The seedlings had already begun to grow, the cucumbers began to grow, and suddenly, here and there the plants withered and fell as if they had been cut down. What is the reason?
Fighting mole crickets in the garden
The first and most famous garden pest is mole cricket- a rather large insect that leads a mainly underground lifestyle.
Since I started gardening, I have almost thoroughly studied the habits of the common mole cricket. At first I didn’t want to believe that it was on my site, then there was a phase of despair and wild horror, from the fact that I met her nose to nose and was finally convinced that she was the bear! Now - I just know that it exists, and let it live, you can’t argue with nature. The disappearance of one species entails other, sometimes unpredictable consequences.
Mole cricket widespread throughout the European part of Russia. The natural habitats of the mole cricket are the banks of rivers and streams. She prefers moist, loose soil. In her gardens she prefers planting cabbage, compost heaps, and manure, especially horse manure.
Its presence on the site can be determined not only by cut plants. At the end of May- early June, especially after watering in the morning, winding, dug-up areas of soil are clearly visible in the beds. These are the surface passages of the mole cricket. It is difficult to predict where it will crawl tomorrow. Running after her with a ladle of some nasty stuff is also not fun. Some gardeners sit at night, watch when the mole cricket comes to the surface in order to destroy it. Some gardeners buried three liter jars with water in the path of the mole crickets, so that they would fall in and not be able to get out. I remember how I laughed when I read somewhere that you can fight mole crickets if you drive aspen stakes throughout the garden.
I tried to plant seedlings in trimmed plastic bottles. But she refused it. The tomatoes have grown well, but the cabbage grew very poorly in these cut-off bottles. While weeding, slightly touching the edges of the bottles, my cabbages flew out of the ground. There was no way they could catch the edge of the root in the ground.
In order not to increase the number of mole crickets in a particular area, I advise you to get rid of boards and logs buried or lying on the ground. Also make sure that the water containers do not leak. Try not to bring manure from unknown places where there may be a concentration of mole crickets. If you just want to buy loosen the rows more often, try not to put it on the ground, isolate it from the ground so that the mole crickets do not spread throughout the garden. Prepare a special container. In such a container you can spill all the humus or manure with pest control drugs. Also isolate compost heaps from contact with the ground.
What to do with the beds where the mole cricket operates? At the beginning of summer, in June, the mole cricket looks for a warm, sunny place to build a nest and lay eggs. The nest protrudes somewhat from the ground and resembles an ordinary hummock. The only unusual thing is that nothing grows next to this hummock within a radius of 20-30 cm. It is around its nest that the mole cricket cuts down all the grass or other plants so that they do not shade the nest. The mole cricket often comes to its nest and checks if everything is in order. Having destroyed the hummock-nest, you can see many gray-yellow eggs slightly smaller than a pea. That's what it is mole cricket masonry. This is exactly how my meeting with the mole cricket happened: I was looking at a clutch of eggs, and she also came to visit them. My legs were paralyzed from horror and numbness, and when she saw me, she quietly began to back away, covering herself with her claw. How scary she is! The only thing I want is to never meet her again.
So, to successfully fight mole crickets, you need to loosen the soil and do not neglect deep autumn and spring digging. Can be planted marigold, they say that they also scare away mole crickets from the main plantings of cabbage or potatoes.
One of effective ways fight against mole cricket are insecticide preparations Medvetox, Thunder or another drug intended to combat mole crickets and available for sale in your city. It must be used according to the instructions. I’ll tell you right away that it helps. In addition, when planting seedlings, I add crushed eggshells, which I collect all year.
I also read that you can sprinkle sawdust around the perimeter of the bed and deepen it a little. But I haven’t done it myself, so I can’t recommend it.
My helpers in the fight against mole crickets are cats. As soon as we started living with two cats and a female cat, I noticed that all my plants stayed in place. In the summer, my cats generally catch everything that moves: flies, butterflies, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars.
And if the mole cricket moves to the trees, good luck: let it continue to roam the expanses of its native area, improving soil aeration.
If the mole cricket really annoys you, then in the fall, when everything is cleared from the garden and frosts have already begun on the soil, dig several holes up to 50 cm deep, cover it with film and put manure in it. This traps, into which mole crickets must crawl for the winter. Check the holes every morning, at this time mole crickets are slow and easy to destroy. In my opinion, this is the most real way fight against mole crickets.
