The place of honor in the list of "class" enemies of every gardener is occupied by the onion fly. Its larvae devour not only onions and garlic, but also tulips, for which there is a place even in tiny front gardens. If an uninvited pest is allowed to roam, you can completely lose the entire crop. So everyone, even the most inexperienced, novice growers are forced to protect their plantings from this pest.

life cycle of an insect

The onion fly is widespread wherever onions grow, and it is very difficult to avoid its "visits". Outwardly, this gray insect is the size of a fingernail; it is distinguished from an ordinary house fly by a yellow-greenish tint of the abdomen. Insects are the main pests of onion crops, thanks to which they even received the nickname "onion killers".

In mid-May, when dandelions, cherries and lilacs bloom, onion flies come out of the ground after winter hibernation. For the first week of their life cycle, the young feed only on flower nectar and pollen. But already in the second week, the flies reach puberty and look for onion beds in which they lay their eggs. Usually laying is done in the ground, closer to the turnips, or directly on the onion scales. A week later, larvae appear there. They are the greatest danger to bulbous crops.

Having been born, the larva of the onion fly bites into the turnip from above or from under the ground. Penetrating into the bulb, the larvae gnaw out entire voids inside. Maggots feast on juicy onion pulp for several weeks, after which they move on to the next stage of their life. They leave the plant, burrow into the ground and turn into pupae there. And after another two weeks, the first summer generation of onion flies is born. In total, there will be two or three of them per season, depending on the climate and weather.

Signs of damage to onion beds by a pest

Since fly larvae pose a serious threat to onion and garlic plantings, it is very important to follow all agrotechnical practices for growing crops. Failure to follow the basic rules of cultivation and ignoring preventive insect control measures increase the risk of losing the entire crop. You can determine the defeat by the following signs:

Onion feathers wither and dry;
Plants slow down or stop growing;
Onions or garlic acquire a specific unpleasant odor;
Turnips rot;
Under the upper scales of the bulbs, you can see swarming white worms.

The widespread distribution of the onion fly has allowed plant breeders to develop effective insect control measures. Along with this, not only ways were developed to get rid of pests that had already appeared, but also a wide range of preventive measures. Prevent damage to onion beds by fly larvae the main task both for beginners and experienced gardeners.

Preventive actions

Destroying insects and larvae is not difficult, but all highly effective insecticides leave their mark on plants. Onions have the ability to gradually accumulate toxins, which can later make the crop potentially hazardous to health. Therefore, it is much better to prevent the onion fly from appearing in the beds than to get rid of it later. In order for preventive measures to bring maximum benefit, they should be carried out methodically and consistently - from the time of harvesting the previous season to the awakening of the pest from hibernation in the new season.

The first measure should be a thorough digging of the soil after harvesting the onions. Dig up the beds to a depth of at least 20 cm. Flies and pupae that have settled for the winter will be raised to the surface with a shovel. With the onset of the first frost, they will die.

Please follow these guidelines before boarding:

Pick the right pick up time. All bulbous crops should be planted as early as possible. Don't be afraid of frost. Onions and garlic are cold-resistant crops.
Process planting material. Soak the seeds for 5 minutes in hot water at a temperature of about 55 ° C. Then air dry.
When planning your landing, choose a well-ventilated area. For prevention purposes, alternate onion and carrot beds in succession. Onion effectively repels onion carrots.
Follow the rules of crop rotation. It is impossible to plant onions in the same place from year to year, since not only fly larvae, but also other pests and pathogens will accumulate in the soil on the beds. You can find out with which crops it is best to alternate the planting of bulbous crops.

After planting, before the start of insect summer, regularly spray the beds with infusion of tansy, wormwood, needles, fir, mint - of your choice. The smell of these plants will scare off the onion fly that appears later and force it to look for a place to lay its eggs away from your garden.

With the beginning of the departure of pests preventive measures struggle loses all meaning. Save future harvest possible only by drastic measures. There are two ways to get rid of timely detected insects:

Use folk methods;
Apply drugs.

