Radishes are one of the first vegetable crops that delight gardeners with their juicy, healthy root crops. Many are looking forward to its harvest - their vitamins from the garden are qualitatively different from greenhouse vegetables that are sold in stores. But often our expectations are not justified because of a harmful insect, a booger, which, despite its smallness, can destroy all our radish hopes in a matter of days.
Cruciferous flea: a portrait of a pest
The cruciferous flea is small - the body length is no more than 3 mm - a flying bug with an oval-oblong body and long antennae. There are several varieties of these insects: wavy, light-legged, notched, black, blue, etc. First of all, they differ in the color of the elytra, which can be black, have a metallic sheen or longitudinal yellow stripes.
The pest belongs to leaf beetles - it damages leaves by scraping upper layer leaf plate, gnawing ulcers-depressions in it, and young greens can gnaw through. Insect larvae feed on thin plant roots. They are the most dangerous pests all cruciferous crops and are widely distributed throughout the European part of our country, except for the regions of the Far North.
The greatest activity of bugs is shown in the period from 10 to 13 o'clock in the afternoon, and also in the afternoon - from 16 to 18 o'clock.
In winter, adult individuals of the pest spend in plant debris, in the upper soil layer, and can settle in the crevices of greenhouses and greenhouses. In early spring As soon as the soil begins to thaw, the flea leaves its hiding places and begins to actively feed. Then the females lay their eggs, the pest larvae settle in the ground for 2–3 weeks, then pupate, and after 1–2 weeks a new attack of already young beetles takes place on the plants.
During the season, the cruciferous flea can give from one to three generations.
Photo gallery: varieties of cruciferous flea
It is very easy to understand that a cruciferous flea has appeared on a radish: all the leaves of the plant are riddled, and small, shiny bugs jump between them
The danger of the pest lies in the fact that in a short period of time it is able to completely destroy young shoots. Radish sprouts appear early, it is the first to take on the attack of the aggressor, because just at the time of the emergence of seedlings of the culture, cruciferous fleas are activated after winter period. The mass distribution of the pest is dangerous not only for young seedlings, but also for adult plants: the beetles will eat the leaves and the top layer of the skin on the stems, and the larvae will damage the roots of the plant.
With pleasure, the flea even attacks the hardened radish testes: it damages the buds, gnaws holes and pits in the pods.
How to get rid of cruciferous flea on radishes
First of all, preventive and deterrent methods are used, and only in case emergency chemicals are used.
Preventive pest control measures
It is necessary to protect radish plantings from cruciferous flea in advance, without waiting for the appearance of the pest. Here is a list of preventive measures that will help the gardener prevent a small aggressor from entering the beds:
- plant radishes next to coriander, garlic or dill planted before winter. The smell of these plants repels the cruciferous flea. If you are planting radishes at the end of summer, then plant them next to marigolds, nasturtium or calendula. Repellent plants release substances into the air that leaf beetles cannot tolerate;
- add strong-smelling products to the water for irrigation: carvalol, valerian tincture, fir oil (10-15 drops per bucket of water). The flea does not like strong odors;
- lay out freshly picked wormwood in the garden;
- a bed with radishes can be mulched with branches of tansy, broken off stepsons of tomatoes;
- remove weeds regularly;
- carry out the obligatory autumn digging of the garden. The bugs left for wintering in the soil will be close to the surface and will die when it gets colder;
- provide plants enough nutrients so that they grow powerful, strong. Well-developed bushes are less attractive to the pest than weakened or small ones;
- sow radishes as early as possible while the pest is still in hibernation.
Compliance with agrotechnical measures when growing radish is one of the conditions for protecting it from pests
Some gardeners advise specially planting weeds from the cruciferous family around the perimeter of the area occupied by radishes. This measure allegedly distracts the pest from cultural plantings. Such a step must be recognized as extremely risky - after all, cruciferous flea you can’t explain which plants are intended for her, and which the owner grows for his own consumption.