Winter armyworm and methods of combating it
Fall armyworm - moth. I call her: a big fat moth. The butterfly itself is not as dangerous as its caterpillar - thick, large, gray, but maybe light-colored Brown. It depends on the type of cutworm, because they great amount— for almost every plant there is a corresponding type of cutworm. On the ground, the caterpillar is difficult to see. The color matches the top layer of soil.
Cutworm- the worst agricultural pest. She does not disdain anything, she is practically omnivorous. The caterpillar can damage cereals, potato, beets, onion , garlic, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, okra , cabbage. IN daytime caterpillars can hide from sunlight under the leaves of plants or in the top layer of soil, and at night they crawl out to hunt.
The damage caused by the fall armyworm caterpillar is similar to the damage caused by the mole cricket. By the way, I saw a trimmed onion that had fallen off. I thought that the bear had come out. I raked the soil around the gnawed onion and saw a gray caterpillar. This is the winter armyworm caterpillar. She, just like the mole cricket, cuts off young plants at soil level or simply gnaws the petioles of leaves, gnaws out entire hollows in potatoes , Jerusalem artichoke, beets, carrots and other root vegetables.
The fall armyworm caterpillar is capable of destroying seeds and seedlings in the soil, causing the seedlings to be very sparse and bald spots to appear in continuous plantings. Caterpillars of the first generation fall armyworm damage our gardens, damaging vegetable crops in June - July. The second generation caterpillars “specialize” in sowing winter crops. How to deal with the fall armyworm?
The main and effective measure to combat the fall armyworm is deep autumn and spring digging of soil to a depth of 25-27 cm, which destroys the pupae and caterpillars of the fall armyworm.
At the beginning of summer, when planting has already been done vegetable crops, loosen the rows more often. When damaged plants appear, rake the top layer of soil - you will probably find a thick gray caterpillar. That's why, thorough loosening of row spacing can be considered one of the methods of combating fall armyworm caterpillars.
Try to keep an eye on more than just your garden beds. Constantly mow roadsides and the area around your property. Flowering weeds are a source of food and egg-laying for the fall armyworm butterflies.
Effective against moth moths traps with fermenting drink: compote, beer, kvass.
Insecticides can be used against fall armyworm caterpillars: Decis, Bazudin, Arrivo, Sherpa. Moreover, these drugs can be effectively used in the following mixture - half the consumption rate of insecticides according to the instructions and 100-120 g of urea per 10 liters of water.
May beetle (chafer) larvae
When digging the soil or adding compost, many gardeners have encountered fat white or off-white worms. This larvae chafer(Khrushchev).
The larvae of the cockchafer first feed on particles of humus, then begin to eat up the roots of plants. In the European part of Russia, the cockchafer predominates with a 4-year development period. The most significant damage to plants is caused by larvae of the second and third years of development during the growing season. Plants with severely damaged roots may die.
There is a biological way to combat cockchafer larvae — introduction of nematode culture into the soil. If you get rid of cockchafer larvae, you will gain nematodes: radish horseradish is no sweeter! In addition to introducing nematodes, there is measure to prevent the spread of cockchafer larvae: When digging up the soil in autumn and spring, you need to manually collect and destroy the larvae of the cockchafer.
Also, do not apply fresh manure to the soil. It will probably harbor cockchafer larvae. To apply to the beds, use only rotted humus, and carefully look through and shake it before adding: it is better to prevent the larvae from getting into the beds than to find out later how to deal with them.
In this article, I have specifically selected pests against which one of the main methods of control is digging up the soil in spring and autumn. Areas where these pests occur require careful mechanical treatment of the top fertile layer. Thanks to deep mechanical tillage alone, without introducing additional poisons, you can reduce the number of mole crickets, cutworms and cockchafer larvae in your garden plot.
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After the mating process, the female insect builds a nest, which is a round cave about 10 centimeters long.
Such a nest lies at a depth of 10-15 cm, it is in it that she leaves eggs, the number of which can reach 500 pieces. To prevent the eggs from becoming moldy, the mole cricket turns them over from time to time and carefully inspects them.
Eggs are oblong balls that look like small grains. The color of the eggs can vary from beige to yellow-brown with a slight coating. The egg laying looks like an ant, only the eggs themselves are a little larger in size.
Since the eggs need warmth, the mole cricket buries them at a shallow depth, so you don’t need to dig deep to find them. Most often they can be found in hummocks on the surface of the earth. Mole cricket larvae emerge from eggs after about 2-3 weeks.
On this photo You can see what mole cricket eggs look like:
Description of the larva
Mole cricket larva may slightly resemble crickets or six-legged spiders with an elongated body. Their size can reach 15 mm. The front legs of the larva are turned outward; the larva works with them, raking the earth in front of itself.
