Midges on seedlings: what to do, how to get rid of them using folk remedies

What types of midges are there?

The group of insects called midges includes house flies, fruit flies, soil (fungus) gnats, lacewings, and whiteflies. Drosophila fruit flies prefer to feed on rotting plant remains, but they do not refuse fresh seedling juice.

Green lacewings do not harm plants because they are predators and feed on aphids that settle on seedlings. Fungus gnats (sciara fly) in the larval stage eat up the roots of the seedlings. Whiteflies, both in adulthood and in the larval stage, are capable of completely destroying a plant.

Biological information: types of midges and their development

Few people know, but midges, which we can often find at home or in our garden, may not in all cases belong specifically to the midge family.

There are different types of midges

Here are the types of insects that can live on grown plants:

house flies (they have several names - house flies, fruit flies, etc.) are a well-known fruit fly, which usually chooses for itself dying parts of fruit trees and other plants;
if you encounter small green insects, it is more likely to be a winged aphid or lacewing ;
small black insects are sciarids that live in the soil;
and finally, white ones - whiteflies .

Whiteflies

Important! In its development, the midge goes through four main stages - egg, larva, pupa and adult.

How midges develop
An adult individual lays eggs, and a new individual develops from fertilized eggs. From the moment of fertilization until the larva fully matures, approximately five days pass. The environment for the development of the insect will require a moist environment, so you can often find midges on plants located near various bodies of water. Some species develop immediately in water.

Midges are often found near bodies of water

Important! Once the eggs have hatched, it will take about two more weeks for the midge to fully develop. The exact period varies depending on what type of midge we are talking about.

The nutrition of insects will be different depending on the sex - for example, females absorb blood, which is necessary for the bearing of offspring to occur as correctly as possible. Males typically feed on plant foods - that’s why we find them on indoor and garden plants. It is worth noting that there are also species of midges that do not feed on blood.

Female midges often drink human blood

Causes of midges

Midges in apartment conditions can appear at any time of the year. The main thing is that the temperature and humidity correspond to their living conditions. They are able to fly into a living space from a damp basement through ventilation shafts, pipes, and hoods; through open vents, windows, doors; hatch from eggs laid on fruits or vegetables intended for winter storage.

They can be purchased along with soil for seedlings. A trash bin taken out at the wrong time or a very wet soil mixture not treated before sowing seeds become a refuge for insects and their larvae.

There are midges in the seedlings, what to do?

Midges feel great where it’s warm, where leftover food is rotting in a garbage bag, pieces of fruit are lying around out of sight, or compote is turning sour in a cup. But, if everywhere is clean and dry, midges have to look for a place where they can find food and lay eggs.

They will always find the conditions necessary for their nutrition and reproduction on the surface of a waterlogged soil substrate in a box with seedlings. Therefore, the first thing that needs to be done to deprive insects of their breeding places is to dry the soil under the plants.

Do not water the seedlings until the top layer of soil dries out. If it happens that after watering the earthen ball becomes too wet, you need to try to dry it quickly, for example, by placing pots with seedlings over heat sources. You have to be careful not to cook the plants.

If excess water drains into the lower pan, the liquid will need to be drained so that it does not rise through the bottom of the container to the upper part of the pot again. Then watering can be done through this pan by adding water into it.

Traditional methods of protecting plants from midges

The main reason why amateur gardeners prefer folk remedies is their safety and environmental friendliness. Let's look at the main ways to get rid of midges on plants using proven methods.

You can get rid of such pests using folk remedies.

Potassium permanganate solution

The time it will take to kill insects is about two to three days. Rules for preparation and use.

Take a few grains of potassium permanganate per liter of water.
Stir very well until all the crystals dissolve.
Spray the soil with the resulting solution.

You can treat the soil with a solution of potassium permanganate

Important! This is an effective technique that, when used correctly, gives good results.

Dandelion and red pepper

This method will help get rid of midges - use it if you want to be sure that the resulting product will not have a negative impact on health and the environment.

Dandelion roots

Cooking method.