Folk remedies for scaring away and removing the cruciferous flea
Many gardeners deliberately refuse to use chemicals protection of radishes from pests and diseases and at the same time achieve positive results. The proposed recipes are suitable primarily for those who can devote a lot of time to their garden and carry out these treatments not one-time, but systematically, evaluating the results and changing, if necessary, the compositions and methods used. Here are the most simple and common folk remedies cruciferous flea control.
Growing in a humid environment
The pest loves dry and hot weather, and does not tolerate dampness well. Therefore, it is recommended to choose the most wet areas garden, as well as abundantly water the seedlings.
In water for watering radishes, you can add a few drops of a substance with a strong odor, for example, valerian tincture or fir oil
Dry pollination of plantings with various mixtures
Experienced gardeners claim that cruciferous pest dislikes eating dirty leaves. Therefore, the most common method of scaring away fleas is pollination of plantings. For this procedure, you can use a mixture of various compositions:
- ash + tobacco dust;
- ash + fluff lime;
- ash + road dust.
All components are taken in equal proportions. Pollination is effective if carried out in the early morning when dew is present on the leaves, or after the plants have been watered. To make the powder lay down in a thin and even layer, it is poured into a gauze bag and gently shaken over the leaves.
If dusting is carried out after moistening the beds, then particles of ash and dust stick to the leaves for a long time
From a single pollination, a special protective effect cannot be expected. It can qualitatively protect radish plantings only if it is carried out regularly, after each rain or watering. Another condition for efficiency is careful processing when dusting not only the upper, but also the lower part of the leaf plate.
Shelter of radish seedlings with non-woven material
For this purpose, spunbond, lutrasil, etc. are perfect, which let light, air and moisture pass well, but do not allow fleas to reach young plants. And if you powder the garden bed with ash before shelter, you will get the effect of double protection. When the seedlings grow up, their leaves will coarsen and will not be so attractive to the pest, the shelter can be removed.
Lightweight and durable canvas reliably protects not only from the cold and weeds, but also from numerous pests
Pest traps
The cruciferous flea can be caught using a sticky flag. Do it like this:
- Take a piece of cloth and fasten it to a stick.
- Then the fabric is covered with any adhesive substance (for example, grease).
- Pass along the beds, lightly touching the radish leaves with a cloth.
- Since disturbed insects usually jump or fly away from danger, they will definitely fall on the sticky layer.
Catching fleas is best done in the heat of the day in hot and dry weather. It is necessary to pass over the bed several times at short intervals.
Trapping with a makeshift sticky flag significantly reduces the number of cruciferous flea beetles in a radish bed.
Flea traps can also be arranged using used engine oil. In this product, the fabric is moistened and laid out on cardboard or scraps of boards every 3–4 m near the garden with planted radishes. For greater effectiveness, such traps need to be turned over once or twice a day.
Spraying with decoctions of herbs and other infusions
Ash and tobacco can be used not only in dry form, but also to prepare infusions from them:
- 1 liter of boiling water + a glass of ash is infused for two days, liquid or grated laundry soap is added, stirred and used for spraying;
- 200 g of tobacco dust is poured into a bucket hot water, insist for a day, add 100 g of soap, filter and process the radish plantings.
Among other popular formulations for spraying radishes from cruciferous flea are the following:
- 1 glass of chopped garlic + 1 glass of tomato stepsons pour 10 liters of warm water, leave for 6 hours, strain, add 1 tbsp. spoon liquid soap;
- add 1 cup of 9% vinegar to a bucket of water. Processing with this composition should be carried out in dry weather;
- crushed roots and leaves of dandelion (500 g) insist for 4 hours in a bucket of water, strain, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of liquid soap;
- potato tops (2 kg) pour a bucket of water, boil, strain, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of liquid soap. It is better to spray in the evening. Instead of potato tops, you can use stepsons of tomatoes.
All the above formulations have been tested by hundreds of gardeners. Ash did an excellent job with the pest, someone prefers vinegar sprays, but we can definitely say the following: in order to determine effective method for your garden, you need to try several ways, and then the pest will recede.
Last year I read in some newspaper that a tube of toothpaste is squeezed into a bucket of water, and this is how it is watered and sprayed. Tried on Chinese cabbage. 3-4 days no flea. Then you have to repeat.