Cabbage larva appearance resembles adult insects, with the difference that it is much smaller in size. During his active development the insect larva molts five times, after which it matures and becomes quite ready for further reproduction.
The larvae are not able to have time to fully develop into summer time, so they stay for the winter. Some of the already adult insects overwinter with them.
The mole cricket is not particularly resistant to cold conditions, so in harsh winters some of the insects may die. From the fact how much fat has the insect accumulated?, will depend on his survival during winter days, as well as subsequent fertility.
In this photo you can see what a mole cricket larvae looks like:
Many people ask questions: is the mole cricket a poisonous insect or not? Despite its frightening appearance, it nevertheless causes a lot of harm to gardeners and their harvest. There are many, both folk and modern.
Difference between mole cricket larvae and May beetle
The larva of a pest such as the cockchafer is similar to a white caterpillar, the size of which reaches 2 cm, and the thickness can be up to 8 mm. The mouth is located in the front of the larva and three pairs of small paws that are covered with hairs.
On the sides of the larva of such an insect you can see brown dots, and its rear end the color is slightly darker than the rest of the larva.
The larva of the mole cricket is completely different from the larvae of the cockchafer. When hatching, the larva resembles a small bug, and with each molt it becomes larger in size and acquires characteristic shape, increasingly resembling an adult mole cricket.
In this photo you can see what a cockchafer larva looks like:
How to fight?
If you do not start right away, then its young and adult pests will remain in place for all subsequent seasons. Such a pest able to easily dig passages in any type of soil, so a mole cricket can make a hole for itself, regardless of weather conditions.
It is necessary to fight the mole cricket insect and its larvae as quickly as possible, since both adult individuals and the larvae of this insect are famous for their very high gluttony, which means that they are capable of damaging root system large quantities plants.
Currently there are several effective means , helping to get rid of such a pest. The first of them is agrotechnical. It consists in the fact that it is necessary to prepare the soil for planting in advance.
In early spring and late autumn, the ground needs to be plowed and dug up. Thus, the mole cricket's egg clutches and larvae will be destroyed, and the underground passages made will also be disrupted.
Another environmentally friendly safe way getting rid of mole crickets involves luring the insects into vegetable oil. In the hole left by the mole cricket a couple of drops pour in vegetable oil , after which a glass of water is poured there. In a couple of minutes the mole cricket will appear on the surface of the soil, and after a few more minutes it will die.
The pest can also be controlled using modern insecticides. The smell of the granules attracts insects, after which they eat the bait left for them and, getting out, immediately die. When using this method, it is very important to collect all the poisoned mole crickets, since birds can also be poisoned by these insects.
– a harmful and dangerous insect for crops, capable of rapid reproduction. That is why it is important to fight both the mole cricket itself and the larvae and eggs. Fighting a pest is difficult, but it is worth spending time destroying the insect and thus saving most harvest.
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With the onset of spring, while digging up beds and plowing the garden, they begin to pay attention to all the strange larvae that can cause harm to seeds, seedlings, roots, and the green part of the plant. One of the most common pests in the garden is the mole cricket, the cockchafer or the beetle. What is the difference between the cockchafer larvae and the one in the photo is demonstrated on various websites. But gardeners continue to invent fables, attributing non-existent features.
Where can you find mole cricket larvae?
Insects become more active as the weather warms up. They overwinter in the soil at a depth of about 2 m or in compost heaps. As the soil warms up in the spring, they move closer to the surface. The optimal temperature for them is 12 degrees.
The mating season falls in the month of May. At this time, adults and young females emerge from their burrows into dark time days, they fly in search of a male. After fertilization, the female mole cricket builds a nest at different depths for 2 weeks. In fertile, moist soil, the labyrinth with numerous passages is located at a depth of 5 cm. In sandy soil, it goes 70 cm deep. The average depth of the nest is 15–20 cm.
The female lays about 500 eggs. Such a high number ensures the survival of the insect. In order for the larva to emerge into the light, it is necessary to create favorable conditions - air supply, warmth, and high humidity.
On a note!
The difference between the mole cricket larva and the cockchafer larva is obvious. They cannot be confused. But unknowingly, you can perceive a fat white worm as the baby of any insect. To determine who has wound up, you should pay attention to the place where strange creatures were found and the depth of the nest. Mole cricket larvae love heaps of manure; they destroy plants near the nest in the garden so that light gets into the hole. May beetle larvae always end up in a well-groomed, clean, weeded garden.