Take a kilogram of freshly collected dandelion leaves and roots and fill it with 10 liters of boiling water.
Infuse the resulting liquid for 24 hours.
Place 50 grams of red pepper in a container and stir well.
Pour the solution into a spray bottle and spray the plant and soil next to it.

Dandelion and red pepper may also help get rid of midges

Note to the gardener! It is recommended to lubricate the edges of pots and containers with plants with the usual “Star” balm - this will repel insects well.

Celandine

This is one of the best means to combat black midges. Here's how to prepare an effective infusion for treating seedlings.

Take 300 grams of celandine and fill it with a liter of boiling water.
Infuse the resulting liquid for 24 hours.
Bring to a boil and cook for about half an hour.
Let the solution cool to room temperature and strain well.
Dilute in a ratio of 1 to 10 (10 liters of water per liter of infusion).
Spray the seedlings with a spray bottle.
After five days, repeat the process again.

You can use celandine infusion

Important! For prevention, you can sprinkle the soil in pots with seedlings with wood ash. Insects are also repelled by garlic, which is buried in the ground. Another method is tobacco ash on the surface of the earth.

How to get rid of midges using folk remedies

It is not always possible to dry the soil quickly, and the number of larvae in the ground may be such that it will be impossible to delay. Then you will have to transplant the plants into new soil, other pots or boxes, having first sterilized everything. Simultaneously with transplantation, measures must be taken to destroy adult flying individuals.

You can start by using an electric flying insect killer or a fumigator with mosquito and fly repellent. If the seedlings are located in a place where there is no electrical wiring, then it is necessary to hang sticky fly traps in the nursery or set fire to a mosquito coil.

The preparation of soil for transplanting seedlings must be taken with full responsibility. It is not enough to simply buy soil mixture at a garden store and pour boiling water over it. You need to put it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes or fry it in the oven for 20-30 minutes. If this cannot be done, then to the treatment of the land with boiling water, add subsequent treatment with water with potassium permanganate diluted in it. The color of the water should be deep pink. Boxes, trays, pots and tools that will be used during transplantation are subject to disinfection.

Before transplanting seedlings into it, the soil must be dried until it becomes a crumbling lump in your hands.

To prevent eggs and larvae of pests from getting into the fresh soil again, the roots of the plant and the lower parts of the stems are freed from the soil, dipped for 3-5 seconds in a weak solution of potassium permanganate and carefully inspected.

If there are no pots in which to transplant the plants, you can replace only the top 2-3 cm of soil on the surface of the pot. A few granules of soil insecticide are added to the new layer of soil. After this, a layer of drainage materials 1 cm thick is laid on the soil surface.

Dangerous pests: fungus gnat and white midge

If you notice that the leaves of your plants have turned yellow and started to fall off, it is quite possible that the vegetables have become a victim of white midges (whiteflies) . In order to prevent the development of white midges, it is necessary to take measures to eliminate the favorable environment for them.

They love to attack seedlings and whiteflies

Firstly, be sure to maintain the distance between plants; you cannot plant seedlings too densely. Secondly, watering should be moderate - the permissible moisture levels should not be exceeded. And thirdly, use only proven, high-quality fertilizers - do not use expired fertilizers or those whose origin you are not sure of. Factory packaging with the date of manufacture and instructions can be a guarantee of quality.

Important! Do not buy fertilizers from unknown sources - at best they will be useless.

Remember - in greenhouses and apartments, white midges can reproduce regardless of weather conditions and time of year. You can encounter them even in winter.

White midges quietly develop in greenhouses and apartments even in winter

A good way to get rid of white midges is a tincture of tobacco leaves. To do this, take a pack of cigarettes, remove the tobacco (of course, you need to remove it from the paper and filter), fill it with hot water (about a liter per pack) and leave in a dark place for about five days. The strained solution is used for watering plants every 3-4 days. Soon you won't see any pests.

Another dangerous pest is the fungus gnat . They usually fly in small groups and lay their eggs directly in the ground. The larvae of these insects are especially dangerous for seedlings.

