Sometimes flower growers are faced with such a problem as flies flying around the house. Their number can be very large. But do not immediately raise a panic. You must first understand what kind of insects. It can be mushroom mosquitoes. How to get rid of them, and why they appear at all, let's try to understand this article.
Mushroom mosquitoes, or sciarids, appear in warm, moist places. It can be ventilation and sewer paths, cellars, bathrooms, dressing rooms. Their favorite place is pots with house plants. It is there that mosquitoes make their nests. Eggs will appear in them within a few days, and a little later - larvae. You need to deal with them very quickly. Moreover, it is necessary to get rid simultaneously of pests that are in different stages of development.
What is an insect?
The mushroom mosquito, the photo of which is presented in the figure below, is also called the sciar fly. Belongs to the Diptera order, the Scyarida family. The mosquito is a small insect with a narrow oblong body size of 1.5-4 mm. The color is black and gray. Moreover, the color of the body is darker as the individual “grows up”. The head is rounded with long antennae. Mouth organs sucking. The wings are only front, they are transparent. But they fly well. The rear pair of wings is transformed into a club-shaped hummer. Due to this, during the flight you can hear a characteristic sound.
Adults do not harm plants. They do not bite or suck blood. Do not get into the eyes. But they can be carriers of various fungal diseases that harm both plants and people.
Life expectancy is approximately a week. But during this time, the insect manages to lay up to 300 eggs. The female lays eggs on the surface of moist soil or in the soil between the roots. A few days later, larvae emerge from the eggs. They have no legs and resemble worms.
The larvae of the mushroom mosquitoes are transparent, with a clearly visible intestine and a black “head”. It is the “head” that is the distinguishing feature by which scyarids are distinguished from other types of larvae. The length of the larva reaches 8-10 mm. Their mouth apparatus is gnawing. They feed on plant remains that decompose in the soil. In flower pots, in conditions of food shortage, they eat plant roots and young shoots located in the soil. By doing so, they bring irreparable harm to plants. After a few days, pupation and the appearance of young midges occur. The remaining shells are decomposed in the ground. Larvae do not like dry land. If they get out of moist soil into the air, they quickly die.
Scyarides are often confused with Drosophila. If the former have a “slender” body, then the latter are thicker. The mosquito has a head and breast larger than the rest of the body, the abdomen is thin. And Drosophila has no differences between the breast and the abdomen.
Causes of insects in the house
Before starting the question of how to deal with a mushroom mosquito, you should understand why he settled in the house.
The most common causes of flies are:
- High humidity in the room.
- Acquisition of an already charged plant.
Sciarides (mushroom mosquitoes) love moist and warm places. They can fly into the window into the light, penetrate from the basements through the ventilation, be in the soil for the flowerpot, garbage or vegetables left for storage (potatoes, carrots for the winter, and so on). Having penetrated the house, the mosquito can take root if he likes the conditions.
Favorite Habitats
If at least one midge appears, you need to check all available flower pots. They are the favorite insect habitats. First of all, it is worth checking plants with moist and well-fertilized soil. If there are a lot of mosquitoes, they can lay eggs in dry soil.
You can check the flower for the presence of sciarides by simply shaking the flowerpot. If there are midges, they will fly in a small flock.
In addition, the mushroom mosquito can be located in a humid room (bathroom, basement, dressing, and so on).
Signs of the appearance of a fly
The mushroom mosquito that has appeared in the house will certainly “show” itself. Several signs will indicate his presence.
First, black insects will fly around the house. And their location will be mainly flower pots.
Secondly, in the soil of flower pots there will be eggs or larvae of the mushroom mosquito. How to get rid of them is the most important question. And the answer to it depends on the stage of the problem.
A plant that has been attacked by insects will begin to hurt. It is weakening, wilting, dropping leaves. If you do not get rid of pests in time, the flower may simply die. And given the rapid development and reproduction of the mushroom mosquito, it is necessary to fight it immediately when a problem occurs.
Insect Control
Before embarking on a fight, it is necessary to determine where and at what stage the mushroom mosquito is. The control methods for each stage may vary. Therefore, first you need to do some preparatory work that will help to achieve the maximum effect in the fight against insects:
- First you need to determine how scyarides penetrate the house and eliminate them.
- Close windows with mosquito nets.
- Install protective nets on the ventilation ducts.
- To reduce the humidity in the room (you can install additional ventilation).
- Check the soil in pots and replace if necessary.
- Check the roots of plants, remove rotten and damaged areas.
After performing these measures, you can proceed to the direct destruction of pests.
General rules of struggle
Fighting the mushroom mosquito will bring maximum effect if it is aimed at the destruction of all forms of insects. These methods include:
- Processing the entire room with special aerosols for controlling insects (Dichlorvos, Raptor, Raid and others). In this case, it is necessary to remove all food products, personal hygiene items and the like. Pets (birds, fish, puppies and so on) also need to be isolated for a while.