I sprinkled everything with tooth powder, it became much less!
Eva77
http://www.tomat-pomidor.com/newforum/index.php?topic=5383.20
Acetic essence, 1 tsp per 2 liter bottle - daily spraying.
barbariska
I sprinkled the radish with a mixture of red and black pepper, sprinkled it very heavily and the impudent flea did not touch the radish.
Murka
http://www.tomat-pomidor.com/newforum/index.php/topic,5383.0.html?SESSID=c8pdumks61p5l3shv7lvua0sv4
Experimented last year. Three times with an interval of 8-10 days squirted rr flea shampoo for pets There were no fleas! But the ash and vinegar did not help. Dissolved 3 spoons per 8 liter sprayer.
http://www.tomat-pomidor.com/newforum/index.php/topic,5383.0.html?SESSID=c8pdumks61p5l3shv7lvua0sv4
It helps very well in the fight against cruciferous mustard powder: dust the ground around the plant and lightly the plant itself. For broad natures, black ground pepper is suitable. Also tried, but it turns out to be expensive ...
Ryabinkin
We fight cruciferous fleas in two ways. First, we dust the bed with ash. Second, we immediately cover all the plant “juveniles” that the flea loves nonwoven fabric. According to my observations, the cruciferous flea affects mainly young shoots, growing seedlings of cabbage under any covering material, we successfully avoid the cruciferous flea on cabbage and radishes.
http://dacha.wcb.ru/lofiversion/index.php?t660.html
I plant the second year lettuce in radishes. I can’t say that I don’t see it at all in this garden, but the fact that the fleas are much smaller and the young have time to get stronger before they eat it is for sure. I advise you to try.
http://dacha.wcb.ru/lofiversion/index.php?t660.html
In the book ' amazing world Zhukov' read how Russian peasants coped with the cruciferous flea. They sowed large areas of cabbage, the cruciferous flea was already there, but there were no chemicals. The peasants did the following: they took a stick, attached a canvas to it (the result was a design in the form of a flag), upper part the flag was smeared with a sticky substance (a kind of tar). The peasant took a stick in his hand and, walking along the garden bed, ran the lower part of the canvas along the cabbage leaves, the fleas flew up and stuck. After a lot of fleas accumulated, they were cleaned off, the canvas was smeared again, etc. This had to be done every day (in hot and dry weather). The Germans borrowed this idea, only they replaced the peasant with a horse, that is, they made horse traction. How! And no chemistry!
Yakimov
http://dacha.wcb.ru/lofiversion/index.php?t660.html
A good result is the treatment of radish leaves (and other cruciferous) with common tansy (rowanberry) powder. Baskets harvested during flowering are dried, ground in a mortar until a powder is obtained, which is used to pollinate plants - 10 g of powder ( matchbox) per 1 m2. The odorous substances contained in the powder repel pests. You can catch cruciferous fleas with a piece of cloth soaked liberally in used car or diesel oil. The oil-soaked cloth should be laid out on baking sheets placed on the ridges every 4 m. After 3 days, the cloth should be turned over. You can also scare away cruciferous fleas with a powder prepared from celandine, if you fumigate or pollinate plants with it. As you can see, you can completely do without pesticides. At the same time, you will save environment and your own health by eating organic vegetables.
Treatment with chemicals is carried out only in case of emergency and in compliance with all safety rules.
The treatment of radishes with these preparations is carried out in dry calm weather, preferably in evening time when most pests are sitting on radish leaves.
Given that the vegetable belongs to early ripening crops, and it is possible to consume products from the garden after treatment with chemical preparations no earlier than 20–25 days later, the use of insecticides in the case of radishes should be recognized as highly undesirable.
Video: cruciferous flea - control and prevention measures
Cruciferous fleas are the most dangerous insects for radishes. But if you follow preventive measures, as well as know and use ways to deal with them, you can avoid problems with this. early vegetable and grow a decent and tasty harvest.
Gardeners are well aware of how difficult it is to achieve big harvest in the beds, if you do not fight pests. Even the smallest insects can cause enormous damage to vegetable crops.
