If midges are found in orchids, you must immediately begin to get rid of them. Rapidly multiplying, they harm the plant by eating its ground parts or roots, moving to all indoor flowers in the house.
Causes of pests on the orchid
Insects can appear on plants for several reasons:
- Contaminated soil. If the soil mixture was improperly prepared and was not decontaminated before use, eggs or larvae could remain in it. If you transplant an orchid into it, and then water it, conditions favorable for the development of pests will be created. The lice will begin to breed actively.
- Excessive watering. Cats can enter the house through a window, however, not finding suitable conditions, they will not remain indoors. If there are plants inside with constantly moist soil, insects will settle there.
Insects leave noticeable damage on orchid leaves
- The use of moss. As a rule, gardeners use it to slow down the evaporation of moisture from the soil. If you do not remove the parts that began to decompose in a timely manner, pests appear.
- The use of natural top dressing: shells, tea leaves, coffee grounds. Rotting organics lures insects.
Important! To choose the right remedy for midges on plants, you need to identify and eliminate the cause of their appearance.
Types of midges
You can understand how to get rid of midges in orchids only by first determining their appearance. It is important to choose an effective remedy that does not harm the plant. Most often, 4 species of insects settle in the flowers.
Thrips
Small - up to 2.5 mm - dark midges with an elongated body and wings folded on the back. It is not easy to detect them, because they are active in the dark, and when the sun hides in the soil. For pests of this species, dried soil is attractive, so you need to regularly water the flower.
A sign of their presence can serve as dark dots on the leaves. They breed fast, eggs lay on the leaves. Adult individuals damage all parts of the plant by sucking out the juice, while larvae damage only leaves.
Whiteflies
You can learn about the appearance of white small flies by carefully examining the plant (you can see yellow traces on it) and the soil where the eggs or larvae of light color will be. If you touch the flower, the butterflies will fly around the room.
Whiteflies live on the underside of leaves, so it’s difficult to detect
The larvae feed on leafy sap, therefore, in whitefly orchids, the leaves begin to dry and turn yellow.
Sciarides
They are black mosquitoes, the size of which does not exceed 5 mm. The most active in the autumn or spring.
Adults (this is their second name) do not harm the phalaenopsis, but they lay their eggs in the ground. Hatched larvae feed on the roots of the plant. Affected areas of the root system begin to decay, fungus and infections penetrate inside, due to which the orchid can die.
Fruit flies
Fruit midges do not eat the plant, they feed on rotting organic matter. As a rule, they appear in groups, curl over the areas of interest to them. They are dangerous because they multiply at high speed. If you do not remove insects, they will quickly fill the apartment.
Puppies in orchids: how to get rid at home
If there are midges in the orchid, what to do first:
- Place the pot with the infected plant in quarantine for a month, i.e. put it separately from other flowers.
- Substitute a flower under a gentle stream of warm water to wash off larvae, eggs and adults.
- Inspect the soil, stems and leaves, remove the remaining eggs and larvae with a damp cloth.
- To cut off dead and damaged parts of the plant, to cut the places of cuts with ash or crushed coal.
To remove pests from the roots, the plant is thoroughly washed with warm water
Important! If the soil is heavily infected with pests, it is necessary to transplant the orchid, thoroughly washing the roots.
Folk ways
What to do if midges appeared in orchids in the ground:
- Treat with soapy water. 1 tbsp. l Soaps (preferably without dyes and other additives) are diluted in a glass of water. The composition is moistened with a cotton pad, gently wipe all parts of the plant for a week. After a break of several days, another 2-3 treatment cycles are repeated. When the insects disappear, they wait a month, after which they rub the flower once to prevent the re-emergence of midges.
- Use the infusion of garlic. The cleaned head is crushed, pour Art. boiling water. The liquid is used in the same way as a soap solution.
- Make a trap of apple cider vinegar. The liquid is poured into a small jar, mixed with a couple of drops of dishwashing gel, closed with a plastic lid with small holes made in it. The prepared container is placed next to the flower pot. Frogs (fruit and scyarides), smelling, will fly in and die, because they will not be able to get out of the trap.
