Cucumber pests and control

What cucumber pests look like: photo

Cucumbers are quite fertile, but their yield directly depends on the pests attacking them. The more insects, the less fertility. Cucumber pests that often attack cucumbers are aphids, mites, whitefly and cruciferous flea. Anyone with a vegetable garden needs to know how to destroy harmful insects.

Cucumber pests and their description

What do cucumber leaf pests look like: photo

Cucumber pests and control: video

Aphid

The troublesome cucumber pests are aphids. These insects live on leaves near the roots of plants. The sizes are usually no more than two millimeters and live on the underside of the leaves, where their colonies are located, destroying crops. These pests are very fond of melons and gourds and begin to multiply actively in the spring.

The cucumber pest of aphids is most active in July. Gardeners can see hundreds of black and green insects on the leaves of cucumbers. Aphids can cause wilting of leaves, drying of flowers, and ovaries can curl.

Spider mite

Another type of small pest, it is difficult to see it due to its microscopic size (no more than one millimeter). The presence of this mite on the plant can be determined by the cobweb formed on the leaves. Usually mites spread on the undersides of leaves. Perhaps this is the most striking arthropod plant. It greatly weakens the plant by sucking out its liquid. Ticks come in a variety of colors, ranging from yellow to red. In the absence of proper treatment, the plant may die after a short time.

Fleas

Another small beetle is a black flea, usually no more than three millimeters in size.

Black fleas gnaw holes in the leaves and through them take the juice from the plants. They hibernate in the upper layers of the soil. This is the most dangerous species of flea, they quickly jump over the leaves and destroy them. If you don't notice them in time, then the cucumbers can die in a couple of days.

Whitefly

This insect is larger than the previous ones, usually up to fifteen millimeters in size. Larvae of a pale green color feed on leaves, with a belly and thin filaments at the end. They are located on the back of the leaf and take off if they touch the plant. Insects resemble translucent plates on a plant. This pest infects plants both in the garden and in greenhouses. Whitefly is a terrible pest that can quickly destroy all plants from a cucumber plant. Affected plants practically cease to bear fruit, the leaves turn yellow and the plant dies.

Cucumber pests: fight

Getting rid of aphids

All cucumber pests, as we learned earlier, are located on the underside of the leaves. This should not be forgotten during processing. Young plants are easier to handle, but older plants need to be carefully processed and turned over.

Interesting! Trapped ladybugs can fight aphids. In twenty-four hours, a ladybird can kill about a hundred individuals.

Also in the fight against the cucumber pest of aphids, fertilizers with phosphorus and potassium show themselves well. They must be diluted in water: ten grams of calcium chloride plus twenty grams of superphosphate per ten liters of water. This feeding should be carried out every seven days until the insects are completely destroyed. It is also possible to use biological products. Their advantage is that forty-eight hours after spraying the plants, the fruits can be eaten.If there are too many aphids, chemicals cannot be avoided.

Attention! Before using chemicals, you must carefully read the instructions and follow all the rules.

Spider mite control

When this insect damages the plant, it is necessary to remove the damaged areas, and sometimes the entire plant. Damaged areas are burned in a separate container to prevent the spread of the pest.

Insectoacaricides help well against ticks, periodically they use biological products that do not harm the plant itself and the surrounding nature.

Sometimes predatory insects are used against ticks. They are populated on plants after two to three weeks at a constant humidity of seventy percent and a temperature of about twenty-five degrees.

It is recommended to use biomaterials in the presence of large areas of plants. Such products are difficult to find in stores, but can be ordered from manufacturers from other countries. Some of the funds are sold in special stores, usually the dealer of such materials is the Dutch company KBS (koppert biological sistems).

There are still possible ways to deal with this cucumber pest.

• One hundred and fifty grams of garlic is dissolved in one liter of water and waited for seven days. Dilute the mixture with ten liters of water before applying.
• Two kilograms of aloe must be mixed with ten liters of water and the plant must be treated.
• The solution can be applied after twelve hours, dilute ten liters of warm water with two kilograms of wormwood.
• Infusion of "fiery" pepper. Boil one hundred grams of pepper in one liter of water and dilute every one hundred and fifty grams of solution in ten liters of water.

Destruction of black fleas

In the early morning, the leaves should be sprayed with a solution of ash and dust, mixed in equal proportions. The mixture is placed in special bags and scattered from them over the plants. The mixture will fit well on the dew on the leaves. The point is that the leaves get dirty, pests do not like this.

After rain, you need to repeat the procedure. You can also spray the plant with chicken droppings, infused for a week. Of course, insecticides and various chemicals are used (ddt, guapsin, sharpa, etc.), it is possible to use nikodust or sodium mixed with ash.

Whitefly fighting

With the timely finding of insects, they can be removed by collecting the leaves and burning them, the soil around the plant in this case must be loosened. If the cucumbers are grown in a greenhouse, you can hang special adhesive tapes around the perimeter. Since whiteflies live on the bottom of plants, you can put foil between plantings to get the sunlight reflected from it, which repels insects.

It is also possible to use predatory insects. They are released into greenhouses every fourteen days, one individual of the encarsia can destroy a hundred whiteflies. This is a biomaterial purchased in special stores.

Folk remedies for controlling cucumber pests

Some types of decoctions and infusions were listed above.

Consider infusions from harmful fleas

Take a glass of garlic and tomato tops and dilute in ten liters of warm water. Use immediately after preparation.

You can use a strained solution of five hundred grams of dandelion roots and leaves mixed with ten liters of hot water.

Nowadays, a 70% solution of vinegar and solutions of ammonia or hydrogen peroxide are often used.

Plants should be processed in these ways in the spring at the top and at the roots of the plant.

Healthy! For better fixing of solutions on the leaves, it is recommended to add thirty grams of laundry or tar soap.

Cucumber pests: prevention

Prevention should be started at the end of the warm season. It is easier to carry out prevention than to spend a lot of money and time fighting harmful insects.

Featured Autumn Jobs:

It is necessary to burn all that remains of the plants, then spray the soil with copper sulfate (ll) and plow the topsoil, about thirty-five centimeters.

In the spring, before sowing, it is necessary to prepare the soil. Manure can lead to the multiplication of various midges, so you need to be careful with it and mix well with the soil if it is used. If your land is susceptible to weeds, then pesticides should be applied.

Seeds must be treated in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate before sowing. It is also possible to process it in a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution. Perhaps the most important part of prevention is regular inspection of the beds and greenhouses. As well as clearing weeds and loosening the soil, it is important to regularly water the plants.

Part of the care necessary for cucumbers includes diving the beds. If you grow cucumbers in a greenhouse, you should take care of a constant temperature in them, close to eighteen degrees of heat, and you should also keep high humidity.

Important! Cucumber beds must be carefully planned. They cannot be planted in the beds after pumpkins have been planted on them. It is best to plant cucumbers after legumes or potatoes, they leave the soil filled with nitrogen.

It will be useful to plant plants with good pollination next to cucumbers. Dill will also be a good neighbor.

Since cucumbers are highly susceptible to pests, you will always have to fight them. The more you know about pests, the less chance of destroying your plantings.

Cucumber pests: photo