This bug got its name from taste preferences- she loves cruciferous plants very much. IN field conditions the flea feasts on weeds (colza, yarutka, shepherd's purse), and in the gardens it eats turnips, turnips, and radishes.
Gardeners without experience sometimes don’t even pay attention to a small insect jumping like a flea (hence I got my little name). It would seem that such a trifle can not cause much trouble. But if measures are not taken in time, the flea is able to destroy plants in the beds in a matter of days.
These bugs are hardly noticeable due to their size (no more than 3 mm) and often merge with the ground. Cruciferous fleas are black in color, but some insect species have yellow stripes on their backs.As for the radish, the planting of this crop falls just on the active period in the life of the flea. It is in May that insect larvae crawl along the beds in search of food. AND a young radish for them will be a real find.
Transforming then into an imago, the insect eats the tops. The flea eats the tender leaves of the radish to holes, as a result of which they dry out. In the same place, on the leaves, beetles lay yellowish eggs.
Usually, cruciferous flea is fought with the help of purchased chemicals (Aktellik, Bankol, Karate, etc.). But since radish refers to early ripening culture, chemical substances should not be applied(so that the vegetable is not saturated with them). But great solution problems can become folk remedies.Folk tricks
How to get rid of cruciferous flea on radishes without using chemicals? Here are our tips for you:
- The fight against a flea should begin almost immediately, as the radish was sown in the garden. The soil is sprinkled with a "pillow" of wood ash and tobacco dust. This will not only protect the radishes, but also fertilize the soil.
- When the tops hatch out, it can also be sprinkled with ash and dust (even an ordinary street one will do). This preventive measure should be applied at least once a week. And as an option - ground black pepper or slaked lime.
- Spraying gives good results.. But they are already used when a flea is found on a culture. You can dilute a bottle of vinegar (or 2 tablespoons of essence) in a bucket of water, or prepare a decoction from tomato tops, collected as a result of pinching the bushes. Laundry soap (0.5 pieces) is also rubbed here.
- Folk craftsmen came up with original traps different configuration. The simplest of them is a canopy over the garden. The underside of the tent is smeared with any sticky compound (for example, tar). In a few days it will be possible to harvest the "harvest" of insects.
Preventive remedies
- To make it easier to deal with the cruciferous fly, you can secure the beds in advance from its invasion:
- radishes should be planted next to tomatoes - nightshade smell repels insects;
- for the same reason, tansy or celandine can be planted along the perimeter of the garden;
- you can also make a distracting maneuver by planting a weed that is beloved by a flea next to a radish;
- reschedule planting dates for an earlier time (immediately after the snow melts);
- choose moist places for sowing radishes.
Those who do not want to "bother" with finding out relationships with pests can use the method of growing crops in greenhouses. But the ubiquitous insect is able to get there.
Radishes grow well in middle lane. Gardeners harvest several crops per season, using several varieties. And although the plant has not so many pests, you should not lose vigilance and fight them.
Radishes are the best early varieties. Seeds are planted in the soil until the spores of fungi and larvae are activated, so the fruits form and ripen without much difficulty. It is more difficult for vegetables of medium and late ripening, the growing season of which coincides with the intensive reproduction of harmful microorganisms and insects. They literally attack young shoots, wanting to drink all its juices.
Insects often attack weak shoots, so you should not ignore the introduction of fertilizers and dressings. Adequate nutrition strengthens the immunity of the plant, which means that the chances of catching a disease or infesting the beds with insects are significantly reduced.
damaged radish leaves
The likelihood of flea attacks is reduced if feeding is timely introduced into the garden from slurry. No less effective is the processing of their powder, which is made from wood ash and tobacco dust in equal proportions. It is necessary to carry out the procedures 1 time in 5-7 days.
Cruciferous flea on radish leaves
Butterfly white color poses a danger to radishes in that it lays its eggs directly on the soil. The emerging caterpillars easily move to the leaves and eat them.
To protect radishes from whites, you need to spray with a solution of mustard (2 tablespoons), ground black pepper (1 teaspoon) and table salt (2 tablespoons) per bucket of water.
