The custom of decorating a house with living flowering plants appeared many centuries and even millennia ago. Since ancient times, flowers have been used as gifts. Accordingly, for many years people have known pests of indoor flowers living in the earth. Today, residents of the concrete jungle especially need lively greenery, and many create large, densely overgrown green corners on window sills and balconies. Every day people who are passionate about indoor floriculture try to learn new things, study plants, and create the most comfortable conditions for them.
Risks for loved ones
Indoor pests of indoor flowers are more dangerous than any other, although only this group of harmful microorganisms does not exhaust all the dangers. There are relatively few varieties of pests that can settle in the ground, but they all violate the root structure, and the flower as a whole suffers from this. Once the root part gets sick, the aboveground begins to die gradually. The only way to preserve the health and life of the plant is to regularly monitor its condition and change the soil in the container in which the plant lives. It is important to control the quality of the soil, replant it only in good and clean soil, and if there are signs of illness, check the soil first.
There are a huge number of ways and recipes, as well as specialized publications for gardeners and florists who tell you how to deal with pests of indoor flowers. The choice of a particular method is determined by the type of harmful life form, and it, in turn, depends on the type of soil. Each plant has its own optimal composition of the earth, and in industrial conditions make sets of soils with all the components that a flower needs. The likelihood of contamination of such land is minimal, however, opening each new package, you should be prepared for potential problems.
Mokritsa
One of the most common pests of indoor flowers is wood lice. These small insects are distantly related to lobsters, they just do not have such high nutritional qualities, taste and attractive appearance, and they choose soil for life. Woodlice can live only in a humid environment. They are not considered too dangerous a variety of pest, but when the soil is infected, such a disaster will have to be fought immediately.
Woodlouse love wet areas, often live in a pallet. The classic look of this pest of indoor flowers is a gray shade, a flat body, an abundance of limbs. The period of activity is night. Woodlice eat rhizomes, but quickly manifest themselves, and you can even get rid of them manually, so usually infection can be detected and cured before the flower gets severe damage. If among the flowers grown there are those that need to be watered often, you must constantly check the pallets and wash them, avoiding the accumulation of land. This will prevent the appearance and reproduction of woodlice and protect your favorite plants.
Millipedes
Among indoor pests of indoor flowers, this variety is represented by an abundance of forms. In zoology, there is a class that combines different types of insects that can eat the root part of plants. When the soil is infected by centipedes, the flower cannot develop normally and gradually perishes. The pest can be identified by its appearance: it has a long body formed by numerous ringlets, and its legs are exceptionally small, therefore at first glance it can be impossible to see, and for many the millipede looks like a miniature snake.
Soil can be infected with millipedes, if you use ordinary soil taken from a street or garden to transplant a plant. There is a risk of acquiring low-quality soil in the store. If there are suspicions of infection by millipedes, examination of the soil showed their presence, it is necessary to immediately completely change the substrate by cleaning the plant rhizomes from the old earth. It must be remembered that pest eggs can be anywhere, they are very small, and the penetration of even one clutch will cause infection of a new portion.
Nails
Visually, this indoor pest is like a flea. Biologists know him as a fool. This type of insect settles in the ground and is characterized by rapid growth and reproduction, especially if the soil is moist. The main food of the tails is the remains of plants. Pest colonies gnaw small holes near the roots on the flower stems, less often directly on the rhizomes. The life form is most active in humid periods, and especially in autumn, when the growth of the bush slows down or stops completely, the flower cannot fight for its existence and health.
Suspecting soil contamination and finding a pest, you should immediately begin treatment. It is not difficult to get rid of the tails - the surface is abundantly covered with dried sand, ash or potato traps. One root crop is cut into two parts, laid with a slice on the surface of the soil, then all the insects collected on the fruit are collected. Land contamination can be very severe. In this case, it is necessary to use a special remedy for pests of indoor flowers "Bazudin". It can be bought at the store. This can be either a liquid for irrigation of the soil, or a powdery product that must be diluted with water and used for irrigation. Another option is to transplant the plant into clean soil, after washing the pot, rhizomes.
Nematodes
These indoor flower pests are the nightmare of many gardeners. They are small worms that harm the root of plants, and this leads to the death of flowers and greenery. The leaves wither, dry, the roots become blistered. The damage from nematodes is very large, but the plant is practically untreatable. More often the pest infects cacti, ficuses. Quite often, nematodes are detected in cyclamens.
