Sweet pepper pests and their control: what to do, how to process

Most gardeners prefer not to buy peppers in stores, but to grow them themselves. Before you start growing, you need to familiarize yourself with what pepper pests in the greenhouse and open ground can harm the bushes and how to get rid of them at home.

Main signs of pests

Bell pepper pests in the greenhouse quite often appear due to improper care of the plant or due to the lack of prevention to protect them. The following signs indicate that pests of pepper seedlings have appeared:

pepper leaves gradually begin to change color and fade;
infected greenhouse peppers grow slower;
during wilting, not only the leaves of the bushes, but also their ovaries with peduncles may suffer;
poor yield;
small pest larvae appear on the sheets, which can be seen with the naked eye.

When the first signs of the presence of pests on the bushes appear, it is necessary to immediately figure out which plant parasite attacked the plant.

Pest species

Pepper seedlings can be attacked by various insects, and therefore, before protecting bell pepper from pests, you need to familiarize yourself with the most common parasites.

Whitefly

Most often, pepper leaves suffer from such a pest as the whitefly. Outwardly, they look like small butterflies, the size of which does not exceed 3-5 millimeters. The whitefly has a distinctive feature - a faint white coating on the wings.

The larvae and adults use bell peppers to extract the nutrients they need from them. However, the whitefly not only absorbs the juice of peppers, but also carries various viruses.

Checking that whitefly is present on the bushes is quite simple. To do this, it is enough to carefully examine the leaves of the plant. Thick mucus will appear on their surface, in which the fungus develops. If you do not spray the leaves in a timely manner and do not remove the mucus, then the leaves will begin to turn black and dry.

How to treat pepper seedlings from whitefly pests

Most often, the whitefly appears on seedlings that are grown in conditions of high humidity. Therefore, in order to protect the pepper from these insects, it is recommended to periodically ventilate the greenhouse and not plant the seedlings too densely.

However, if these insects have already appeared in the greenhouse, then the bushes should be protected and their treatment should begin. The whitefly is fought with the following methods:

Special coated tapes. The surface of such tapes is covered with a sticky substance that fights pests and destroys them. These tapes can be purchased or made independently. To make it with your own hands, take a small piece of plywood and process it with petroleum jelly. One such piece of plywood must be placed near each bush.
Garlic solution. Sometimes pepper pest control is carried out with folk remedies made from garlic. To prepare the solution, finely chop two heads of garlic and pour them with water. Next, the mixture is infused for about a week, after which the bushes are processed.
Chemicals. If all of the above methods did not help, then you should spray the bushes with special chemicals. Grizzly, Aktara, Zeta, Fitoverm and Iskra are used to process peppers.

Spider mite

Spider glue looks like a harmless and small insect. However, in fact, it is very dangerous, since this pest is able to completely destroy all the bushes on the site. Under favorable conditions, ticks can live 2-3 months. After death, they leave their eggs in the soil, which can be stored in it for more than five years.

Distinguishing spider mites from other pests is not very difficult. The leaves gradually begin to become covered with cobwebs. In addition, peppers in the greenhouse have small holes on the leaves. If you look closely, you can see small insects in the web.

How to get rid of spider mites

To get rid of spider mites on pepper seedlings, you can use the following control measures:

Laundry soap. It is not so difficult to prepare a remedy from laundry soap. To do this, 2-3 soap bars are grated and added to a 20-liter container filled with water. Mix the solution thoroughly and get rid of ticks with it.
Onion peel. During the fight against insects, you can use an onion infusion that protects plants from ticks. To prepare it, dilute 200 grams of onion peel in 10 liters of boiled water.
Garlic tincture. Some gardeners use garlic solutions to get rid of mites. To create a healing mixture that would fight insects, 150 grams of grated garlic are added to five liters of water. The prepared solution is recommended to be used immediately.
Chemicals. Since it is quite difficult to deal with spider mites, the above methods of control do not always help and more effective means have to be used. You can clear the bushes from ticks with the help of Anti-Tick or Apollo.

Slugs

Quite often, leaf-eating slugs begin to appear on peppers. Immediately after appearing on the bushes, the insect eats the leaves and fruits of the plant. The appearance of such nibbling slugs is facilitated by a warm climate and waterlogged soil.

How to get rid of slugs

To fight slugs, it is recommended to use the following remedies:

Baits. They can be purchased at specialized stores or made independently. Some vegetable growers make a hole in the ground, near the peppers, and place a small barrel of beer in it to attract the attention of slugs.
Plants. To prevent slugs from appearing on peppers, plant garlic, onions or basil nearby. All these plants will help deter pests from peppers.
Soda solution. To stop slugs from chewing on leaves, you can use baking soda liquid. When diluting soda in water, no more than 100 grams of soda should be added to 10 liters of liquid.

Ants

Ants are a fairly common problem in a greenhouse. These insects emerge from the anthill and eat young pepper bushes. The appearance of ants can lead to various diseases of pepper and therefore they must be disposed of quickly.

Methods of struggle

There are several fairly effective ways to deal with ants in greenhouses:

Anthill disinfection. To make the ants disappear, it is recommended to treat their anthill with vegetable oil, hot water or a kerosene solution. Processing should be done in the evening, when all the ants will be in the anthill.Before the procedure, it is recommended to excavate the lair a little so that the liquid is better absorbed.
Applying powders. Ants can be killed with a special powder consisting of lime, ash and soda. You can also use millet or semolina, as insects do not like them.
Set fire to the lair. The most radical way during the fight against ants is to set fire to their anthill. To do this, a trench is dug around the anthill, into which a small amount of carbon sulfide is added. After that, everything is set on fire and does not extinguish for 10-15 minutes. This is enough time for all the ants in the nest to die.

Thrips

Pests such as thrips are quite common on pepper bushes. In greenhouse conditions, thrips are quite difficult to destroy, and therefore many vegetable growers simply try to control their number so that their presence does not affect the yield in any way.

After hitting the plants, thrips immediately begin to suck the juice out of it. This leads to yellowing of the leaves and to their further drying. If you do not get rid of pests in time, the bushes may die.

Ways to fight

Thrips can only be destroyed with special preparations:

Vertimek. To prepare a working solution, 3 ml of Vertimek is mixed with 10 liters of water. Bushes are sprayed with the prepared mixture once a week. After processing, each bush should be put on a plastic bag, which will need to be removed only the next day.
Fitoverm. The product is sold as a solution, which must be diluted with water before use. To do this, no more than 5 ml of the drug is added to half a liter of water. Spraying is carried out in the evening when there is no strong wind.
Intavir. Before using Intavir, a working solution should be prepared. To prepare it, one tablet of the drug is added to a 10-liter container.

Conclusion

Almost all vegetable growers who grow this crop face pests on peppers. At the same time, many of them do not know what to do if holes appear on the pepper leaves. To get rid of them, you need to figure out who eats the leaves on the bushes and why. This will help you find the right pest control methods for your peppers and get rid of them.