The reasons for the appearance of thrips on orchids and the struggle with them. How to detect insects and get rid of them?
Thrips, like any other pests, can bring a lot of trouble even to an experienced grower.
Orchids are no exception. Merciless pests infect these delicate plants very often and there are many reasons for this.
How to get rid and prevent the appearance of this disease on orchids is discussed in detail in this article.
What harm can insects do?
Often thrips affects indoor plants, including orchids, which spoils their appearance, shortens the flowering time, and can lead to the death of the plant. Weakened immunity leads to vulnerability to fungi.
If transparent or yellow spots appear on the plant, it can be too late to sound the alarm. To prevent this, it is necessary to regularly carry out preventive measures.How to detect?
The structural features of the insects do not immediately track the signs of an impending threat. Finding thrips on plants is not easy, as the size of the insect is 1-3 mm, and they are located on the underside of leaves and flowers. Often a problem is discovered when the number of insects becomes threatening to the scale of plantings.
Eating plant cell sap, thrips causes the appearance of yellow or discolored spots on the leaves, which will be the main sign of the development of the disease. One of the symptoms of the pest is black dots on the surface of the leaf plate. - Pest vital products. Sometimes you can see traces of pollen on fresh flowers, which will also be one of the signs.
Photo
In the photo you can see how the pests look.
Reasons for the appearance
The source of the spread of insects can be newly acquired plants. Also, thrips are not difficult to bring along with a bouquet of wildflowers or garden flowers. Due to the fact that the flowers were on the open balcony, they can also be damaged by this insect.
When introducing new plants, you should carefully inspect them for pests, as well as carry out certain procedures that will prevent the appearance of insects.Pest control: how to get rid of them?
- The first thing to do before starting treatment for orchids is to separate healthy plants from infected ones and quarantine them.
- We wash plants on which thrips are found under a warm shower to wash off insects and reduce their number on an orchid.
To transfer flowers is more careful, since you can throw pests on other plants, thereby only increasing the number of infected plants.
- Next, you should choose a method of combating the pest, depending on the degree of infection and the preferences of the grower.
Chemicals
At the moment, many drugs have been created that help gardeners get rid of thrips:
- actar;
- phyto farm;
- cellophlor;
- pyrethrum powder;
- Bayer Lysethane Plus;
- Bayer Lysethane Combigranulate;
- vertimek;
- non-morph;
- Nurell D and others.
Using these drugs, you must follow the instructions without increasing the concentration or number of treatments, since most of these products are oil-based. These drugs well help in the fight against thrips, but there is a serious minus. They prevent the penetration of oxygen, which is necessary in the process of photosynthesis.
Such it is better to apply the drugs pointwise to areas where insects were foundso that the process of formation of organic matter continues, thanks to healthy leaves.
How to deal with folk remedies?
- If the presence of insects is detected in the early stages, a universal method for controlling pests of indoor plants is suitable - a soap solution.
- To prepare it, take laundry soap and grate.
- A small piece of soap is mixed with 250 ml of warm water and the orchid is treated with the prepared solution.
- Further, when 15-20 minutes pass, the solution is washed off with warm water.
- The garlic infusion also helps:
- Juice is squeezed out of 4-5 cloves of garlic and mixed with half a liter of boiling water.
- Insist should be about 4 hours.
- Next, spot on the affected areas of the orchid.
- A solution of olive oil will also help in the fight against thrips. 2 tablespoons of oil are added to a liter of water and sprayed on the plant.
- Well-proven and decoction of marigolds:
- Several flowers are crushed, added to 1 liter of water and brought to a boil.
- After that, leave the broth to languish over low heat for 1.5 minutes.
- Next, cool and leave to infuse for three days.
- Before spraying the orchids, the broth needs to be filtered.
How to prevent the appearance of insects?
Prevention is an important part of a beautiful and healthy orchid collection. The following measures are available to prevent pests:
- Most types of insects love moderate air temperatures, therefore they usually activate during the heating season, as well as at times when a steady weather of rainy troubles persists for a long period of time. In periods, it is necessary to more carefully view the back of orchid leaves.
- Newly purchased plants are quarantined. This rule will help prevent infection with both thrips and other types of pests. About 2 weeks, you should look after an isolated plant, if necessary, take treatment measures. Just making sure that the plant is completely healthy, you can put it in other colors.
- Increased humidity and a warm shower will positively affect the well-being of orchids, as well as help prevent thrips infection.
- If you have a large number of colors, it is better to carry out scheduled processing. One such procedure with a frequency of half a year will be enough.
Thrips is the enemy of your plant. To get rid of the pest, it will take a lot of time and effort. Of course, it’s easier to prevent infection than to fight for the life of flowers. The appearance of such uninvited guests can destroy orchids, so treat your pets with special attention and do not neglect prevention.