Small black bugs with bright orange stripes suck the juice out of the radish, causing the young shoot to dry out.
You can protect the garden from the pest if you spray it with an infusion of dope or henbane. The preparation of the working solution involves the infusion of 500 grams of leaves in a bucket of water for 12 hours. To keep the composition longer on the tops, it is recommended to add 2-3 tablespoons of chopped laundry soap.
Belyanka Cruciferous bug
In the second half of May - early June, the female rapeseed sawfly lays eggs. When choosing a place, preference is given to radish, located on the underside of the leaf. Already after 6-10 days, very voracious caterpillars appear from the eggs, which can make many holes in the tops of the plant and thereby kill it.
To protect the plant from this pest, you need to treat it with a special infusion of black henbane. For 500 grams of dry leaves, take 2 liters of water, you need to insist for at least 12 hours, after which the liquid is filtered through a sieve. The resulting infusion is diluted with 8 liters of water, grated soap is added and the beds are treated.
Prevent insect infestation preventive actions, which include autumn cleaning of the site and digging the soil.
Babanukha Rape sawfly
A small bug (body length no more than 2.5 mm) is black with a blue tint, perfectly tolerates frost in plant debris. In spring, it becomes active, laying eggs in unopened buds.
Among the important measures to protect radishes from pest damage:
- compliance with crop rotation;
- thorough autumn cleaning;
- introduction of fertilizers into the soil;
- selection quality seeds for landing;
- the introduction of top dressing to strengthen the immunity of plants;
- spraying with karbofos;
- treatment of beds with biological products (Dendrobacillin, Lepidocid, etc.).
Cabbage moth on a radish leaf
Young shoots attract insects. To protect them from the invasion of uninvited guests, it is recommended to carry out preventive measures. Among the effective methods:
- dusting plants with a powder mixture of naphthalene and road dust (1: 1);
- spraying powder from wood ash, slaked lime and tobacco dust on the beds (all components are taken in equal proportions);
- morning spraying with a solution of wood ash (for 3 liters of water liter jar ash and 2-3 tablespoons of crushed laundry soap);
- spraying seedlings with vinegar solution (1 cup of 9% vinegar per bucket of water);
- spraying plants with a decoction of green wormwood.
It is clear that one processing is not enough, therefore experienced gardeners practice weekly procedures that are repeated for 1.5 months.
When choosing neighboring plants, it is worth considering the option of planting marigolds, nasturtium, fennel, mustard and other repellents.
After each season, a thorough cleaning of plant residues should be carried out. It is in them that most of the pests hibernate. Closer to frost, the bed needs to be dug up so that the larvae and adults freeze out.
Radish, like other delicious vegetable crops, often affected various pests- cruciferous flea, wireworm, etc.
It happens that tiny white worms overcome it, and then, having found out why the radish is wormy, gardeners take all measures to get rid of uninvited guests. Worms do not start up in radishes on their own: one of the main pests of cabbage, radish, turnips and other cruciferous plants, the cabbage fly, is to blame for this.
The cabbage fly looks like a house fly, but it is twice as small. During the breeding season, she lays eggs, from which larvae hatch - those who eat radishes in the ground, making many moves in root crops and making them unusable.
Eggs are laid in moist soil fertilized with manure or humus.
Worms feed on radish pulp for 3-5 weeks, after which they pupate and after 2-3 weeks turn into new cabbage flies.
If the pupae remain in the winter, the flies are born in the spring.
How to deal with the cabbage fly and its larvae
Finding out why wormy radish, we will learn how to scare away cabbage flies from planting, how to process the beds. The easiest way is to use chemical insecticides, but only light ones - heavy "chemistry" accumulates in fruits in the form of nitrates and does not have time to be removed.
Cabbage fly insecticides
If 5-10 eggs or larvae are seen on the radish, we process the plantings with any of the following means:
- Karbofos. We breed 6 g of 50% "Karbofos" in a liter of water (enough for a hundred square meters) and spray the seedlings twice (the second time - in a week). The drug repels the fly, preventing it from laying eggs.
