.
- The fly does not like tomatoes and carrots. Therefore, they are the most desirable neighbors.
Chemical methods of control
The use of insecticides is undesirable, since they tend to accumulate in the soil and enter the body along with root crops. But if folk methods of struggle did not produce an effect, then nothing else will remain. The most effective to date are pyrethroids. These are synthetic insecticides that are designed to spray damaged plants. As a result, the onion fly and its larvae die. To forget about them once and for all, it is recommended to use drugs such as:
- Imidacloprid.
- "Clothianidin."
- Thiamethoxam.
House pest
An onion fly can come from the market, along with purchased vegetables. If you notice curly insects, then it's time to take measures to destroy them. On the one hand, this is a small problem, since insects do not harm humans. But the presence of any insects at home is undesirable.
Therefore, you need to find a place for their reproduction. Usually these are the very vegetable baskets in which we pour out purchases. Therefore, vegetables must be sorted out and all damaged heads destroyed. A garbage bag with them must be urgently taken out of the house and thrown into a container.
After that, you can think about how to get rid of the onion fly at home:
- You can simply kill all individuals with a fly swatter. A simple way to combat are aromatic herbs: tansy, yarrow, wormwood. They are laid out in the kitchen, where insects were noticed.
- If a onion set was prepared, and a flock of midges began to circulate above it, then it was infected with an onion fly. It’s best not to use it for planting. If there is no other seed, soak it in a solution of potassium permanganate for several hours.
- If the bow was planted in boxes in the house, and became the target of a fly attack, then use one of the methods listed above. In a box, they will be even more effective, since the amount of land is limited.
Instead of a conclusion
The fight against onion flies is often delayed for a long time, and sometimes it can be lost. Most often this happens because the culture was planted late, when the larvae are already actively looking for food. In this case, alternative methods are ineffective, you need to use more effective insecticides. The second reason - the fight begins when the bed begins to turn yellow. This means that the roots and the bulbs themselves, as well as the cavities of the green part, are affected by larvae. Saving plants is almost useless. Even if you achieve the destruction of the larvae, the crop is lost for you. Therefore, timely preventive measures are the most effective way to combat.