- Spread citrus peel or garlic cloves around the plant. This folk method is based on the fact that pungent odors repel insects.
- Prepare a weak solution of potassium permanganate, water them with soil. Disinfecting liquid will destroy eggs and larvae.
- Sprinkle the soil with mustard powder. Once a week, repeat the procedure until all midges disappear.
Spraying with garlic infusion - a safe way for the plant to remove pests
Chemicals
Getting rid of insects using potent drugs is recommended in extreme cases when other methods have not helped.
The hardest thing to deal with scyarides. You will need to apply several tools in the complex: the ground parts of the plant are treated with "Raid", "Raptor" or "Neo Dichlorvos", for the soil use "Bazudin" or "Thunder-2". Pests can remain not only in the pot, but also on the surfaces around it, so you need to wipe the window sill with a disinfectant.
To destroy thrips, Aktillik will do. This drug is treated with an infected plant three times over 10 days.
"Actellic" effectively copes with whiteflies. They are also excreted by Sherpa or Fury insecticides. To get rid of eggs and larvae, the soil is shed with water.
How to get rid of biological methods at home
If midges appeared in orchids, you can get rid of them with home remedies:
- Vacuum cleaner. It will help to collect whiteflies. When they touch the phalaenopsis, the butterflies immediately take off, alarmed. This feature of their behavior can be used. It is necessary to turn on the device in advance and direct the end of the suction tube (it is better to remove the nozzle) just above the plant. Touch the orchid so that the whiteflies fly up and are sucked. From once all the midges cannot be collected, you need to repeat the operation several times, taking breaks.
- Adhesive tape from flies. A ribbon hung next to an infected plant will collect most of the adults.
- River sand. It is preliminarily calcined in the oven, and then poured with a thin layer on the ground. They monitor the condition of the plant: after a few days, all midges should disappear, and if this does not happen, the procedure is repeated.
- Flushing soil. Since the most difficult thing is to remove not the imago, but the larvae, you need to thoroughly wash the soil every 4 days.
Note! If Drosophila are wound up in the house and flower pot, you need to deal with them differently. The remaining moss, tea leaves and other natural fertilizing should be discarded, if used, reduce the frequency of watering. Inspect the room, remove all food attracting fruit midges (fruits, vegetables).
To get rid of Drosophila, all moss from the ground needs to be removed
Infection prevention
In order to prevent insects from starting again, some rules should be observed:
- Abundantly acquired soil for indoor plants should be shed with water, and then placed in the freezer for several days. During this time, the larvae, if they are in the soil mixture, will die.
- The purchased new flower should not be placed immediately in the room where others are located, but placed in a separate room. If in a month there will be no pests on it, you can rearrange it to the rest. However, it is not recommended to keep the entire collection on the same windowsill.
- Install mosquito nets on the windows so that insects do not enter the house from the street.
- Monitor cleanliness in the room where the orchid stands, throw away spoiled fruits and vegetables in a timely manner.
- Before replanting a plant in them, new pots should be decontaminated: rinse with boiling water or rinse with a solution of manganese.
Further care
When the pests are destroyed, it is important to care for the orchid correctly. The most important thing is to observe the watering regime: twice a week in the warm season, once in the cold.
Note! If the soil is still wet, you do not need to water it. Topsoil must be dry at least 2 days before.
It is undesirable to use food waste (for example, tea leaves) as a fertilizer. These substances will not provide the plant with everything necessary, but will attract pests. If there is a need for dressing, it is worth using special ready-made compounds for orchids.
Dying leaves are removed until they begin to decay, becoming food for midges.
Yellowed leaves that have begun to die should be removed.
Periodically, as a prophylaxis, it is recommended to wipe the leaves of the phalaenopsis with a soap solution. It forms a coating that protects the terrestrial parts of plants from being eaten by pests. It is also possible to sprinkle soil with ash or sand, this will prevent insects from penetrating the soil.
Cats can kill an orchid, so you need to get rid of them right away. The listed methods will help to cope with the problem, and preventive measures will prevent the re-emergence of insects.