Appearance of a mole cricket larva
Experienced gardeners know how to distinguish insect larvae, but beginners have to rack their brains.
There are about 500 eggs in a mole cricket's nest. The length of each of them is from 1 to 3 mm. They have a brown, reddish color. Translucent. Under a microscope you can see in them Living being. The larva develops in the egg for about 2 weeks. Under favorable conditions, it emerges from the shell earlier.
Initially, these are small, helpless, blind creatures that outwardly resemble a bug, but not a caterpillar. They have a reddish color. Their food is the mother's saliva and egg shells. After approximately 7 days, the first molt occurs. The mole cricket larvae increase in size and more closely resemble an adult insect, which even has wings and.
The full stage of imago formation lasts about 2 years. Under favorable conditions – 1.5 years. On last stage genital organs develop. The mole cricket larva has to go through about 10 molts. Each time the body length increases, more and more reminiscent of an adult beetle.
On a note!
The mole cricket larva looks almost the same as an adult. It does not go through the caterpillar stage, the pupa stage, or turn into a butterfly. The body length of the larvae at the initial stage is about 3 mm, at the end of formation - 5 cm. Size adult reaches 12 cm including tail and mustache. Photo below.
May beetle larva
To the question of how beetle larvae differ, you can answer briefly - everyone. From the very first stage of development to the last.
The breeding process begins in early spring when the first leaves appear on birch trees. With the onset of persistent warmth - in May, the female cockchafer burrows deep into the soil up to 1 m. There she lays numerous white, transparent eggs.
On a note!
The mole cricket rarely lays eggs at a depth of 1 m. Because the successful development of the offspring requires warmth and air. The female periodically opens the entrances to allow Fresh air. At a depth of 1 m, it is problematic to perform such manipulations. When digging a garden to a depth of 50 cm, there is a greater chance of stumbling upon a nest, offspring of a mole cricket, etc.
The baby beetles are born after 20 days. In appearance, they are thick, white caterpillars with well-defined rings. Over time, they become larger and rise closer to the surface, feeding on plant roots. It takes several years for the cockchafer larva to develop.
Interesting!
If we compare the larvae of two pests, we can say the following. The offspring of mole crickets cause damage to agricultural crops almost immediately after their birth. Therefore, gardeners use different ones with them. The young cockchafers are initially harmless and are not so voracious in nature.
As they mature, the baby cockchafers turn into a yellowish, fatty worm, a caterpillar. The head is brown, without eyes, with a well-developed gnawing apparatus. There are 3 pairs of legs in the front part. The body is translucent, food remains are visible in the intestines. There are brown spots on the sides of the rings. These features distinguish the cockchafer from other insects. There is no way to confuse them with baby cabbage mushrooms.
A photo of the larva of the May beetle and the larva of the mole cricket is presented below.
Main differences
Having become familiar with the appearance of each insect and the features of nest construction, we can highlight the main differences:
- The mole cricket does not go through the worm or pupa stage. It immediately appears in the form of a small insect. It has a brown color, but darkens over time. At the last stage, wings and genitals develop. All this takes about 2 years.
- May beetle larvae are white caterpillars with well-defined rings. They gradually increase in size, reaching a length of 6 cm. They have a twisted ring shape. The head is brown. There are 3 pairs of legs in the front part. This is important to remember, since similar caterpillars are found in the larvae of other beetles that do not harm crops.
On a note!
The difference between the larvae is obvious. One should take into account the fact that the cockchafer develops underground for about 3 years. The cycle continues as the weather warms up. During the first 2 years the larva does not cause much harm; Last year sweeps away everything in its path and turns into a real natural disaster.
In small quantities on plot of land The larvae do not cause much harm. This applies to both mole crickets and the May beetle. They loosen the soil, saturate useful substances. However, their large numbers can negate all the efforts of the gardener.
Prevention
To protect the area from pests, it is necessary to dig up the soil twice a year to a depth of 20 cm or more. In this way you can destroy insect nests and destroy larvae.
When using natural fertilizer - manure, scatter it around the garden better in autumn. Then after winter there will be no viable mole cricket eggs left in it. During the spring fertilization procedure, a person through his own efforts contributes to soil contamination.
As a protective measure, make beds with garlic, throw cloves into a hole with crops, plant flower beds with calendula, marigolds, and chrysanthemums.
Pests can be controlled folk remedies, professional. In case of severe contamination of the soil, insecticidal agents (, etc.) are used, which retain their effect for 1 month and disintegrate completely after 45 days. This is enough to destroy all harmful creatures.
