Superficially fragrant vegetables, onions and garlic, do not have natural pests. But practice shows the opposite. The 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 contaminated soil becomes unsuitable for sowing plants. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem in time.
What an insect looks like
The onion fly looks like the most common fly, so it's easy to recognize it. It carries a great danger to your garden. In winter, it hibernates in the form of pupae in the soil, at a depth of up to 20 cm. During the mass flowering of dandelion, they fly out and lay their eggs on the soil, next to the plantings. After a while, white worms are born. They quickly sink into the soil and penetrate the bulb. Here they live and eat. After that, the larvae go into the soil and pupate.
Whatgoing on next? The onion fly produces many generations in one season. The larvae will emerge from the pupae and begin to gnaw on the plants. They penetrate not only into the bulb, but also into the green stems. As a result, the plant turns yellow and dies.
Ways to fight
Most gardeners don't need to be told what an onion fly is. How the bed dries up, and damaged bulbs, even after digging, soften and rot, have an unpleasant odor. Therefore, methods of dealing with it have been studied for a long time. Gardeners pass on to each other folk methods of struggle, to which the pest can get used to over time, so you should alternate them with each other. Today we will review the most popular and effective ways to fight.
Pest repellent
The fight against the onion fly begins with preventing its appearance on the site. And for this you need to know what this insect does not like. Despite its fondness for onions, it avoids strong-smelling aromatic plants. Therefore, parsley, basil, dill and other popular spices are planted around the garden with onions.
The marigold fly doesn't like it very much. These are bright, border flowers that repel almost all insect pests. But this measure is often not enough. Therefore, if you see single, affected plants, then they must be immediately pulled out and burned.
Prevention measures
Since getting rid of the onion fly can be problematic, you need to think in advance about creating conditions that are unsuitable for normal lifepest. 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 up the ground. This is the best pest control as it leaves no chance for the larvae to survive.
- Change your landing site regularly. In one place, onions can only be planted once every four years.
- If the gardener finds plants affected by larvae, it is recommended that they be destroyed immediately to avoid infecting other plants.
- Beds with bulbs need to be constantly loosened, so it is very important to plant plants at a distance from each other.
- Planting should be done as early as possible in the spring, as soon as the danger of frost has receded. This will buy time before the first generation of the fly appears.
- Weed control is a very important thing. Weeds provide ideal breeding grounds for flies.
When done with onions, these pests will destroy all flower plants in the area. Moreover, it is almost impossible to save the affected bushes. The larvae of plants of the bulbous family are especially fond of. These are gladioli and tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and many others.
Just before boarding
It is required to warm the vegetables at a temperature of +25 degrees. To do this, before planting, it must be filled with s alt water for 3 hours. For a liter of water, you need to take a tablespoon of s alt. After that, rinse and soak with a solution of manganese for 2 hours. Rinse again anddry.
Plant in prepared grooves, alternating with carrot strips. This will help kill two birds with one stone. Onion flies are repelled by carrots, and carrot flies are repelled by onions. After harvesting, be sure to dig up the bed, and with the onset of the new planting season, find a new place in 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 is best to start with simple and affordable methods. And the most popular among them is saline solution. For this, 300 g of table s alt is required to be dissolved in ten liters of water. The resulting solution is necessary to water the bed, on which the plants began to turn yellow.
Second treatment due in two weeks. Now the amount of s alt must be increased by 100 g. The stronger solution ensures that the pupae do not survive either. Three weeks after it, another treatment is done. In this case, the concentration of the solution is doubled.
Soap solution
This is another way to destroy the onion fly. A photo of a garden bed affected by a pest is more proof that it needs to offer decent resistance. The preparation of this remedy is very simple. To do this, take 50 g of laundry soap and dissolve it in a bucket of water. With this solution, you need to treat all the affected beds, without exception. If it was not possible to achieve complete destruction of the pest, then you need to add one of the listed methods to it.
Auxiliary methods
You can't call them 100% effective, but they can all serve the gardener:
- Tobacco dust. A bucket of hot water will require 200 g of tobacco powder. The solution should stand for several days, then process the bed. The fly must go.
- An effective method of struggle is kerosene. It is bred in water and the site is also processed three times.
- Ammonia fertilizing 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 beds affected by the fly are processed.
- The fly doesn't like tomatoes and carrots. Therefore, they are the most desirable neighbors.
Chemical methods of struggle
The use of insecticides is undesirable because they tend to accumulate in the soil and enter the body along with root crops. But if folk methods of struggle have not given effect, then nothing else will remain. By far the most effective are pyrethroids. These are synthetic insecticides that are designed to be sprayed on 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".
- "Clotianidin".
- "Thiamethoxam".
Home Pest
Onion fly can also come from the market, along with purchased vegetables. If you notice climbing 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 same vegetable baskets in which we pour purchases. Therefore, vegetables need to be sorted out and destroyed all damaged heads. The trash bag with them needs to be urgently taken out of the house and thrown into the container.
After that, you can think about how to get rid of the onion fly at home:
- You can just kill all the individuals with a fly swatter. A simple way to fight are fragrant herbs: tansy, yarrow, wormwood. They are laid out in the kitchen, where the insects were seen.
- If an onion set was cooked and a flock of midges began to circle over it, it means that it is infected with an onion fly. It is best not to use it for planting. If there is no other seed, then soak it in a solution of potassium permanganate for several hours.
- If the onion was planted in the house in boxes, and became the object of a fly attack, then use one of the methods listed above. In a crate they will be even more effective as the amount of land is limited.
Instead of a conclusion
The fight against the onion fly is often delayed for a long time, and sometimeshappens to be lost. Most often this happens because the culture was planted late, when the larvae are already actively looking for food. In this case, folk methods are ineffective, you need to use more effective insecticides. The second reason is that the struggle 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 harvest is lost for you. Therefore, timely prevention is the most effective way to fight.
