Eggplant pests and how to deal with them

Eggplants were brought to Europe from faraway India a few centuries ago.During this time, the dark-fruited nightshade successfully caught on the beds and became a frequent guest on the tables of our compatriots.

Most gardeners plant eggplants together with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and other common crops, but to achieve a good harvest is not so easy. Like any other garden plant, members of the nightshade family are constantly attacked by dangerous pests.

Eggplants can be subject to bacterial, viral and fungal infections, and in addition, pests can cause great damage to crops.

• For example, slugs - gastropods, which multiply rapidly during rainy weather, can ruin most of the fruits in a matter of days.
• Very painful plants perceive bear attacks. This is not only a very ugly and even terrible insect, it also practically does not leave the plant a chance for full growth and development. Medvedka moves along the underground passages she dug out and feeds on the roots of vegetable crops. This leads to the fact that the plant weakens, withers and eventually dies.
• A lot of inconvenience causes whitefly, which, for its attack, prefers only the strongest and healthiest bushes - this insect lays eggs on leaf plates. After 10 days, the larvae appear from them, which suck out all the vital juices from the green parts.

In the leaves damaged by pests, fungal pathologies often develop, the leaves turn yellow and curl, and the fruits stop developing. But the greatest harm is caused by such pests known to any summer resident as the Colorado potato beetle, spider mite and aphid.

Colorado beetles are well known for their voracity: they can destroy all the fruits of eggplants in a week or two and negate the work of people who grow this crop. Beetles reach 7 mm in width and 10 mm in length, they fly well and can pretend to be dead if you knock them off the branches. In addition, they can "hold their breath" when in contact with water, and are also resistant to most chemicals, therefore, getting rid of them is quite problematic.

With the onset of spring, beetles crawl out of the ground to the surface (usually this happens in May) and begin to lay eggs. Females are distinguished by exceptional fecundity - during the season each can lay from 800 to 2000 eggs, the hatched larvae can reach a length of 16 mm. At the same time, they are characterized by increased activity — literally in 20 days, they go through all the stages of their formation and are transformed into an adult individual.

It is established that 40 larvae are able to completely gnaw all the leaves and green tops of the shoots of a strong adult eggplant bush. The invasion of the Colorado potato beetle is quite often compared with a locust bloom - since in this case only gnawed skeletons are left from bushy landings.

Probably, there is no such gardener who has never encountered aphids. It affects most of the garden and garden crops, and eggplants are not the happy exception.

In total, there are about 30 species of this pest, they feed on young plants both in open ground conditions and in greenhouses. An insect is dangerous because of its fertility - it gives up to 20 generations in a season, and both adult insects and their larvae cause harm.

Insects pierce young shoots, leaves, as well as flowers and emerging fruits and suck the juice out of them. This leads to a significant slowdown in the growth and development of the culture, and in the absence of any control measures, the plant starts to curve, the leaves turn yellow, curl and fall off. Unripe fruits often fall off, and those that remain acquire an ugly shape, and their size is far from what is expected. In greenhouses aphid attacks eggplant very often, and in open areas - only in warm rainy weather.

Pest of eggplant and many other vegetables of the nightshade family. The danger lies in the fact that it is quite difficult to detect: it exists extremely secretively. One can notice its traces only on a sunny day, and even then - with careful and attentive examination.

The effect of the pest is indicated by bright small bite points on the leaf plates. As the insect colonies increase, the dots transform into large spots, they later give the sheet a so-called marble color. After that, you can already see a spider web on the back of the sheet, and below it there are ticks. These insects reproduce rather quickly, especially hot and arid days are favorable for them.

When exposed to pests, it is very important to take prompt measures to combat them - insects are very prolific. They lay many eggs, and the larvae grow rapidly and multiply again. If you delay, the plant will simply die. The treatment of leaves, stems and underground parts of the plant should begin as soon as you notice the pest.