The former are most preferred at an early stage of the appearance of the onion fly. The latter will allow you to get rid of insects in case of low efficiency of the former.

Folk remedies

Watering plants with saline:

10 liters of water;
Salt 250-300 grams.

Processing is done after the culture starts the first feathers. The beds are watered with saline every ten days. A few hours after treatment, it is necessary to water the beds clean water.

Processing with dandelion infusion:

Dandelion root - 200 grams;
Water 10 liters.

The tool is effective until the awakening of insects. Pour crushed dandelion roots with water and let it brew for 7 days. Before processing the onion, strain the working solution and spray abundantly from the planting spray bottle. The frequency of spraying is once every two weeks.

Using Potassium Permanganate Solution:

Prepare a saturated solution of potassium permanganate in required quantity pure water. Spill the soil on the onion beds, regardless of whether there is a fly and its larvae or not. The frequency of repeating the procedure is 1 time in 10 days.

Wood ash treatment:

200 grams of ash;
A teaspoon of tobacco dust;
a teaspoon of ground black pepper;

An excellent tool for the destruction of larvae and worms. Mix wood ash with tobacco dust and ground pepper. Sprinkle plantings. Processing is carried out in two stages: before the departure of insects and during egg laying.

Treatment with tobacco dust infusion:

Tobacco dust - 200 grams.
Water 10 liters.
A little liquid or laundry soap (gram 30)

Boil water and pour in tobacco dust. Add grated laundry soap or use liquid. Stir and let the solution brew for 10 days. Spray the plants and soil around the turnips liberally. The procedure can be repeated after a week.

If you find rotten bulbs, use a scoop to carefully remove them from the ground and lower them into a bucket of water. The larvae that have gathered in the dead plant die. This means that they will not be able to turn into a new generation of flies.

Such simple means are able to provide a crop reliable protection from the onion fly. The main condition: it is necessary to carry out all activities on time and very carefully.

Use of industrial preparations

If you want the best result for minimal cost time and effort, insecticides are used against the onion fly. The list of approved drugs includes:

"Flycat", "Medvetoks", "Zemlin"- based on diazinon. They are applied to loosened soil simultaneously with the planting of bulbs. Damage the chewing-suction apparatus of the larvae;
"Aktara" - based on thiamethoxam. The preparation is sprayed during the entire growing season. Acts on nervous system insects;

If used to kill an insect chemicals type of insecticides, you are more likely to spoil the crop, because harmful substances when tilling the soil, they get inside the bulb and remain in it. Over time, poisons accumulate in the fruit and can affect the health of the person who eats such vegetables. Unlike drugs, folk remedies are completely safe for both the earth and summer residents, so you can process crops with them without fear for yourself and loved ones.

Preparations for onion flies

Karate Zeon;
Bezudin;
Aktara;
Metronidazole;
Flyeater.

Preventive measures against onion fly

Rather than trying to deal with insect pests that have already settled on the culture, it is better to take care of the prevention of their appearance in advance. How to protect onions from onion flies:

It is worth doing crop rotation regularly.
The location of the plant should be changed annually.
In autumn, it is necessary to dig up the garden (the fly remains in the soil for the winter and falls asleep at a depth of 20 cm).
After harvesting, all organic residues should be removed from the garden, leaving no food for pests.
It is necessary to spray the garden with saline three times a year (when the sprouts sprout 5 cm, after - after 2 weeks, and the third time - after another 20 days). After treating the ground and plants with a spray bottle, wash off the salt from the sprouts, and three to four hours after the procedure, you need to pour the onion with plain water.

How to deal with onion fly folk remedies

Like other pests, the fly brings a lot of problems to gardeners, but it is not at all difficult to deal with it. There are several proven means by which it is possible to quickly eliminate the pest and save your own crop. There is no need to use different aggressive chemical substances poisoning the soil and plants. Understand how to process onions from an onion fly.

Application of wood ash

Treatment of onions with salt from onion flies

a third of a pack of salt should be dissolved in a ten-liter bucket of water (the amount is approximate);
salty liquid should be poured over onion shoots when they reach 5 cm;
after watering, after 4 hours, it is worth thoroughly rinsing the tops of the plant with clean water;
to consolidate the result after 10 days, the procedure is repeated, increasing the amount of salt (take 400 g).