In domestic plants, this type of harmful insect is relatively rare. If garden soil is used for transplantation, the risk of infection will increase significantly. Especially many problems of nematodes are brought to people who grow indoor flowers in greenhouses.
Spider mite
Photos and names of pests of indoor flowers are presented in this article. Among others, it is imperative to pay attention to the spider mite, which harms both rhizomes and the terrestrial part of the flower. It infects almost any plant, and the highest risk is for the flowers that live on the balcony in the courtyard in warm time. You can detect a tick if a thin cobweb appears between the leaves. The insect eats up the foliage from the inside, causing the green to lose color and curl. Buds, if the tick is drooping in them, fall dry, you can not count on any flowers.
Mass attacks of the spider mite are observed during the hot period, and the best way to protect plants is to maintain a sufficiently high level of humidity by regularly spraying the flower. Processing indoor flowers from pests of this type consists in spraying with acaricidal solutions ("Alatar", "Caesar"), sold in a store for gardeners. After processing the bush, you should wrap it with a film - this will help prevent the spread of infection to other plants, as well as create an increased level of humidity, due to which the tick will die faster.
Aphid
The prevalence of this pest is extremely high, and it is not difficult to detect infection. Aphid harms any variety of flowers growing at home or outside, and is especially active in the warmer months. Some species have wings. Having flown through the window into the house, the insect settles on the plant and begins to suck juice from the stem and greenery. The bush is gradually weakening, cannot develop and bloom.
The easiest way to cure a plant from aphids is at an early stage of infection. Experienced gardeners who tell you how to get rid of pests of indoor flowers are advised to wash the infected bush first with soapy water, then with clean running water. If insects have spread throughout the plant, the colony is large, you will have to resort to special products to combat it. In stores you can find the medicine "Fas." You can use wormwood, tobacco tinctures. Frequent preventative treatment of all plants is a reliable way to avoid the appearance of aphid colonies.
Whiteflies
This insect looks like volatile aphids. The pest is tiny - about 3 mm long, lives on the foliage from the inside, feeds on sucked juice. Due to infection, the green part of the plant soon fades, turns yellow, leaves fall. The pest migrated to our region from the humid tropics, it feels best in a warm room with moist air. Most often, whiteflies attack vegetation with thin leaves, as well as during flowering. In a special risk group - hibiscus, azalea. Primrose is often affected.
In order not to have to figure out how to get rid of a pest of indoor flowers, you should constantly ventilate the room, and also maintain a not too high temperature in it. When infected, insecticides should be used ("Aktara", "Mospilan"). As a prophylaxis with such a solution, the bushes are treated monthly. It is extremely difficult to cure the infection, sometimes it is impossible, therefore, special attention should be paid to prevention.
Weevils
The body length of the insect is up to one and a half centimeters; a typical external feature that allows it to be identified is hard wings. In reference books with photos and names of pests of indoor flowers, it is usually indicated that weevils especially often affect azalea, begonia. A harmful insect eats the foliage of the plant along the edges, and the damage is irreparable. The larvae of this pest feed on rhizomes. Attacking a bush from two sides at once, the weevil becomes the reason for slowing down and stopping development, and soon the flower weakens, dies.
To eliminate weevils, special disinfecting compounds have been developed (Iskra, Kemifos). Insecticides can be bought in almost any store with goods for gardeners. If the infection is very strong, a week after the initial treatment, repeat the procedure.
Caterpillars
Do not find someone who would not know about them. Even the most inexperienced growers who do not have a clue about pests and diseases of indoor flowers, imagine what a caterpillar is and why it is dangerous. This term refers to butterfly larvae. Their food is plant greens. At risk of infection - flowers that live on balconies, verandas and in the yard. If you do not pay enough attention to the condition of the plants, the caterpillars can eat all the leaves clean. True, not everything is so bad: it is not difficult to fight them, you can see the caterpillar with the naked eye, and then remove it with your hands. To avoid infection, all plants should be sprayed with insecticides for preventive purposes (Senpai, ExtraFlor).
Worms, scale insects
These similar species of pests are a real disaster for gardeners and their pets. If infection has occurred, it is very difficult to get rid of the insect, as they multiply rapidly, and in just a year several generations change. Worms and scutes can be identified by the carapace, giving them a visual resemblance to mussels. A photo of the pests and the indoor flower disease that they cause is presented below. These insects form numerous colonies, settle on leaves, stems, occupy a stable position and begin to suck out the juice. They are not characterized by mobility.
The considered type includes a mealybug, which is popularly known as a false ladybug. This pest can move within the plant. He survives well at home, since the most comfortable temperature for the worm is room temperature.
