Small damage is caused by small size gray insects, which you can not immediately notice on the bed. These are onion flies.
Many gardeners have to deal with them. How to get rid of onion flies? This insect begins to fly during the flowering period of cherries, as a rule, from mid-May. Onion flies are inactive at this time, catching them is very easy. However, by early June, female insects lay their eggs in beds with onion plantings or on its young shoots. After a week, larvae appear. Small worms immediately bite into the onion neck in order to eat fleshy scales there.
After the destruction of one plant, the larvae are able to crawl to another. An external sign of the defeat of young plantings is the yellowing and drying of the tips of the feathers. Bulbs themselves, affected by larvae, can no longer survive, as they begin to rot. A month later, the onion fly worms go into the soil for pupation. After that, the second generation is born.
The insect can damage the planting of not only ordinary onions. It destroys spinach, shallots and garlic. Suffers from pest and leek.
How to get rid of onion flies, which brings so much trouble to gardeners? There are several methods that guarantee a quick positive result. At the same time, there is no need to use chemicals, because they can accumulate in a vegetable, which will then be eaten. And this, as you know, is undesirable.
How to get rid of onion flies with plants? The insect does not like certain smells. In this regard, the beds can be periodically sprayed with infusions of valerian, mint, lovage, fir or rosemary. Gives a great effect and needles. However, it is worth remembering that the spraying of the beds should be done before the appearance of the insect.
How to get rid of onion flies using other methods? Remarkable results in the fight against pests gives ordinary saline. Its insect does not tolerate. To prepare the product should use ten liters of water and three hundred grams of salt. With this solution, it is necessary to water the beds during the period when the seedlings reach a height of five centimeters. Immediately after this procedure, the feathers should be washed, removing salt from them. Plants are also watered with clean water, but three to four hours after treatment.
A solution with an increased amount of salt to four hundred grams should be applied after ten days. Some gardeners also carry out a third treatment. To prepare the solution in this case, six hundred grams of salt is taken. The onion is processed a third time three weeks after the second spraying.
There is another method that allows you to answer the question: "How to get rid of onion flies?" In this method,
tobacco dust is used to process the beds
. It can be used in pure form, or can be mixed with lime. The product crumbles to the ground around the bulb. With this method, ash is also suitable, which will additionally serve as fertilizer.
In the event that an onion fly appeared on the site, you already know how to get rid of it. However, it is easier to prevent the occurrence of a pest. To do this, you must follow simple rules. Onions should not be planted on the same beds every season. Need a mandatory crop rotation. It is worth remembering that the onion fly does not tolerate the smell of carrots. That is why the beds of this vegetable and onions should be alternated. After harvesting, the soil needs to be dug deep. This is necessary to destroy the insect wintering at a depth of twenty centimeters.