Methods for dealing with scale insects on a lemon tree
Whole trees are grown from citrus seeds on a home windowsill. Often citrus plants are affected by a pest. The scabbard on a lemon can kill a tree completely.
Fighting scale insects on lemon
What is this parasite
The full name of the pest is shield aphid. Its appearance is indicated by convex brown spots on the plant.
Scabbard on lemon sticks to leaves and branches, feeds on stem juice. Pests multiply quickly - they should be dealt with immediately. Otherwise, the citrus tree is depleted and dies.
The scabbard is also dangerous because its mucus is a favorable environment for the growth of a sooty fungus that infects other plants.
Signs of the disease
Aphids appear through the soil or from other plants. Sometimes the larvae fly in with the wind through open windows.
Indoor lemon and scale insects are incompatible. If you look closely at the affected plant, you can see that:
- brown or brown spots appeared on the plates of the leaf or trunk;
- leaves begin to turn yellow and dry out;
- the trunk of the tree becomes rough and bumpy;
- a sweetish sticky liquid is visible on the leaves (sometimes it flows down).
How to cure a citrus tree
Treatment of lemon from scabies at home is done with gentle methods. This means that they do not harm the health of the inhabitants of the house.
The fight against the scale insect on lemon involves the use of one of 3 methods of plant treatment:
- mechanical;
- chemical;
- folk.
Mechanical
A mechanical method allows you to get rid of adults from a tree. Its minus is duration and laboriousness. If you miss several pests, you will have to start fighting the pest again:
- You will need a toothbrush (cotton swab) and an alcohol-based product (or rubbing alcohol). Sometimes soapy water is recommended.
- Pests are smeared with alcohol or soapy water, removed with a brush from leaves and stems. This is not easy because they have a strong shell through which liquids can hardly penetrate.
Processing is carried out regularly to prevent the appearance of new individuals. It is allowed to carry out complex treatments: first by a mechanical method, and then by a chemical one.
Chemical
Spraying drugs will get rid of the problem
The chemical method involves the use of special preparations, for example, a remedy for the shield on citrus fruits "Aktara". So it is much easier to remove the parasite from the plant. This drug is dangerous not only for adults, but also for larvae.
Fighting the scabbard on lemon using Aktara:
- The leaves and stems of the tree are sprayed with a spray bottle.
- The plant is watered with poison.
The roots absorb substances that are dangerous to aphids and they die, feeding on the poisoned juice.
Fruits from a tree treated with a chemical are temporarily prohibited from eating. You should wait for new ones to appear.
Traditional methods
When it is not possible to use a mechanical or chemical method of pest control, they use folk. It is less effective than using pesticides. Tinctures are especially popular against aphids.They are attracted by simplicity and safety.
- Onion tincture. A chopped small onion is infused for a day in 1 liter of water. Leaves are wiped with the filtered infusion.
- Garlic tincture. A large amount of garlic (about 5 cloves) is chopped, pour 1 tbsp. water. The leaves are treated with the solution infused for 10 hours.
- Chili tincture. In half a liter of water, boil 50 g of chili peppers. Insist for 2 hours, after which the leaves are treated (this scabbard remedy on lemon is dangerous for the eyes and other mucous membranes, therefore gloves must be used).
Tinctures are dangerous only for the larvae of the pest, so the tree must be processed regularly, every 7-10 days. Also, to get rid of the scale insects on lemon, they carry out preventive measures. These include timely dust removal, soil quality control, wet cleaning of leaves every week. Do not allow citrus to come into contact with fresh flowers or infected plants.
Conclusion
There is no 100% effective way to get rid of parasites on lemon. All methods require effort and involve regularity. Modern manufacturers provide a variety of pesticides to choose from, and for opponents of chemistry, mechanical methods of fighting the parasite or traditional methods are suitable.