- Work on window sills, shelves, and other places where plants stand. This will help prevent the development of surviving specimens. Places that have been treated will need to be washed thoroughly with soap and water.
- Use insecticides. Among them, the most popular are “Actellik”, “Aktara”, “Fitoverm”, “Karbofos” and others. The chemical is diluted with water according to the instructions. The resulting solution sheds soil in pots twice at weekly intervals. So that the processing efficiency does not decrease, it is recommended not to water the plant during the first days after treatment.
- When fighting larvae, Bazudin, Thunder, and so on will help. When using them, it is necessary to replace the topsoil with a mixture of a new substrate with the granules of the drug. When watering the plant, the product will dissolve and destroy the pests.
Treated plants should be left for several hours (preferably at night). Later they can be transferred to their places. The room must be ventilated and all dead insects removed.
It is necessary to start pest control when the first individuals appear. If the process is left to chance and the moment is missed, in a few days you will have to fight not only with flying midges. More eggs and larvae will appear, which will also have to be disposed of.
Fighting Chemicals
Flying mushroom mosquitoes in flowers can be removed in the following ways:
- Chemical aerosols, which were discussed a little higher.
- Hang masking tape for flies (it can be replaced with tape).
- Use a remedy for cockroaches (such as the "Mashenka" pencil). It is applied to the top of the pot. The second option is to crumble a pencil and sprinkle around.
How to deal with mushroom mosquitoes folk remedies
Among the popular ways to combat mosquito, they most often use:
- With a vacuum cleaner, you can collect flying individuals sitting on flowers.
- Only insects that have flown into the room will leave if you spread citrus peels, dill, garlic, anise oil around the pot.
- Buy a plant that feeds on insects. For example, Nepentes. The downside of this option is the difficulty in caring for such plants.
- To process the plant with a soap solution (30 g of soap are taken per 1 liter of water). Processing is carried out 5 times at weekly intervals.
- Tobacco solution can also be used in mosquito control. To do this, 40 g of dried tobacco are insisted in 1 liter of water for two days. After time, the solution is filtered and diluted with another 2 liters of water. Use the solution 5 times with an interval of 7 days.
- The use of ash is based on the appearance of an alkaline environment that mosquitoes cannot tolerate. Ashes are scattered on the surface of the pot. Under the influence of water (during watering the plant), the ash forms an alkaline environment.
Fly Egg Fight
To combat the eggs that are laid by the mushroom mosquito, the soil can be shed several times with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
An effective remedy is the Citropack tablet. Its fourth part is bred in 5 liters of water. The resulting solution is watered with soil. Already one treatment will bring tangible results. But the process can be repeated several more times to consolidate the success.
Drying the soil in a pot can also bring positive results. But in this case, it is very important that the plant itself does not die. Its need for water must be taken into account.
Getting rid of larvae
The greatest difficulties may arise during the disposal of the larvae that have been put off by the mushroom mosquito (photo below). This is due to the fact that the larvae are resistant to most pesticides.
To combat the larvae, you can use soil insecticides ("Thunder-2", "Bazudin" and so on). Their granules are placed in the topsoil.
Another surefire way is to keep the topsoil dry in the pot. Larvae do not tolerate dry soil.
Preventive actions
It is much more difficult to deal with emerging flower pests than to prevent their development. Therefore, it is recommended that special attention be given to preventive measures. They are primarily associated with the elimination of conditions favorable for mosquitoes. More precisely, we can distinguish the following measures necessary to prevent the occurrence of pests:
- Do not water the plants too abundantly to prevent flooding.
- The water in the trays of the pots should not stagnate.
- When planting, use only high quality soil.
- Do not leave on the plants "food" for the front sight: dry or damaged leaves, rotten roots, dry inflorescences.
- Grow onions next to flowers, which repels many pests.
Conclusion
Mushroom mosquito is a soil pest of plants. It appears in moist, warm places. Adult individuals that are able to fly do no harm to plants or humans. But they are able to lay eggs. In one nest there can be up to 300 eggs. Larvae appear from them. It is they that pose a danger to plants. Larvae damage the root system of plants. Because of this, the flower may die.
Before fighting with a mushroom mosquito, it is necessary to determine its quantity and stage of development. There are universal methods to get rid immediately of flying insects, their eggs and larvae. Some methods allow you to deal with insects that are in a specific stage of development. To make the treatment as effective as possible, you need to get rid of all forms of flower pests right away.
Important in the fight against mosquitoes is the elimination of the causes that led to the appearance of sciaridae in the room. These measures can be attributed to preventive measures that will not allow the mushroom mosquito to reappear in the future.