Violet tick - how to get rid of pests

The tick is a common pest, it can affect different plants, and gesnerium is no exception. Flower lovers, faced with ticks for the first time, often look for information on forums and sites on how to defeat arthropods. But once I looked at a lot of resources on the network, I was horrified by the incompetence of some chemistry tips.

At first it was funny, and then scary. It may seem to an inexperienced person that the advice has some kind of scientific background, and he will begin to poison himself and his whole house, but it is useless. Let's figure out why?

So, the main thing to understand in this matter:

According to many reputable collectors and breeders, including foreign ones, not one, but several types of ticks are always present in the collection of violets. No strong poisons can destroy them all. It is necessary to create conditions unfavorable for their rapid reproduction.
Ticks are not insects, they belong to arthropods, so ordinary insecticides do not work on them or act at huge doses (for example, an actelic, hazard class 2), special drugs have been developed for arthropods - acaricides. They are different: some better affect eggs, other adult ticks. When buying, read the instructions carefully. Acaricides include such drugs: omyte, magus, nissoran, neoron, flumite, apollo, sanmite, orthus, mitak, caesar and others. The prefix "acar" in the name of the drug speaks of its belonging to acaricides.
If the insecticide manufacturer promises to destroy all ticks and insects on the label at once, it means that you can be wary, most likely, this drug cannot be used in an apartment, but only in a garden.
Nature arranged everything in such a way that where there are herbivores, there are predators, ticks are no exception. By destroying some poisons, we destroy their natural enemies, and who do you think will restore their population faster?
If you achieve the complete destruction of ticks with the help of poisons, then this struggle must be constant, never ceasing. The poisons will have to be changed, since ticks develop resistance (addiction) to the drug. Toxins will accumulate not only in the earthen coma of the plant, but also in our body, poisoning everything. Therefore, it is better to limit yourself to preventive spraying with acaricide at the most favorable time for the reproduction of ticks or choose other control measures.
Do not use drugs whose hazard class is II or III in the apartment. I can give examples of reliable cases of the use of poisons at home, the consequences of which were: the death of aquarium fish, birds in a cage; nocturnal asthma attacks in a child; severe headaches; the appearance of allergies (before it was not) after a couple of years of fanatical fascination with violets.

Signs of violets being affected by ticks

The leaves in the center of the rosette twist, become brittle, stop growing (cyclamen tick).
Pollen spills out of the anthers onto the petals, the anthers themselves are damaged, but when viewed with a magnifying glass, no pests are visible (ticks are tarzonemids).
On the villi of the leaf, roughnesses are felt, thickenings (clutches of eggs of different types of tick) are visible in the magnifying glass.
The leaves appear to be pubescent more than usual.
The leaves become dull, as if dusted with dandruff or ash, acquire a gray-brown color, the stem shortens (cyclamen, strawberry and other ticks )/
Leaves and petioles become brittle (many types of mites).
Buds fall or do not bloom (tarsonemid mites).
On the leaf, many small points are visible that are lighter than the color of the leaf, where the plant cells bite, with severe damage, the leaf completely discolors, dries out.

How to get rid of a tick

Quarantine when buying new violets.
Keep the plant clean, remove fading peduncles, yellowed or decaying leaves.
If there is a collection of violets in the room, then you cannot bring cut flowers into it, breed roses (ticks are their obligatory companions), as well as some other indoor plants on which tick colonies easily take root.
Create favorable conditions for plants. Feeding, watering, illumination, temperature should be close to normal for a given culture, otherwise the violet begins to hurt, and weakened plants are primarily attacked by ticks. For healthy, strong violets, the tick is not terrible.
Regularly bathe violets in dry and hot times.
Do not move violets too close to each other.

Folk remedies for tick

Someone can argue with me, they say, here I spray violets regularly with a tincture of garlic (tobacco, onions, calendula, phytoverm) and there are fewer ticks. To this I will say this: and if you just wash them with hot water (about 40 degrees), then the ticks will decrease even more. The reason is the same - these creatures do not like to breed in a humid environment, and running water washes away ticks and eggs laid by them.

If the tick is on adult violets

If ticks greatly spoil the appearance of adult violets, the leaves seem to be covered with dandruff, it means that the room is very dry and hot, the population of ticks is growing at lightning speed. At a temperature of 18-22 degrees and normal humidity, ticks are not dangerous, and it is not desirable to bathe violets, they can be caught cold. But if the temperature is 25 degrees and above, the humidity in the room immediately decreases - ticks are activated, and violets feel bad both from the heat and from ticks. The best way out is to periodically bathe violets in warm running tap water.

How to wash violet

Take a pot of the plant in your left hand so that the rosette is between the index and middle fingers, they are held by an earthen lump so that it remains in place. The other fingers hold the pot itself. With this capture, you can turn the plant with a point of growth down. It is necessary to direct a stream of water to the underside of each large sheet. With the fingers of the other hand, you need to wipe the sheet intensively, but carefully. You can feel small tubercles on leaf villi - these are clutches of tick eggs, and we are trying to get rid of them. Carefully straighten and wipe the edges of the leaf bent inward - there are favorite habitats for ticks.
No sponges, rags should be used, fingers are the most sensitive and gentle tool, and sponges are carriers of infection from one plant to another.
It is desirable that water does not fall into the growth point (in the center of the outlet), on blooming flowers and in the pot itself. (It is almost impossible to avoid this altogether)
For a flowering plant, the water should be slightly warm, if the violet does not bloom, then you can make the water hotter - up to 40 degrees.
You cannot bathe violets with decayed leaves that have lost their turgor, with suspected root disease after an accidental bay. Also, you cannot bathe violets in the cold season, when there is no heating yet.
After bathing, avoid drafts, remove moisture from the center of the outlet with a soft paper napkin.
It is impossible to bathe plants in turn in a basin, it is necessary to use running water, unless you have one single plant.
After such a swim, when the violet dries, it looks gorgeous, the leaves shine, the stomata through which breathing is carried out are cleaned. Violet seems to come to life.

If a tick is on a violet baby

Tick activity peaks during dry hot weather in summer or during the heating season during the cold season. They cannot do much harm to adult healthy plants, but they can do much harm to young children. This is where you need to use acaricides - drugs against ticks. Dilute the drug in accordance with the instructions, spray rooted leaves with children and planted children. As a rule, one treatment is enough for the small plant to get stronger, and the ticks cease to pose a threat to it. Bathing 'babies' as well as adult specimens is impossible, and problematic, they can catch a cold and get sick with gray rot. After spraying, place the children in the warmest place. No coatings with plastic bags, they will definitely rot there! You can put them under a table lamp with a low-power incandescent light bulb at such a distance so as not to burn, to check, you need to hold your hand in this place, if you feel pleasant little heat, then you can put plants.

The author of the article Rusinova T.A.

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