The most common greenhouse pets

Growing plants in a greenhouse has one big advantage. We are not dependent on the weather. On the other hand, pests living in the greenhouse, which are not a danger when plants live outdoors, are more dangerous in a greenhouse. These mainly include various types of mites, aphids, whiteflies and creeping pests. We shall focus on pests living in the soil of your greenhouse, as well as on plants.

Whiteflies

Whiteflies mainly attack ornamental greenhouse plants and suck juice from plants. They leave secretions on leaves where black dirt accumulates and over time your ornamental plants turns into the exact opposite. An ugly dirty plant. Most often they get into your greenhouse from nettles or other weeds. An adult whitefly is about 2 mm in size and has greyish-white wings which are covered with waxy exudates. This waxy substance makes whiteflies resistant to chemicals. The good news is that you can kill whiteflies by spraying them with Actellic 50 EC or Mospilan repeatedly.

Mites, spider mites and aphids

These tiny mites, sometimes referred to as “red spiders” live in very large groups and lay tiny eggs that can only be seen with a magnifying glass. You can identify their presence if you see fine whitish veils on leaves or stems of your plants and sometimes gradual yellowing or falling leaves may also signal the presence of mites. Mites love warm and dry environment, so in order to get rid of them, spraying moisture on affected plans may be enough. But if they overpopulate use chemical sprays such as Magus or Zelone. Aphids are another type of dangerous pests. It is a winged insect that mainly damages small seedlings but there are many insecticides that can be used to fight aphids, such as Pirimor and Karate.

Creeping pests

These are pests that live on greenhouses vegetables, but you can also find them in veggie patches outside of your greenhouse. This group includes all kinds of snails and slugs. They get into your greenhouse hidden in flower boxes or flower pots. You can fight them using various chemicals as you would for your regular outside veggie patch. An effective product against snails and slugs is Mesurol.

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