What does a nightshade miner look like and how to get rid of it?

The nightshade miner is a pest on greenhouse vegetables. Belongs to the Miner Fly family. The insect causes significant harm to almost all crops, but especially often lives on tomato. You can fight it with the help of chemical insecticides or thermal disinfection of the soil in the greenhouse. Often, summer residents also use folk methods.

What plants are harmed by the nightshade miner?

Most often, the miner lives on the following cultures:

• tomatoes;
• cucumbers;
• cabbage;
• salads;
• bell pepper.

It is called nightshade because the miner often harms tomatoes that belong to the family of the same name.

What does the pest look like and how does it develop?

The miner is a small dipteran fly (up to 2 mm long). The imago (i.e., an adult) has a black back, and its head and sides are yellow - they stand out in contrast against the general background. On the abdomen, small yellow stripes are visible, located symmetrically along the edges.

The pest lays small transparent eggs (up to 0.3 mm in diameter), in shape they resemble beans. Larva up to 3.5 mm long, cream color. Oral hooks of dark shades are visible, which become pale yellow before pupation. Pupa up to 1.8–2 mm long, fake cocoon.

The insect's developmental cycle is as follows:

1. Wintering in the surface layer of the soil, stage of development - a fake cocoon.
2. Then, in late winter - early spring, the miner flies out to the greenhouses. At the same time, he actively feeds on plant juices flowing from the wounds. They are made by the female using the ovipositor.
3. After massive damage to the plant, the leaves on it begin to die off.
4. On the surface of leaf blades, females actively lay eggs.
5. Larvae then emerge from the eggs and continue to damage the leaves. As a result, they turn yellow and completely die, then fall off.
6. The larvae penetrate the surface layer of the soil, where they pupate.
7. After 10 days, flies begin to fly out (provided that the daytime temperature is at least +20^aboutFROM). This is a new generation, for the full development cycle of which 18–25 days are enough.

Thus, in 1 season, the nightshade miner will pass at least 5 cycles, and 5 generations will appear in the greenhouse. Therefore, if you do not take care of insect control measures in advance, it can greatly harm the plants.

Signs of defeat

Signs are determined visually - special attention should be paid to the leaves:

• On the surface, winding passages are noticeable, and they go linearly without branching.
• Often these passages run close to each other, as a result of which a large spot is formed - the so-called mine.
• As the pest develops, the foliage turns noticeably yellow.
• The final sign of damage is leaf fall.

How to destroy a miner?

There are no agrotechnical measures to combat the miner - chemical and folk methods are used.

The first step is to remove all leaves damaged by the larvae. This is done manually, after which the foliage is burned.

You should not use insecticides right away - the use of potent substances is justified only if an invasion of a large colony of miners is observed.

The next step is to use folk and biological methods:

• spread tobacco dust over the beds;
• fumigate the greenhouse with makhorka;
• mix wood ash and slaked lime in equal amounts (1-2 kg of mixture per 10 m3²), scatter along the beds;
• run dung beetles into the greenhouse (you can buy them in a specialized store).

Finally, insecticides can be used last, for example:

• Actellik;
• "Karbofos";
• "Fosbecid";
• Fitoverm.

Insecticides should be applied strictly according to the instructions, observing special precautions, since the work is carried out in a closed room - a greenhouse.

It is quite possible to defeat the nightshade miner, but it is even easier to prevent the development of the pest. Since the insect hibernates in the surface layer of the soil, it is necessary to disinfect it by thermal or chemical methods before starting transplanting seedlings. Also, throughout the season, weeds should be removed on the site to eliminate the risk of pest development.