Fungus mosquitoes are also dangerous because they can lay eggs directly in the soil where the seedlings grow.

Important! If you notice pests, it is necessary to chemically treat the seedlings.

There are separate means to destroy fungus gnat larvae. They are applied under the top layer of soil and are usually sold in granules. After watering, the granules will dissolve and the product will begin to act.

Fungus gnats and fruit flies

In closed greenhouses, you can use sulfur candles to fumigate the room.

How to properly set fire to a sulfur bomb

Insecticides containing pyrethrum and pirimiphos-methyl work well.

Important! Always follow the instructions for use. It is better to process twice; warm and dry days are good. Alternate between different drugs to prevent the development of immunity in insects.

It is important to follow the instructions for use of various products

How to water seedlings against midges

The most effective way to prevent pests from laying eggs in the soil is to allow the top layer of soil to dry out and loosen between waterings. Under tender sprouts, the soil in small containers is loosened using a toothpick; for large seedlings in large pots, loosening the soil can be done using a table fork.

How to get rid of aphids on seedlings using folk remedies

Moderately dry soil, allowing air to reach the roots, will prevent them from rotting and becoming food for pest larvae that eat rotting plant tissue. Therefore, a midge that accidentally flies into a room with seedlings will not lay eggs in dry, loose soil.

You can determine the degree of soil infestation with midge larvae by replanting several plants and simultaneously examining the soil. If there are only individual larvae in it and there are no balls of worms, then you don’t have to replant all the plants, but treat the soil with garlic infusion.

To do this, chop a large head of garlic and pour 1 liter of warm water for a day. The soil with seedlings is watered with infusion at least 3 times. After each watering, the soil is allowed to dry out. In order not to harm the plant, do not water all the pots at once, but test the effect of the infusion on 1-2 plants.

Prevention

Floaters appear very often, so it is better to take some measures to prevent their development.

To do this you need to adhere to certain rules:

Before planting seedlings, the soil needs to be prepared. It can be frozen or, conversely, warmed up. This way you can get rid of any pests.
Do not thicken the plantings. Otherwise, not only will midges appear, but the seedlings themselves will grow frail.
Water the plants sparingly to prevent overwatering.
Provide drainage. Pots and boxes should have holes to drain excess moisture.
Remove fallen leaves promptly.
Treat plants with preventative agents against harmful insects. Modern drugs do not pose a danger to human health.
Do not overuse fertilizers.
Loosen the soil periodically. The root system must breathe in order to absorb oxygen more actively.

Even if you were unable to avoid the appearance of midges, do not be discouraged. Inspect young plants regularly. Having detected insects at the first stage, it will be much easier to eliminate them than if they are widespread.

Insecticides against midges on seedlings

The fight against small flying insects and their larvae in the soil will be effective if you simultaneously use preparations that are used for surface spraying of plants and soil insecticides. They begin work by studying the instructions and determining the required doses.

For processing, choose a non-residential premises, for example, a barn, balcony or loggia. If there is no place where the plants can be transferred, then the treatment is carried out in protective clothing, a bandage, goggles and gloves. All children, animals and adults not involved in the treatment must leave the premises.

The treatment is carried out with the windows closed. All food, clothing, and dishes are put in closets. Before starting work, some of the insects can be collected with a vacuum cleaner. Treatment begins by adding soil preparations to the ground and then spraying the plants.

Manufacturers' recommendations are used to obtain working solutions. The soil is watered with soil preparations at least twice with an interval of 5-7 days. After finishing work, the room is ventilated and wet cleaned. It is important to rinse hard-to-reach places where animals and small children can get into.

Preparations that destroy pest larvae in the soil include “Grom-2”, “Bazudin”, “Pochin”, “Mukhoed”. For spraying plants, “Karbofos”, “Aktaru”, “Inta-vir”, “Agravertin”, “Kinmiks”, “Fitoverm”, “Aktellik” are used.

Fumigators

The work of fumigators in the fight against midges will be effective if they are used not just for one day, but at least for 5-7 days. Fumigators (fumigators for premises) are used with connected flasks with liquid fumigants (chemicals poisonous to insects) or with inserted porous plates impregnated with the same poisons.

