How to get rid of grass fleas in the house

Fleas distributed throughout the globe. Most fleas are parasitic species and therefore cause significant harm to humans and interfere with his business activities. There are dozens of species of grass fleas, most of them are usually called leaf flies. Whether grass fleas settled in the house, on indoor plants, in the garden on apple trees or in beds with strawberries, these insects begin to feed and multiply intensively, destroying the most juicy and young parts of the plant.

Herbal fleas in the house

Herbal fleas often settle in houses and city apartments. Their activity begins in mid-April and continues until the onset of frost. These insects have wings, so they easily reach the upper floors. Most often, parasites populate large plants, which caring hosts expose in summer on open balconies, where the best illumination.

The apartment in which tenants plant many houseplants is an excellent habitat for grass fleas, as adverse climatic factors are reduced to zero here. Leaf flies occupy all young shoots with amazing speed and thereby greatly interfere with the growth and development of the plant.

On a note!

Quite often, herbal fleas settle in apartments when flower or vegetable seedlings for personal plots are grown on window sills.

Due to its microscopic size and light green color, insects go unnoticed on young stems, and parasitize with impunity for a long time. To accurately determine the pest, you can carefully consider how grass fleas look in the photo, taken by a powerful microscope. It’s equally important to know what are pests afraid of.

What Danger Herbal Fleas Are

Herbal fleas (forest fleas) pose a serious threat to fruit trees and vegetables. With the end of winter, these pests begin an active period of life. Insects damage young blossoming leaves of fruit crops, drink plant juice, interfere with the development of stems and young shoots.

The greatest danger is the larvae of grass fleas - nymphs. Nymphs are very voracious and inactive. The digestive system of nymphs is not able to absorb all the substances entering the body. With active nutrition, the vital products of the larvae are a sticky, sugary liquid that covers the surface of leaves and stems. This liquid attracts aphids, which further harm the plant. A sweet coating called “Honey dew” serves as a breeding ground for sooty fungi. These parasitic microorganisms cover the tips of young shoots and unblown buds with black coating. As a result of such a strong impact, the plant dries out and ceases to bear fruit.

If grass fleas appear in the house and eat seedlings on the windowsill or flowers in pots, then these plants can become infected with fungal spores, especially in conditions of high humidity and high temperature.

Most often, grass fleas suffer from apple trees, sweet varieties of pears, plums, strawberries, carrots and cereals.Among indoor plants, those species that have soft succulent stems and young blooming buds are the most vulnerable.

Warm-blooded animals and humans are not victims of these parasites, so any pet is safe. The oral apparatus of the parasite is not suitable for piercing the skin of mammals and is not able to make a bite.

Feedback

For the summer, I put a tub with mandarin on the balcony so that there would be more light, so to speak, “In the fresh air”. In early June, she noticed that the tips of young shoots are dotted with small green dots. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that these are some kind of parasites. I found a similar photo on the Internet and realized that it was leaf-leaf. I had to process it with copper sulfate several times until the insects disappeared.

Lyudmila, Kaluga

Herbal Flea Control

The fight against herbal fleas consists of two main stages:

1. Physical destruction of the pest;
2. Creating conditions that prevent the re-emergence of parasites.

Leaf flakes have high adaptability to adverse climatic factors and are resistant to many chemicals. So that pest control has a lasting effect, start processing plants insecticides need in early spring.

Before the beginning of the vegetative period, when grass and leaves have not yet begun active growth, the insect is in the egg stage, and therefore has the greatest vulnerability to chemicals. After the hatched nymphs are covered with a thick layer of honeydew, many drugs can no longer have such a strong effect on parasites.

For primary processing of plants and the destruction of egg clutches, you can use folk remedies - solution of Copper sulfate or Bordeaux liquid.

In order to get rid of adults in household plots and on agricultural land, insecticides are treated:

• Karbofos;
• Metaphos;
• Thiophos;
• Phosphamide;

Any of these drugs is very effective, as it contains toxic organophosphorus compounds. But the use of such substances requires caution and strict adherence to the instructions.

There are also folk ways to get rid of leaf-flies:

• Fumigation of plantings with smoke from burning straw;
• Growing onions and garlic on adjacent beds;
• An effective flea repeller is shag growing in the neighborhood.

Important!

Coniferous trees such as pine and spruce serve as food and habitat for grass fleas. It will be more difficult to get rid of pests in the presence of such plants in neighboring areas and more effective means will have to be applied.

There are good folk tips on how to get rid of herbal fleas in the house. Pests cannot stand the smell of plants:

• Wormwood;
• Tobacco

If you put vases with wormwood bushes on the floor and window sills, then most insects will not want to enter the room at all. To enhance the effect, wet cleaning helps with the use of tincture of wormwood, added to the floor cleaner. In addition, window sills and doorways should be treated with the same tool.

Feedback

Our forest fleas are constantly eating a sweet Duchess pear. Moreover, they also attract aphids and antsbecause they produce a sweet pigment. During the season, we spray two or three times with Karbofos, a very powerful tool, fleas quickly die.

Nikolay, Ryazan

Herbal fleas are serious pests for the garden. If you leave them unattended, the damage will be very noticeable. Even in a city apartment, these small insects can destroy seedlings and potted plants in a short period of time. Fortunately, timely measures to eliminate parasites and comprehensive preventive measures can save the situation.