Very well established folk methods. For the most part, they boil down to the preparation of fermented herbal infusions and the further spraying of diseased crops. However, single spraying is not enough, and multiple times are not as harmless as it may seem at first glance. For example, damage to the plant can cause frequent treatment with tobacco dust, infusion of hemlock and potato tops, especially if these plants were previously sprayed with chemical reagents from diseases.

More gentle, but no less effective means are decoctions of wormwood, chamomile and yarrow - they have a strong smell that scares many insects. A decoction of walnut leaves has proven itself very well, such a composition is prepared in advance: in the fall they fill the barrel with foliage, pour boiling water over it and seal the lid tightly. During the autumn, winter and spring, the leaves are infused, and this results in a concentrated solution that serves as the basis for preparing the working spray agent: 1 liter of the concentrate is dissolved in a bucket of water and the resulting culture is sprayed.

Many gardeners say that aphids can be fought with ash decoction or shedding ash. To do this, in one bucket of water, dissolve 1.5 cups of burnt coal and incubate for a day, then filter and pour over the plants. Many people add a little soap to the substrate - then the infusion will stick better to the leaves.

Pretty good reviews received a complex solution, which is prepared as follows:

• crushed in a blender or scrolled through a meat grinder in a single glass of onions, cloves of garlic and green dandelion leaves;
• The resulting composition is poured with a bucket of water with the addition of a pair of spoons of green soap;
• the solution is left to infuse for 2-4 hours, after which the green parts of the plant are filtered and sprayed.

This tool has proven itself in the fight against aphids, as well as the Colorado potato beetle and spider mite at any stage of development. There are quite a lot of different fees and infusions, and they have different efficiencies, so it is better to test each one and select those that give the most noticeable effect.

The modern agricultural technology market offers a large selection of ready-made plant protection products, and not the last here are effective biological products. They are called bioinsecticides and quickly destroy any sucking pests at the larval stage. The most common drugs in this group are Basamil, Bitoxibacillin, while Fitoverm and Lepidotsid are also in demand among summer residents. The preparations have a wide spectrum of action, they are used not only for vegetables, but also for spraying berry and fruit trees and shrubs.

Fungi-based preparations that can relieve pest problems, even at the harvest stage, have good efficacy. Among these drugs the greatest demand is "Aktophyt". But at the stage of growing seedlings and moving into the open ground, the fight against nematodes is especially important, for this purpose they most often choose “Metarizin” or “Pecilomycin”.

If biological products can not save the seedlings, it makes sense to use chemical protection. Most often, eggplants are sprayed with “Aktar”, “Vertimemek”, “Konfidorom Extra” and other preparations. Such treatments can be carried out only in the first stages of plant life - after flowering and the beginning of the formation of the ovary, treatment should be stopped. Chemicals are highly effective, so often 1-2 treatments are sufficient.

Against the whitefly, Fitofer well proved itself, as well as Iskra Bio. From the Colorado potato beetle, a single spraying with the preparations “Aktarin”, “Phosbecid” and “Sonnet” helps, and from the whitefly - “Confidorm”. Spider mite and adult aphids need to be treated with Karbofos.

Great importance in the fight against vegetable pests is the correct prevention, which allows you to protect and protect the plant from insect attacks. It involves the implementation of simple conditions:

• seed treatment before planting;
• regular disinfection of the soil before planting seedlings, as well as after harvesting;
• separate cultivation of vegetables that can attract garden pests;
• timely destruction of the affected parts of the plant;
• constant monitoring of plants for pest damage;
• weed removal and burning plant residues;
• compliance with the irrigation regime;
• the introduction of potassium phosphate fertilizers with exact observance of dosages;
• in closed greenhouses regular airing is necessary;
• correct selection of neighbors bedding.

Modern breeders are constantly working to create varieties that are resistant to common pests. Eggplants such as Violet Miracle, Bagheera, Bourgeois, Nutcracker, Ping-Pong, Hippopotamus, and Dwarf Early are the most resistant to insects.

On the diseases of eggplants, see the following video.