A close form of the pest is the root bug. It is smaller than powdery, lives in the root of the plant and is most harmful to varieties of flowers with dense foliage. The pest generates burning green dew.
Features of infection
Scale, worms are ways to spread almost instantly, and the damage from them is so serious that the plant will die soon without proper treatment. The first signs of infection are stem cracks, gradually the leaves turn yellow, the branches die off, after which the bush dies completely.
If infection with this pest is detected, the treatment of indoor flowers begins with the treatment of damaged parts of the plant. To do this, use an alcohol solution. The foliage is wiped, and after a third of an hour, insects are removed with a cotton pad. After that, the bush is treated with the Actellic insecticide (or another one of your choice).
If there is an infection with a variety that affects the roots of the plant, you will have to transplant the flower into a new soil. Before placing in a new pot, the root system is washed with clean running water. After transplanting, at least a quarter of the year, the plant is watered with a 50% solution of the insecticide.
Miners
These malicious flies are able to lay eggs on the green part of plants, and the larvae hatching from them eat literally everything in front of them, gnawing tunnels in the greenery. If there are few of them, then the appearance suffers, and with severe infection, the development of the bush stops. Among houseplants, there are few victims of miners, and the infection is rarely significant. Usually, you can simply remove the affected sheet as soon as signs of the disease are detected.
Thrips
These black pests on indoor flowers are tiny insects whose dimensions rarely exceed a millimeter. Thrips infection is very similar to tick-borne, but the web does not appear. They multiply quickly and actively in warm climates. An insect has a pair of wings, however, individuals move little. Both adults and larvae harm the plant. Thrips are able to draw fluid from the bush, and this slows down growth and development, the leaves dry out from a lack of oxygen, moisture. If thrips penetrate into the buds, they are deformed, covered with whitish foci, and die.
Experienced growers are advised to use a simple folk remedy for a pest of indoor flowers - naphthalene, the smell of which repels this insect. In order not to have to fight the infection, for preventive purposes you can put a couple of blocks near those flowers that are especially loved by thrips - begonias, cyclamens. If the bush is sick, buy aphid remedy. The pet is treated twice, between the procedures make a five-day pause.
Having found infection with thrips, they spray the plant with garlic, onion infusion. Take a glass of water on a small spoon of crushed product, insist a day. If a plant that cannot be sprayed is infected, the garlic is finely cut and laid around, for a few hours everything is covered with a film.
Cyclamen mite
As the name implies, it most often settles on cyclamen, although it can affect ivy, violet, pelargonium. It differs in small dimensions. When propagating, the colony looks as if the sheet below is covered with dust. Plant development slows down, leaves curl around the edges, stems are deformed, and buds fall. The insect loves moisture. If you do not know how to treat indoor flowers from pests in this case, then do not use chemical agents, because they do not affect the pest. To improve the plant, it is necessary to remove the affected areas.
Identification of the tick is difficult due to its small size and ability to hide in the corners of greenery. If signs of infection are detected, the affected areas must be cut off, with a strong spread of the pest - throw away the flower. You can try using systemic insecticides, but you can not count on success. Sometimes for treatment choose "Temik", a granular substance that is applied to the soil. This medicine has a strong effect, but it does not always help.
Sciara
Sometimes you have to look for how to treat potted plants from pests, because the houses are wound up with small worms - small mosquito-like flies, whose length rarely exceeds 1.5 mm. The insect has a narrow body, a round head, a pair of transparent wings in front, and in the back in the area of the second pair of wings there are ground beetles. The insect has a sucking type of oral organ, flies well, and multiplies rapidly in a suitable climate. In the people, the sciar is better known as a mushroom mosquito. The larvae of this insect harm the root system of the plant and lead to rot. , . , , 10 . .
Noticing the houses of numerous flies, you need to understand what kind of infection happened - the sciar is very similar to Drosophila, but the approaches to fighting them are different. If larvae are detected in a pot with soil, it is necessary to cultivate the land with Karbofos. When a plant is transplanted into new soil, preventive treatment should be carried out in order to exclude infection with social systems. You can notice the infection if, when you touch the pot, small dark insects take off from it. The soil in which the larvae live becomes like sand, and the diseased plant looks bad and cannot grow.
Prevention and treatment
To minimize the risk of sciara, it is necessary to water the flowers in moderation, avoiding waterlogging of the soil. The more moisture, the faster the mushroom mosquito will multiply. No need to water the plant before the topsoil dries. In case of excessive watering, excess moisture must be removed from the pallet and dried up.
