Biological protection of vegetables in the greenhouse (1985)

Spider mite, a pest for greenhouse plants.

The female laid eggs.

After three days, the larvae hatch from the eggs.

Then the nymphal period of development.

Hundreds of ticks come to light.

They also lay eggs.

In the second generation, there will already be 10 thousand ticks.

In the third - 1 million.

A plant damaged by a tick.

The problem of pests and diseases is especially acute in protected ground.

Tomato bushes in the greenhouse, on which the spider mite has bred.

A damaged leaf of the plant.

Hordes of ticks can completely destroy the crop.

Aphids.

Melon, peach and others.

Under favorable conditions for them, the number of aphids can increase 10-15 times or more in a week.

Tobacco thrips.

Until recently, the only method of pest control was chemical.

Spraying of plants.

During the growing season, up to 15-20 treatments with pesticides had to be done.

A worker in a gas mask sprays pesticides on plants.

There was a threat of the preservation of pesticide residues in finished products.

Laboratory of scientists.

Entomologists recommend switching to biological methods of plant protection, using natural enemies of pests.

The first person they started fighting was a spider mite.

To combat it, they began to use the predatory tick phytoserius.

As it turned out, the only food for him is a spider mite.

Soy, the best food for the spider mite, is sown in a special breeding greenhouse.

It is inhabited by a spider mite.

Spider mite on soybean leaves.

The tick lays eggs.

The development of a spider mite is a rather complicated process.

Now the spider mite has multiplied significantly and it is possible to settle the phytoserius.

The predator is transferred with the leaves of the same plants on which it was propagated.

Preparation for mass reproduction of the phytoserius begins one and a half, two months before planting seedlings in the ground.

In production greenhouses, plants should be carefully examined regularly, once every 7-10 days.

If pest colonies are suddenly found, it is necessary to launch phytoserius.

The phytoserius eats a spider mite.

With large lesions, it is necessary to release 50-60 predators for each plant.

A plant damaged by aphids.

The green peach aphid is a vector of a viral infection affecting plants.

It turns out that aphids have a natural enemy, the gallica aphidimiza.

The female does not feed on aphids, her larvae predate.

Mass breeding of gallica is also carried out in breeding greenhouses.

Bean aphids are used as feed for breeding.

Having finished feeding, the larvae of the gallica pupate in the sand.

The sand is filtered out and a stock of predator pupae is created.

When a colony of aphids is found, a predator is placed nearby at the rate of 2-3 cocoons for every three individuals of the pest.

Cocoons are protected by a visor from water sprayed during watering.

The fly-out midge lays eggs, from which larvae are hatched, attacking aphids.

The larva paralyzes the victim by injecting a potent toxin.

If the predator colonies have grown greatly, you can use a more voracious predator - the golden-eyed common.

Predator larvae are fed with grain moth eggs.

Adult insects are fed with honey and liquid brewer's yeast.

Goldeneye herself is not a predator, predators are her larvae.

Larva of goldeneye.

Larvae eat aphids.

To get the effect, the initial ratio of predator and prey should be 1 to 5.

After completing the development, the larvae pupate.

After 2-3 weeks, a fully formed insect comes out of the cocoon.

The release of goldilocks can be combined with pesticide treatment.

Only they need to be produced a day or more before the colonization of the predator.

The greenhouse whitefly causes great damage, especially in the southern regions of the country.

Whitefly on the leaves of plants.

The larvae and nymphs of whitefly feed on the sap of plants.

In addition, they secrete substances on which special fungi that oppress plants settle.

To combat the whitefly, an internal parasite of its larvae, a small insect encarsia, is used.

The female encarsia lays one egg in the larva of the whitefly.

She herself feeds on hemolymph protruding from the puncture site.

The larva of encarsia develops in the larva of the whitefly, turning it into a black mummy.

Tobacco shoots are used for breeding whitefly and encarsia.

Encarsia is stored in whitefly mummies for up to 3-4 weeks at a temperature lowered to 10-13 degrees.

Encarsia is colonized in the pupal stage with a ratio of parasite and pest 1 to 10.

The release is repeated after 10-14 days.

Tobacco thrips.

It is introduced into greenhouses with onion seedlings and harms all crops.

Tobacco thrips on plants.

An effective predator has also been found against this pest.

This is the mite amblyseius mackenzie.

The main feature of this tick is the high rate of development.

Amblyseius is easy to breed in the laboratory using an ordinary flour mite as a feed.

The predator is released into an industrial greenhouse.

Amblyseus eats tobacco thrips.

They fight pests not only with predatory insects.

Recently, different strains of the verticillium fungus have been used.

It is a pathogen for eggs, larvae and yamago of various pests.

Fungal growth under the microscope.

Various diseases cause great damage to plants.

In recent years, a method of protecting tomatoes from tobacco mosaic virus has been developed - vaccination.

The vaccine strain is propagated in storage plants grown from virus-free seeds.

After two or three weeks, the leaves are cut off, and a vaccine strain of the virus is prepared from them.

The introduction of this drug prevents the reproduction of a related virus that entered the plant later.

The most common disease of cucumbers is root and white rot.

A way to combat these diseases has been developed.

It is based on the use of trichoderma, a soil-dwelling fungus - an antagonist of many harmful fungi.

Trichoderma strains are propagated in laboratories on heated peat.

The resulting compounds are introduced into the soil, sprayed with plants or powdered with seeds.

Trichoderma suppresses the development of harmful fungi.

The process of trichoderm growth under a microscope.

Alternating frames with pests and predators.

With biological protection, chemical treatments of plants are reduced by 5-6 times.

A worker harvests cucumbers.

Panorama of the greenhouse economy.