Uses of potassium permanganate

Processing onions from onion flies with ammonia

It is worth starting the fight against an insect pest with the use of ammonia, since this is one of the most effective means. How to deal with onion fly:

Methods of dealing with onion fly larvae

Video: How to save an onion from an onion fly

Publication about the pest of onion plantations - the onion fly. The morphological and biological features pest, as well as methods of dealing with it, including agrotechnical, chemical and folk.

Every year, gardeners and farmers are faced with a specific pest of onion plantations - a small gray fly that can cause great damage to the crop. Effective fight with a pest is possible only when using an integrated approach: agrotechnical, chemical and folk remedies protection, allowing to protect plants from death, and grow environmentally friendly products.

Features of the structure and activity of the onion fly

Description of the pest

The onion fly (delia antiqua) is an insect appearance similar to the common house fly, up to 8 mm in size and yellow-gray to ash-gray in color. The female is active from mid-May, during the flowering of dandelion and cherry.

Egg-laying occurs on the soil next to plants or in the dry remains of onions. For the entire period of life, she produces from 40 to 60 white, oblong, about 1 mm in size eggs.

How the onion fly harms plants

The larvae that appear a week later bite into the bulb from the side of the bottom. Insects from one clutch stick together and form an empty space inside in the form of a single cavity. After three weeks of development, they pupate in the ground near the damaged plant, and after 20 days, adults emerge.

In early July, the second generation of the pest appears, which begins to lay eggs. For all the time of enhanced nutrition, the larva reaches a size of 10 mm. in length. In appearance, it is a white legless worm with a narrowing in front, equipped with black mouth hooks, which feeds on the fleshy tissues of the bulb. The damaged plant begins to lag behind in growth, wither and dry out, and the bulb rots, becomes soft, and acquires an unpleasant odor.
Valentina Kravchenko, expert

The wintering of the fly occurs in the ground at a depth of 5-20 cm in the form of a pupa. The pest is widespread throughout the agricultural areas occupied by the cultivation of onion plants, including shallots, leeks, chives, and even garlic, not only in Russia, but in Europe, Asia and North America.

How to deal with onion fly effectively

Agrotechnical methods of control

The fight against the onion fly includes the mandatory use of agricultural practices that reduce the number of the pest. At the same time, conditions are created that are unfavorable for or the life of the insect.

Effective pest control techniques are as follows:

Mandatory annual rotation of crops in the areas occupied by the planting of vegetables.
Placement of onion plantations next to carrots.
As early as possible spring planting crops so that the plant has time to get stronger before the start of fly activity.
Planting onion crops in the same area no earlier than 3 years later.
Carrying out loosening of the soil near the plants every 4 days and cleaning the plantings from weeds.
In case of mass deposition of eggs by a pest, water only when absolutely necessary to keep the soil surface dry.
Moldboard tillage after crop harvesting in autumn. Allows winter frosts to kill the pest in the larval stage.
Collection of damaged plants and their mandatory destruction.
Using only healthy planting material and carrying out its preplant processing.
Fertilizing plants with urea in May to accelerate growth.
Mulching row spacing with peat or rotted manure. The fly does not like loose soil and does not lay eggs on it.
Soil treatment with liming after harvesting, and a month before planting onions.
Removal of snow in winter from areas planned for onion plantations, for deeper freezing of the soil.

Onion fly chemicals

Means are used to protect onion plantations from pests. chemical protection, which do not pose a risk of pesticide accumulation in finished products:

Medvetoks - is applied to the soil surface during planting along with loosening.
Fly-eater - is introduced into the soil when planting a crop.
Zemlin - is introduced when planting and loosening onions.
Karate Zeon is a preparation for spraying during the growing season.
Tabazol - spraying during the growing season.
Aktara - spraying during the growing season.
Sochva - spraying during the growing season.
Diazinon - is introduced into the soil during planting, while it is forbidden to use onions on a feather.