If insects appeared, measures should be taken to prevent their reproduction. Mosquitoes lay larvae in the moist topsoil, so it is necessary to ensure that the land above is dry. It is recommended to use sterilized substrates, regularly remove dead parts of the bush, include coarse types of soil - peat, coal, coconut fiber in the soil. Assuming poor soil quality, you should freeze it.
Choosing how to spray indoor flowers from pests, it is worth taking a closer look at aerosols against flying insects. You can use the familiar Raid, "Dichlorvos." Before spraying, all food products are removed from the room, and after spraying, the products leave the room closed for several hours. In a similar way, they treat not only plants, but also the places of their usual habitat - window sills and shelving. Insecticides for irrigation (Karbofos) may come to the rescue. The solutions are prepared according to the instructions, they cultivate the soil twice with a week pause between the procedures.
Grape elephant
An adult eats the leaves of the plant, but the harm from it is relatively minor - much more dangerous than the larva. The length of the individual is up to 2.5 cm, the shade of the outer integument is light cream. Larvae live in the ground, feed on the root system of plants. The affected bush withers, stinks, and soon dies.
The problem with grape elephant infection is that it is very difficult to detect the infection on time. When noticeable signs appear, as a rule, the rhizomes of the plant are already affected to such an extent that survival is simply impossible. Trying to save a pet, you need to look at a gardener shop and ask how to water indoor flowers from pests - any systemic effect insecticide ("Actor", "Presto") will do. If the plant feels well, but bugs appeared on the foliage, a pot of insecticide should be shed for preventive purposes.
Phylloxera
Such a pest often affects bulbous, cacti, sometimes it starts in palm trees and bromeliad house plants. The affected specimen fades, does not develop, the leaves turn yellow. An examination of the rhizomes reveals tiny insects covered in whitish fluff. At times they find themselves on the surface of the soil. How to spray indoor flowers from pests? Experienced growers are advised to use the means of Bayer Garden. Preference is given to products containing fatty acids, Pyrethrum. To prevent the appearance of phylloxera, it is necessary to control the soil moisture level, preventing its drying out.
Features of the disease
In biology, it is customary to talk about two types of pests: some gnaw, others suck out juices from the plant. The first eat the bush alive, the second do not violate the integrity of the greenery, but they deprive the flower of cellular juice. The sucking type is considered more dangerous, and to notice it before it is too late is problematic. Most sucking varieties are tiny in size and can only be examined in detail if there is a microscope. The symptoms of infection become apparent when no treatment is already helping, and the infection probably spread to neighboring pots.
Before studying how and how to spray indoor flowers from pests, you should understand the causes of the appearance of insects, since, as you know, prevention is the best treatment method. From practice it is clear that very often the pest gets home with a new flower. When buying a new thing, you should carefully examine it for diseases. Cut flowers are a potential source of danger. No matter how beautiful the bouquet is, a tick and thrips sometimes get home with it. You can’t take soil from publicly available sources for plant transplantation - the likelihood of a nematode, pupae of various pests, which in the near future will cause serious problems, is too high. In spring, seedling breeding is associated with hazards. Almost all pests multiply, as they say, exponentially, and just a couple of insects, missed during an inattentive examination of the plant, becomes a threat to the whole variety of green pets.
Plant Care and Prevention
To minimize the risks of infection, it is necessary not only to inspect all the new things, but also to responsibly treat all color manipulations. It is recommended to regularly disinfect the containers, treat the soil with insecticides, and isolate the plant immediately with the initial signs of infection. Modern watering and top dressing, proper nutrition and lighting provide the flower with health, and therefore increase its resistance.
If there are few pests, it is necessary to rinse the plant under running water. Especially detailed study the back side of greenery. When infected with insects with hard skins, you can clean the stems and leaves with an old toothbrush, a brush moistened with liquid soap. To get rid of sucking forms of insects, plants are treated with a soft brush with methylated spirits or alcohol solution, and after a few minutes they are rinsed under running water in order to avoid burns. You should stock up on time and patience. If it was decided to manually collect pests, one such procedure is not guaranteed to be enough, the plant will have to be cleaned every five days until inspections show a complete absence of infection.
Many begin to deal with the problem with the help of chemicals, but many experienced growers recommend avoiding the use of such products at home - there are no pesticides allowed for home use, since in indoor conditions and a limited amount of air the harm from them becomes many times stronger.
The article examined photos of pests of indoor flowers and the treatment of the diseases that they cause.