What are onion pests and methods for dealing with them?

Onions are present in the diet of almost every Russian. Even the smallest summer cottage must have a place for an onion bed.

However, this is the simplest crop in terms of agricultural technology. When growing onions, gardeners often encounter diseases and pest infestations. Insects cause damage to the crop or completely destroy it. In this article we will talk about pests onions and ways to combat them.

Symptoms of pest damage

Pests attack onions both during the growing season and during storage.

Symptoms:

• change in color of green feathers;
• the appearance of spots and stripes on the leaves;
• drying of feathers;
• softness of the bulbs;
• the appearance of plaque on the plant.

Yellowing and drying of feathers are also caused by other reasons. For example, acidified soil, lack of nitrogen, copper or potassium, excess moisture in the soil. If you are sure that the soil is fine and the onions are not sick, then the problem is a pest invasion.

Need to know. Onion pests pose a danger not only to onion beds, but also to related plants: garlic, tulips, daffodils, lilies.

What pests attack onions?

Do turnips have many enemies? Yes many. Let's list the most dangerous of them.

Onion fly

onion fly also called onion flower girl. She hits the onion, leek, shallots, and, to a lesser extent, garlic and chives. It is also dangerous for bulbous flower crops, especially tulips.

Adult flies are ash-gray in color, 6-8 mm long. The legs are black, the wings are slightly yellowish.The eggs are white, elongated, about 1.2 mm. The larvae are worm-shaped, off-white, up to 10 mm long. They eat plants, leading to their death.

The flies emerge from their pupae in the spring, when the cherry blossoms begin. Females lay eggs on the soil in onion beds or directly on dry scales. After 6-7 days, the larvae hatch from the eggs and begin to eat the crops.

The larvae cause the greatest damage to plantings during the period of their growth and the beginning of development. Onion plantings sown with seeds to obtain sets suffer greatly from the pest, since the sprouts are located close to each other and the larvae crawl from dead plants to neighboring healthy ones.

Attention. Onions affected by neck rot and stem nematodes are especially damaged by onion fly larvae.

The parasite is recognized by the passages of the larvae inside the heads. The larvae themselves are visible at the bases of the cotyledons and leaves. Damage leads to yellowing and wilting of the leaves, subsequently the bulb rots, and the plant itself dies.

Onion stem nematode

This is a worm only 1-1.5 mm long. Damages all bulbous crops. Adults live in the soil and from there penetrate into the heads. Nematode lays eggs in the bulb and the young individuals that emerge from them begin to eat the tissue inside the bulb.

Need to know. The pest lives in the soil for several years in a state of suspended animation, so it is extremely difficult to fight the nematode.

Signs of damage are lightened, curled feathers, and swelling appears on the lower part of the leaves. It is almost impossible to see the nematodes themselves due to their small size.

Reproduction of the parasite leads to rotting of onion heads and drying out of the above-ground parts of plants. The worm overwinters in the soil, on plant debris of onion crops.Nematodes that have settled inside the bulbs overwinter in storage.

Weevil

The weevil, or onion secretive proboscis, is a dark gray or black beetle with a proboscis. The length of the pest is only 2.5-2.7 mm. Crops are damaged both by the beetles themselves and their larvae. They are light-colored caterpillars with brown heads 6-6.5 mm long.

They feed on the pulp of onion feathers. The weevil is not dangerous for bulbs, but damage to the green part of the plant leads to a decrease in yield.

The secretive proboscis wakes up in mid-April. First it feeds on unharvested remains, then moves on to young shoots. Females lay eggs inside tubular onion leaves. The hatched larvae actively eat the flesh of the feathers.

Hoverfly

Along with the onion fly, the hoverfly causes damage to onions, garlic and ornamental bulbous crops. An adult reaches a length of 10 mm. Hoverfly larvae are worm-shaped, greenish-gray in color, and their entire body is covered with short spines.

The pest overwinters in plant debris in the soil and stored bulbs. The larvae pupate in the spring, and at the beginning of summer the mass flight of adult hoverflies begins. Females lay eggs between the dry scales of the bulbs and larvae appear after 7-8 days.

Affected bulbs rot and quickly decompose from fungal and bacterial diseases.

Onion thrips

Another small pest, only 1 mm long. It affects plantings both indoors and outdoors. The parasite is dangerous because it sucks the juices out of onion greens, preventing the bulbs from growing fully.

An insect infestation can be recognized by whitish spots on the feathers and twisted, yellowed leaves. If the damage is severe, the plant dies.

Females lay eggs under the skin of the leaf.After a week, the larvae emerge from the eggs and begin to feed on the juices of the plant.

Important. Over the summer, up to 3-6 generations of thrips develop, and in greenhouses - up to 6-8. The parasite harms not only onion plantings, but also garlic, cucumbers, cabbage, radishes, and eggplants.

It overwinters in soil and plant debris at a depth of 5-7 cm, in greenhouses, hotbeds and onion storage facilities under dry scales, where it reproduces throughout the winter.

Onion moth

The onion moth is a small butterfly with a wingspan of about 1.5 cm. The color is brown with white specks.

Onion moth larvae damage onion and garlic plantings, as well as ornamental bulbous crops. They gnaw through leaf tissue and eat them from the inside, while the skin remains intact.

Damaged foliage withers and then dries out. Over the summer, onion moths produce 3-4 generations. The first begins to harm plantings in May-June.

The larvae overwinter mainly under plant debris.

Root mite

The mite damages the bulbs of onions, garlic, tulips, daffodils and other bulbous crops.

It primarily affects damaged or diseased plants. Loves warmth and moisture (temperature +26...+28°C and humidity more than 50%). Under favorable conditions it develops quickly, a new generation appears within 10 days. One female lays from 350 to 800 eggs.

The pest enters the bulb through the bottom. Damages the primordia of peduncles and leaves, thereby reducing the quality of planting material. Planting infected seedlings contributes to the further spread of the mite.

Root mites spread through the remains of damaged plants, soil and garden tools.

shallot aphid

A small pest of brown or red-brown color. The main food plant is shallots, but it also damages other species.Aphids transmit viral diseases.

It ends up in beds with planting material. In greenhouses, the greatest damage is caused to forced onions in the autumn-winter and early spring.

The shallot aphid overwinters in greenhouses, on weeds and in bulbs between scales, and in vegetable stores. After planting onions in greenhouses, aphids move to succulent scales and the bases of leaves.

Settles on scaly leaves under the outer shell of the bulb and on young leaves. Affected plants are stunted, leaves become distorted and wither. The feather becomes contaminated with honeydew and molt skins.

Leaf beetle

The leaf beetle is a beetle 6-7 mm long. The elytra are orange-red, the abdomen is black, the legs are red. The larva is gray, its head and legs are black. It is dangerous for onions, garlic, lilies, lilies of the valley and other lily crops.

The leaf beetle emerges from its wintering grounds at the end of April. They first feed on wild plants from the lily family, then move on to onion and garlic beds.

The female lays eggs on the leaves, from which larvae emerge. They cause harm to crops by eating holes in the leaves. Severe damage to the feathers slows down the growth of the bulbs and leads to the death of the plant.