Folk remedies for onion flies

There are the following folk methods for dealing with onion fly:

Dusting crops with a deterrent consisting of 200 g of ash, tobacco dust and red pepper powder (1 tsp each) during the summer and laying eggs. After processing, shallow loosening of the soil is carried out.
Soil cultivation with a mixture of dry mustard and ash in a ratio of 1:3. The first time the rows are sprinkled before the start of shoots, the second time at the first shoots.
Treatment of plantations with tobacco infusion against larvae. Prepared from 200 g of shag and 3 liters. hot water, infused for 2 days. Before processing, the volume of liquid is brought to 10 liters, 1 tsp is added. red pepper and 1 tbsp. l. liquid soap. After straining, spray the plants and the soil around them.
Treatment of crops with odorous infusions - coniferous, fir or mint, a decoction of wormwood with valerian, lovage or wild rosemary with the addition of a small amount of laundry soap as a fixative.
Spraying onion plantings with saline. For this, 300 g of table salt is diluted in 10 liters. water and process the beds, trying not to capture the feathers of the plant. After 10 days, the treatment is repeated, increasing the amount of salt to 400 g. Sometimes a third treatment is carried out after 3 weeks, with the amount of dissolved salt 600 g. The method is undesirable to use on heavy soils, where salinization is highly likely.

Folk ways to deal with onion fly are preferable to pesticides, as they are cheaper. And also guarantee the ecological cleanliness of the crop.

The damage caused by the onion fly is much greater with early damage to plantings. For successful pest control, it is necessary to use the entire complex of agrotechnical and chemicals protection of areas occupied by onion crops.

The onion fly is a small insect that looks like a house fly. Its dimensions do not exceed 6-7 mm, the color is ash-gray. For the gardener, it can bring a lot of problems and pose a serious threat to the harvest of garlic and onions. Moreover, it is not the fly itself that is dangerous for plants, but its larvae.

Flies lay their eggs in the soil next to plants or directly on onion scales. They are oblong white color. During the cold season, the masonry hibernates in the ground at a level of 10-20 cm. In the spring, with the advent of heat, larvae hatch from them. Having quickly infiltrated the plant, the larvae of the onion fly cause irreparable harm to it, eating onions and garlic from the inside. Then its larvae go deep into the ground, where they pupate and turn into flies. During the life of the onion fly, two flights are distinguished: the end of April and July.

Signs of culture damage by onion fly larvae

There are four main signs of a diseased plant:

Slow growth.
The leaves of the plant dry up.
Repulsive smell.
Rotting bulbs.

How to prevent an insect attack

The fight against onion fly in the garden begins with prevention. In order not to lose the entire crop, it is worth taking preventive control measures against the onion fly. Strict adherence to processing rules will help to achieve excellent results. It is worth remembering that the processed onion absorbs the toxic substances of some solutions.

Attention! Before planting, the seeds must be processed: soak the onion in warm water minutes for 5-10. Then dry it and plant it in the garden.

To prevent the pest from getting started, you need to plant all onion crops as soon as the sun has slightly warmed the earth.
The alternate arrangement of beds with carrots will help protect the onion from the fly. The carrot will scare it away from the onion, and the onion will protect the carrot.
Beds are best placed in well-ventilated areas.
To protect onions from larvae, do not plant the crop every year in the same place.
When the crop is harvested, it is worth weeding all the soil in the garden. This will bring most of the larvae to the surface and they will die in the winter cold.

Plant and soil treatment

Ways to deal with harmful insects are varied and simple:

Salt solution is a deterrent. Dilute 300 g of salt in 10 liters of water. Pour the young onion feathers with the solution. After a few hours, shed the plant with plain water. The procedure is repeated every 10 days.
The cultivation of the land with a composition of wood ash, tobacco dust and black pepper. This is best done in both periods of onion fly flight and egg laying. You need to mix 1 tsp. pepper + 1 tsp. tobacco dust + 200 g of ash. The mixture is poured between the beds and loosened to a shallow depth.
A peat substrate will serve as protection for the plant from the onion fly. They water the soil or spray plants. Treating the soil with peat before planting will significantly reduce the number of larvae.
A well-known remedy for onion flies is a concentrated solution of potassium permanganate. They water the beds every 10 days.
You can also treat the onion from the onion fly with an infusion of dandelions. Take 10 liters of water + 200 gr. flower root. After a week of infusion, water the bulbs once every 2 weeks.
Verified folk method wrestling is onion processing ammonia. Ammonia is an insect repellant. It should be diluted carefully, you can be poisoned by harmful fumes. For 10 liters of water, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of ammonia It is necessary to water the composition no more than 1 time per week. Ammonia has a detrimental effect on the garden predator due to its odorous vapors.
The persistent smell of kerosene, turpentine will scare away an annoying pest. They can cultivate the land between the rows.

Chemical treatment

How to deal with an onion fly with the help of chemicals is known to almost all gardeners and gardeners. There are fast and reliable methods combat it and are quite safe if the crops are protected by these methods strictly according to the instructions, in compliance with the dosages prescribed by the manufacturer. Such methods of struggle will help to forget about the annoying pest once and for all.

The insect will not start if the root crop is treated with the toxic drug Intavir". Its plus is that it is safe for other living beings.
You can protect the planting of onions and garlic with the powerful Tarantula preparation. Why the larvae and adults will die very quickly. Over the next 3 weeks, the remedy will prevent infestation by new insects.
The fight against the fly is possible with the use of the Zemlin solution. He will scare her away during the landing. The product is mixed with sand and sawdust.
How else to process onions? The strongest insecticide for watering onions from an onion fly is Dimetoat. It penetrates deep into the plant and kills the pests living inside. This is a very powerful crop protection against onion flies.

Attention! When using synthetic insecticides, it is necessary to strictly observe the processing scheme and the exact volume of the drug so as not to harm the plant and protect yourself from poisoning with toxic substances.

What to do if a winged pest is wound up at home

If an onion fly started up in the house, how to deal with it? The insect often appears on the onion growing in the apartment. How to get rid of the onion fly and protect the landings are described below:

before planting onions on a windowsill or on a balcony, it is necessary to treat the soil with special solutions;
it is good to plant tomato seedlings nearby, which is why the fly will not be delighted;
cover on all sides home garden odorous herbs: needles, fir, mint, tansy;
you can water the plants with a solution of ash with tobacco;
the smell of camphor, common throughout the house, is detrimental to insects;
keeping the house clean and tidy will help prevent the appearance of intruders and allow you to keep the crop intact.

Why are preventive measures necessary? Knowing and correctly applying the methods of dealing with the onion fly in the garden and at home, you can grow a rich harvest. After all, onions and garlic not only save from various ailments during the period of colds, but also enrich the daily diet with delicious, healthy dishes.

Onion fly - pictured

The appearance of the onion fly, and why it is dangerous

Every summer resident at least once in his life faced with the appearance of an onion fly on the site. This small winged insect, no more than 7 mm, brings quite a bit of harm to the onion crop. What to do if an onion fly is wound up, how to deal with it? What methods are most effective in the fight against this pest?

The onion fly visually practically does not differ from the house fly, but is much smaller in size: an ash-gray body with a greenish tint on the back reaches no more than 5-6 mm in length. An insect pest appears in the spring, when dandelions and fruit trees begin to bloom.

If you don’t know how to grow large onions, then you should know that the onion fly chooses dried bulb scales as a place for laying, but if they cannot be found, it can lay eggs directly into the soil. The larvae are born in just a couple of days - these are small white worms that affect almost the entire bulb. In 2 weeks, they completely destroy the plant, pupate, and by the middle of summer, the young change of the onion fly is ready to destroy the crop!

onion fly

Note that the insect infects not only common bow, but also bulbous plants - garlic and flowers with a bulbous root. The affected plant dies - both young shoots and adult parts begin to turn yellow and dry, the bulbs begin to rot, a fungus appears.