To combat fruit flies, use the Transfluthrin liquid from Bayer AG (Germany), which the manufacturers recommend as a safe product for humans, and the Raptor fumigator with a nerve-paralytic substance that is lethal to insects.

How to remove midges from seedlings?

Every gardener is familiar with the problem of midges in seedlings, but not everyone knows how to get rid of them quickly and for a long time. Specific products are used for a specific product and plant, and the best option can only be selected by trying several methods. Experienced gardeners use preventative pest control products, which helps protect plants from midge attacks.

Why do midges appear in seedlings?

Midges can appear in seedlings at any time of the year, and they parasitize almost all types of plants and multiply very quickly. The most common type of pest is the white midge. Adults cause virtually no harm to the plant, they only irritate the inhabitants of the apartment with their presence; midge larvae are more dangerous - little white worms that spoil the root system of shoots.

On many seedling shoots you can also find small black midges, although these are street pests, they can also feel great in an apartment, entering through a window or with purchased plant care products. If you have such parasites, it is best to fight them with the most active means, for example, sprays with a strong radius of action or soluble poison, using them in accordance with basic safety rules.

If seedlings are grown in an apartment, then the shoots can become infected from indoor plants, on which midges are often found, albeit in small quantities. Finding themselves on more nutritious shoots, the number of pests in the shortest possible time increases exponentially, therefore, if the fight against midges is slightly neglected, it will be much more difficult to remove it.

One of the most common reasons for the appearance of midges in the ground is considered to be excessive soil moisture, especially in the cool season. If during the hot period the soil dries out faster, which is why the plant requires additional moisture, then in winter and autumn the soil does not require such an amount of liquid, and frequent watering creates a comfortable atmosphere for the spread of midge larvae.

Often, pests are initially present in purchased soil; they can be invisible to the human eye, so the gardener will see uninvited guests only during the period of their active spread.

There is no single method that 100% protects against the appearance of harmful larvae on plants, but there are a lot of ways to get rid of parasites as quickly as possible, so if you want, you can defeat such a nuisance without much effort.

White and black midges on seedlings, how to get rid of them at home

At home, flying pests are repelled from seedlings. Midges do not like the smell of cinnamon and hot ground pepper. The ground under the plants is sprinkled with either one of these products, having previously ground them, or with a mixture of them in a 1:1 ratio.

In addition, you can use tobacco dust or ground tobacco. Pots with flowering geraniums are placed next to the seedlings. Midges cannot stand the smell of garlic and dry orange peels. They are laid out on the surface of the soil. The edges of the seedling containers can be lubricated with star balm, which contains many different essential oils.

How we defeated the black midge on seedlings

Fighting methods

There are various methods for controlling aphids on peppers:

chemical method;
use of folk remedies;
biological method.

Biological methods for aphids

The biological method of controlling aphids on pepper is to attract natural enemies: birds (sparrows, tits, linnets or kinglets), as well as beneficial insects (ladybugs, lacewings or flower girls).

There are also special biological compositions created on the basis of herbal extracts. These are very effective and absolutely safe for human health new generation drugs. These include: the drug Fitoverm, Akarin or Boverin.

We suggest you read: What to do if pepper leaves curl

Folk remedies

Many gardeners prefer to use folk remedies for aphids. They are good both for processing plants in a greenhouse and in open ground.

What to do if midges are in the soil of seedlings

Flying insects should not be allowed to enter the house and lay eggs in the ground with seedlings. In order not to bring midges into the room along with purchased fruits and vegetables, it is necessary to hide the peeled peels in tied garbage bags.

There is no need to pour leftover tea or coffee into boxes or glasses with seedlings, because once they rot, they will become a desirable treat for midges. For seedlings, it is necessary to use containers with large drainage holes to prevent stagnation of water on the surface of the earth clod.

What to do for prevention?

As with other insects, it is much easier to prevent them from appearing than to deal with the infestation. The prevention regimen is quite simple. It includes moderate watering, without excessive amounts of liquid. For convenience, you can use a special watering calendar or simply check the soil.

