Onion fly: how to deal with it with folk and chemical means?

When an onion fly appears, the appearance of the plant changes in order not to lose the crop, you need to know how to deal with it. Each gardener would do well to get acquainted with the description of the pest and the main reasons for its appearance in the garden.

Biological portrait

The onion fly is a widespread vegetable pest. The larvae of these insects penetrate the bulb from the inside or from the side of the bottom. The larvae of the first generation are especially dangerous. A damaged bow begins to wither and rot.

Appearance

It is easy to confuse an onion fly with an ordinary, room or cabbage fly. It is important for vegetable growers to know what a fly looks like in order to start a fight in the early stages of its appearance. The onion fly is gray-yellow in color, the average length is 7-8 mm. Vertical stripes can be seen on the wings.

Eggs that the insect lays, white, oval, 1 mm long with a longitudinal stripe in the middle. Under favorable conditions, the larvae begin to appear already on the 4th day

Transparent white larvae are small, about 1 mm. The back of the body is thicker than the front. After three weeks, the larva turns into an adult.

The flies themselves do not harm plants, but they constantly lay new eggs. You need to be afraid of the larvae that hatch from them. Control methods should be aimed at both the adult insect and their larvae.

Reproduction

The onion fly begins to fly at the end of April with the onset of heat. At the same time, she begins to actively multiply. Years takes a fairly long period of time, about 50 days. Lays eggs directly into the soil or the remains of dry husks in beds where onions or garlic grow. Less often lays eggs in the axils of the leaves and on the leaves themselves.

One adult insect can lay up to 60 eggs in its entire life. In order to lay eggs, an adult requires additional nutrition in the form of nectar and pollen from flowering plants.

Onion fly larvae, which emerge from eggs, are kept in groups and are capable of destroying the entire interior of the bulb. Easily gnawing through the peel of the turnip, they penetrate inside. After 3 weeks, the larvae burrow into the soil and pupate. And after another 2-3 weeks, a new, younger generation of pests appears.

The trace of rot on the bulb should be the reason for the start of pest control. They carry out preventive treatment of he althy plants and therapeutic treatment of bulbs already infected with pests.

Signs of pest presence

The larvae of adult insects suck out all the juices from the bulb and devour the pulp. After three weeks, the flies completely destroy the plant, burrow into the soil and pupate. In this state, she spends the whole winter.

In spring, the onion fly emerges from its cocoon weak but capable of life. For a week, she will feed on the nectar of dandelions or lilacs, and in another week the sexually mature period will come. At this time, insects move to the onion beds.

The following signs will help you notice pests in the vegetable garden in time:

• The bulbs begin to rot, exude an unpleasant odor. In the section, you can see the moves made by the larvae.
• The plant slows down in growth, the feathers begin to turn yellow, wither, the tips curl inward.
• The bulb is easily pulled out of the soil with the root, near the bottom you can see small worms, these are fly larvae.

After harvesting, you need to dig deep into the ground (to a depth of 20 cm). What can be done to treat soil infested with pests? The onion fly dies in a s alty environment, so it is recommended to water the beds with a saline solution before planting the bulbs. The larvae die immediately.

How to get rid of the onion fly?

If preventive methods did not help, and the fly still appeared, you need to take decisive control measures. You can use folk remedies and chemicals to control the pest.

Folk recipes will help answer the question of how to effectively deal with the onion fly. It contains components that are available in every home and are absolutely safe for cultivated plants.

In the case when individuals have multiplied to a large number, chemicals must be used from the parasite. They should not be applied too often as pesticides accumulate in the head and cause harm to human he alth when eaten.

Folk remedies

Since onion quickly absorbs insecticides, experts recommend using folk remedies for onion flies.

One of the proven and effective methods of dealing with the onion fly is a solution containing kerosene. Before processing with kerosene, the earth is thoroughly watered with ordinary water. Then water the bed with a solution. For 10 liters of water, take 30 ml of the substance.

Tobacco dust is used against pests. The solution is easy to prepare. You need to take 200 g of tobacco dust, which is diluted in 10 liters of hot water. To increase efficiency, 30 g of soap (liquid or dry) is added to the composition. After that, the solution is left to infuse for 2-3 days. Tobacco dust can simply be sprinkled on the bed. You can mix it with lime beforehand.

If pests are found on onion beds, gardeners recommend watering them with saline. 300 g of s alt are dissolved in a bucket of water. When watering, make sure that the solution does not get on the feathers. Two weeks later, watering is repeated, but with a more concentrated solution.

Helps to cope with the problem of a mixture of ash with dry mustard, ground pepper or tobacco dust. The treatment of beds with a similar composition should be carried out 3-4 times with an interval of 7-10 days.

Deep digging also helps to cope with the problem. Larvae that land on the surface of the earth quickly die.

Chemical Warfare

You can process onions with ammonia. Three drops of iodine, a drop of potassium permanganate, 2.5 ml of boric acid and 30 ml of technical ammonia are dissolved in a bucket of water. It is necessary that the water smells slightly of ammonia. It is recommended to water each affected bush with the resulting solution (about 250 ml of solution is consumed for each root).

It is advisable to treat with ammonia in the evening so that the soil retains moisture longer. Watering is better between rows, avoiding direct contact with the root.

After processing, it is recommended to loosen the soil so that the smell repels pests even more.

In critical situations, chemical agents such as Aktara, Intavir, Metronidazole, Fitoverm, Creolin, Zemlin will help save the crop.

Relatively recently, a solution based on Metronidazole has become popular among gardeners. For 10 liters of water, take 5-6 tablets, which must first be crushed to powder. It is allowed to water with a similar solution 1-2 times for the entire period of plant development. During watering, avoid getting the drug on the leaves.

Prevention

The first signs of the presence of a pest in the garden can be seen already in the spring, when dandelions, cherries and lilacs begin to bloom. Flowers are simply necessary for the development of insects. The fly feeds on the nectar of these plants.

The appearance of a pest is easier to prevent than to look for ways to deal with it later.

Prophylactic protection against onion fly may include a number of the following:

• better to plant onions next to a carrot or tomato patch (the fly can't stand the smell of carrots and tries not to lay eggs next to this vegetable);
• onions should be planted as early as possible;
• you can’t plant onions in the same place for several years in a row (pests successfully overwinter in the soil, burrowing into the remains of plants);

• recommended to mulch the soil (rotted manure, hay, peat can be used as mulch);
• planting material must be placed in a disinfectant solution (a weak solution of potassium permanganate will do);
• before planting, fertilize the soil with peat or manure;

• previously, the earth can be treated with saline, and after 5 hours it is good to shed it with clean water;
• after germination, it is useful to carry out preventive treatment with a bitter solution based on, for example, wormwood, pepper, tansy;
• after harvesting, you need to dig up the ground, the larvae on the surface of the soil do not tolerate cold weather and die.

It should be remembered that before using any solution, the soil must be watered! This will allow all components to operate safely and effectively. Some solutions require watering with clean water a few hours after the procedure.

For the entire growing season, the onion bed must be properly and carefully looked after: weed in time, preventing the growth of weeds, observe the correct watering regime and be sure to loosen the soil.

Recommended