If on personal plot an onion fly was noticed, how to deal with it? How to keep bulbous plants healthy? By not taking preventive measures, good harvest you can forget. It is important to know that it is highly undesirable to destroy this pest with pesticides. This is explained simply - the bulb retains chemicals and insecticides quite well, in the future the vegetable will simply not be suitable for food.

onion fly - pest

What smells can scare away an onion fly

The effect of such landings, as they say, is on the face - there is neither an onion fly nor a carrot fly, therefore joint landings in this case will only benefit. Reviews of experienced gardeners about the joint cultivation of vegetables, in most cases, are positive.

onions and carrots joint planting from an onion fly - in the photo

Spraying onions with strong-smelling decoctions of mint, valerian or pine needles will be effective. For plants, these decoctions are absolutely safe. Another folk method of struggle is tobacco dust. This tool is sold at retail outlets for gardeners. It can be scattered between the rows of onions or sprayed with a solution (the proportions are indicated on the package).

Folk remedies against onion flies

According to agronomists, the most effective method the destruction of the onion fly is ammonia, which must be diluted in a proportion of 3 tbsp. l. per 10 liters of water and water the soil under the plantings. Repeat the procedure three times, at intervals of 7-8 days. Nitrogen, which is part of alcohol, in this case also acts as a fertilizer for onions.

Among folk remedies, a tincture of dandelion rhizomes is quite popular among summer residents. 200 g of roots should be put in a container and pour boiling water. Let it brew for a week. Water the beds with a solution once every 2 weeks.

Folk remedies for onion flies - in the photo

Some prefer to use regular table salt. The tool is effective, but there is one significant drawback - the soil accumulates salt and becomes unfavorable for other plantings, so it is used once a year: dilute 250 g in 10 liters of water and pour onions under the root. After 3-4 hours, rinse well with clean water.

You're right, once a year is enough. If you follow the advice on the Internet, where they say that you need to add a kilogram of salt in several stages to the soil in a month, then you will simply destroy your land and after a couple of years of such skill, nothing will grow in your garden. In everything you need to know the measure!

Some farmers mix naphthalene with sand or ash in a ratio of 1:10 and sprinkle plantings. One or two procedures are carried out during the summer of the onion fly and egg laying.

Another folk method is laundry soap. Dissolve a bar of soap in 10 liters of water and spray the plants with the resulting solution. In addition, potassium permanganate is again in a hurry to help! Make a rich pink solution and water late in the evening so as not to burn the plants. Repeat the procedure if necessary, every 8-9 days. On the forum, according to reviews, many summer residents save the onion from the fly in this way.

Preventive measures and insecticides against the pest

Selected healthy bulbs must be processed before planting in the ground. You can do this in two ways:

Hot water - the onion is lowered into hot water(about 50 ° C) for 15 minutes, then dry well and land;

Potassium permanganate - the solution is prepared in the proportion of 1 g / l of water. The onion is aged in the solution for 30 minutes, after drying it is ready for planting.

It is worth noting that the processing of onions before planting is important and necessary step when growing a vegetable, if you want to grow a rich harvest. Unfortunately, many gardeners do not want to bother with sevka, and simply plant them in the ground, dooming their plantings to guaranteed low yields.

onion fly larva - pictured

Deep digging of the soil at the planting site in the fall will also help get rid of the onion fly larvae. The pest survives the winter at a depth of no more than 20 cm, which means that when digging, all the larvae will move to the surface, where they will die at the first frost. Another important rule- be sure to remove the remains of the crop from the beds, so there will be no favorable breeding environment for the onion fly.

I have an onion fly in my garden, how to deal with it? - often heard by sellers of gardening stores. In this case, you will definitely be recommended a drug such as Bazudin. 30 g of this product must be mixed with 0.5 liters of sand (can be replaced with sawdust) and poured into the ground. This must be done at the end of spring.

In addition, you can buy other drugs against the onion fly - Mukhoed, Diazinon, Dachnik, Medvetoks, Ant, Teradoks and others. Do not forget, if you grow onions for greens, some preparations cannot be used for processing. Fighting an onion fly is much easier if you understand how to do it! It will not take you much time and effort, but in the fall you will definitely feel the result!