Seedlings need to be properly cared for

An interesting method for small boxes with plants: stick a match into the ground to a depth of about 2-3 centimeters - if there are no lumps of soil stuck to it, you can safely water it.

Be sure to keep the soil loose - roots need oxygen to grow.

The soil must be disinfected. To do this, it is calcined in the oven for about an hour and a half at a temperature of about 100 degrees or higher. You can add a little weak solution of potassium permanganate.

Hardening the soil for seedlings

Important! Always organize a drainage system - all pots should be equipped with holes in the bottom and trays; add a layer of expanded clay to the bottom of the boxes.

To ensure proper seedling growth and protection from insects, always maintain distance between plants.

Drainage for seedlings

Prevention and control of sciarid flies

Repelling insects and treating the soil to remove their larvae will be the first stages of the fight for the future harvest. Do not forget that midges are harmful not only because they harm plants. It can affect children, whose delicate skin can be bitten by adult females of certain types of small insects that feed on protein foods.

Therefore, it is necessary to fight midges not only for the sake of the harvest, but also for the sake of the health of your loved ones. Of course, humane methods of repelling tiny insects are preferable, but very often this does not help. There are many methods to combat midges; you just need to make the right choice.

Why do seedlings grow poorly?

One of the reasons for poor seedling growth may be the appearance of soil flies. This insect looks like a small mosquito. It has many names. Fungus, soil and leaf mosquitoes, sciarids, detritus mosquitoes - all this is about the same insect. Adults are dark in color and do not exceed 7 mm in length. The oral organs of the imago have lost their functionality, so the imago does not feed at all. The fly is harmful due to its extreme fertility: each female lays up to 250 eggs. And for this, she only needs conditions favorable for reproduction. These include:

waterlogged soil;
decomposing plant remains.

After about a week, larvae appear from the laid eggs, which cause harm to the plant. They begin to intensively feed on organic matter, humus or weak roots of seedlings. Naturally, damage to the roots negatively affects the growth of seedlings, so to save your seedlings, you need to start fighting soil flies immediately after they appear.

Species attacking seedlings

Absolute sterility when sowing tomatoes or, for example, peppers is simply not possible. At the same time, midge eggs hidden in a box with seedlings can belong to completely different types of insects.

If you have black midges up to 4 mm in size, then these are most likely leaf, soil or fungus gnats. By themselves, they do not pose a threat, but white worms (larvae) that just emerge from their clutches can damage the root system.

Greater harm is caused by the appearance of whiteflies similar to white midges over the seedlings. Insects are up to 2-3 mm long, more like moths, as they have 4 wings. If black midges are dangerous only because they reproduce larvae that damage roots, then whiteflies at all stages of life feed on the juice of future vegetable crops, weakening their immunity.

Against the background of black and white midges, springtails swarming in the ground, which are also called poduras, sminturs or springtails (differ in size: up to 1 mm), are almost not dangerous for seedlings. With the exception of some species, for example, vegetable sminthur (Bourletiela arvalis and green sminthur (Sminthurus viridis)) are especially harmful to vegetable seedlings in greenhouses.

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Why do midges appear?

On seedlings you can notice not only white, but also black midges. Despite the fact that these insects are outdoor pests, they easily enter the house through the window and take root well in pots with sprouts.

The tiny black sciarid midge is dangerous for seedlings. It itself does not harm plants, but its larvae quickly multiply in damp soil and gnaw the roots of sprouts. This causes the seedlings to quickly die.

The main reason for the appearance of parasites is excessive watering, especially in the cool season. When the soil is constantly moist and does not have time to dry out, a comfortable atmosphere is created for the development of larvae.

Pests are often found in the soil that gardeners buy in the store. Small larvae are difficult to notice until they begin to actively spread, and this happens when the seedlings are already sufficiently grown and strong.

To preserve the plant and get rid of insects for a long time, there are many simple and effective ways.

Sciarids - fungus gnats

How to get rid of midges in seedlings, pest control measures