Mehreen Alberts
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Leafminers are larvae of small flies 👍 They damage plants by feeding between the upper and lower surface of the leaf 😁 Damaged areas are light in colourr and narrow and winding 🙌 They increase in width as the larva grows. When fully grown, the larva may pupate in the leaf tissue or emerge from the leaf and fall to the gound to pupate. Each female fly will lay from 50 to 100 eggs by inserting them into pits made in the leaf surface. Because the damaging stages of the insects occur entirely inside the leaf, control with contact insecticides is ineffective once the damage appears. Infestations can be avoided through the use of good cultural practices, hand removal and disposal of infested leaves and use of chemical controls when necessary. [1]
Often, students find fungus gnats hovering around seed germination mixes with hefty proportions of peat moss or compost because they retain a lot of water. Fungus gnat eggs and larvae complete their life cycle in the top inch of media, and they require lots of moisture. Allowing the media to dry to 50-percent moisture content between watering intervals can prevent fungus gnats from completing their life cycle. It is a delicate balance of enough moisture and aeration for maximum seed germination and healthy root development. Conversely, the combination of super light media and thirsty, mature seedlings can lead to wilt and stress. Wilted plants also are more vulnerable to disease, insect infestation and poor development. (edited by Lanie Byers on May 20, 2021) [2]
If aphids do establish in your greenhouse, we’ve found one of the most effective techniques for removing them is the simplest: water. You can simply wash these leaf dwellers off with a hose or spray bottle. This disturbs them enough so they do not establish or stick around. The downside here is it requires a good eye and some time: aphids will reside on the shady underside of leaves, so you have to turn leaves over and gently spray each leaf. Again a hose on a gentle spray works for larger areas; a spray bottle works for targeted areas or leaves heavily populated. You want to make sure you keep a gentle spray so you don’t bruise the leaf too much in this process. You can see the before and after effect of washing off a kale leaf to the right. (last edited 28 days ago by Daylon Springer from Taizhou Zhejiang, China) [3]
Talk to any greenhouse grower and they will tell you that the two worst pest problems are aphids and whitefly. You might also find sow bugs, mealybugs, scale insects, and red spider mites. Larger greenhouse pests include slugs and snails that hitch a ride under the rim of large pots or in the drain holes of larger pots. Although screened windows can keep out butterflies and moths, you may also find a caterpillar or two feeding on your plants. Lastly, rodents can get into the greenhouse. Mice are a common problem and I’ve had groundhogs, skunks, and even a fisher that ate all the goldfish in my greenhouse pond one night when I forgottten to close the door. (last emended 79 days ago by Halana Hanks from Jingzhou Hubei, China) [4]