- Zemlin. Contact-intestinal soil chemical that kills larvae. We mix 5 g of dry preparation with 50 g of sand (enough for processing square meter ridges) and bring into the ground before planting radishes to a depth of 1.5-2 cm. The larvae die within a day.
Other chemical insecticides such as Iskra, Rovikurt, Thunder, Hexachlorana or Initiative will also help well against the cabbage fly.
Folk remedies for cabbage flies
Folk remedies, proven by more than one generation of gardeners, help to cope with eggs and larvae of cabbage flies:
- Ammonia. We dissolve 5 ml of ammonia in 10 liters of water and water the soil as soon as we find wilting plants.
- Ash. Noticing the flies circling over the plantings, we sprinkle the seedlings, after wetting them with water, dry wood ash every six days. To enhance the effect, you can mix it with the same amount of red pepper or shag.
- burdock leaves. We insist for two days a mixture of 2.5 kg of chopped burdock greens and 8 liters of warm water. Filter and water the radishes.
- Makhorka. We combine it with black pepper powder or slaked dry lime - 1 to 1. Sprinkle the soil around the plants with the composition.
- blue vitriol. We dissolve a tablespoon of the product in a bucket of water with 1 tbsp. liquid tar soap, water the ridges and repeat watering after 3 weeks.
- Naphthalene. We combine it with the same amount of sand and powder the soil 5 mm from the radish and pour 6 g under the root. We repeat the procedure every 8 days: it is performed immediately after the detection of clutches. After processing, those who eat radishes in the ground will not have time to hatch.
- Valerian. We dissolve in 3 liters of warm water 40 ml of valerian and 2 tbsp. chopped laundry soap, pour out the bucket and add water to the top. After mixing the composition, we spray it with a young radish during the summer of a cabbage fly. Now you don’t have to puzzle over why radishes are wormy - there will be no worms.
- table vinegar(70%). We dissolve 0.5 tbsp. vinegar essence in 10 liters of water and spray radish plantings.
In order not to worry about how to treat radishes from worms, you can do without chemical and organic methods of dealing with the cabbage fly. We buy mesh transparent covering material such as lutrasil and cover the ridges with radishes during the summer of flies.
We make sure that there are no gaps left, and the fly will not be able to get inside to lay eggs. In the rain, the canvas can be removed, but on fine days we leave it in place and, if you need to water the radish, water it directly through lutrasil.
To prevent the emergence of egg clutches of the cabbage fly, so that there are no questions why the wormy radish has become, several preventive agricultural measures can be taken.
- Planting radishes every year in a different place.
- Fertilizing the land with compost at least three years old.
- Removal of plant residues from the site, whether it be tops or weeds.
- Autumn digging of the future soil for planting to a depth of 1-1.5 bayonet spades.
You can also grow other garden and vegetable plants next to radishes. flower crops, scaring cabbage fly and protecting radish roots from being eaten by worms.
The best neighbors of radish, preventing the appearance of cabbage fly larvae
- Marigold. Tagetes emits an unpleasant pungent odor that most insects do not like. We plant several plants directly on the ridge for radishes 2-3 weeks before sowing.
- Sage, mint or rosemary. We plant fragrant herbs on radish beds a few weeks before sowing the vegetable, digging them right in the pots, cutting off the bottoms. This is to prevent the spread perennials all over the ridge.
- Garlic. We plant garlic cloves in a ridge for radishes three weeks before sowing seeds every 15 cm with row spacing of 55-60 cm. Radish is sown in grooves cut in the middle of these row spacings.
Fragrant neighbors will play the role of repellents that scare away the cabbage fly and other harmful insects from radish ridges, and will contribute to obtaining good harvests.
Now it’s clear why the radish is wormy, what kind of white worms they destroy future harvest, and what insect is to blame for their appearance. If the worms have spoiled a lot of plants, be sure to remove and burn them without sending them to compost and without creating excellent conditions for the pupae of flies for wintering. It's best to take it right away. preventive measures than after experiencing grief from the loss of the lion's share of delicious vitamin vegetables.