Tall mighty trees are the personification of strength, resilience, and strength. But these giants also have enemies - insects. Their size is insignificant, however, having gathered in a large army, they can destroy a centuries-old forest in one summer. The areas affected by them annually amount to 1-3 million hectares. There are especially many forest pests in Siberia and the Far East.
On an adult birch tree sometimes live up to 700 thousand insects, and on 1 hectare of forest grass and moss cover - almost 130 million. On each square meter The trunk is home to about 400 beetles and their larvae. Not all of them are dangerous, but when pests begin to multiply intensively, a real forest disaster can occur.
Caterpillars of silkworms (pine, gypsy, Siberian, etc.) feed on pine needles. The fir, cedar and spruce trees eaten by them die immediately. Pine can withstand two such invasions, larch - three. After an attack by silkworms, dead, bare trees remain. Sometimes forests over tens and hundreds of square kilometers die. What has survived from the mighty Rosh are called silkworms. Over the past hundred years, forests covering an area of about 1.3 million hectares have been damaged by the Siberian silkworm. The reasons for its massive invasions are not precisely known; It was only noted that such phenomena occur after several dry seasons and last 7-10 years.
Oak budworm attacks are no less dangerous. Small green caterpillars gnaw away entire oak forests in a matter of days. Sometimes after such a “raid” the trees dry out. Sometimes they remain alive and after some time become covered with leaves again, but, being already weakened, they often suffer from other pests, as well as diseases and droughts. Something that does not threaten a healthy tree can lead to death in the victim of a leaf roller.
Stem pests are also dangerous for the forest - larvae of bark beetles, longhorned beetles, gold beetles, horntails, and woodworm caterpillars. They penetrate under the bark and gnaw deep passages in the wood. But forests have their own defenders against pests: birds, red ants and other insect predators - haymakers, ground beetles, spiders, mites.
Enemies of the forests
Unfortunately, not all inhabitants of forests and steppes enrich the soils and help grasses and trees grow through their vital activities. Many harm fields, gardens, forests; Some take away fruits, destroy seedlings and young shoots, others trample meadows, gnaw trees.
It has been proven that moose and deer spoil young pine forests and harm aspen and other trees. Where there are many moose, spruce and birch replace pine.
Giraffes in Africa also eat acacia trees so much that they do not allow them to grow at all, and there are many places in the savannas where only pitiful acacia bushes stick out from the dry ground, gnawed by giraffes.
But perhaps no animal in the world is so scary green herbs and trees, does not destroy them as quickly as... a small goat. Where large herds of goats graze for a long time, the forests die, all vegetation disappears from the face of the earth, the desert encroaches on the flourishing region. The goats ate the forest clean North Africa, Spain, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and many, many other countries.
The destruction of forests sacrificed to goat gluttony is one of the saddest pages in the history of civilization.
Goats not only completely destroy green shoots, they “literally gnaw the ground to get the seeds of grasses and other plants that might germinate in the coming rainy season.” The soil exposed by goats, especially on the slopes of mountains and hills, remains unprotected and at the mercy of erosion.
Erosion is eating away at the plateaus of Castile. Erosion has turned the slopes of the Atlas Mountains into wasteland. Cedar tree - very rare now in Morocco. And where are those cedar groves of Lebanon in which King Solomon’s slaves harvested trees for the temple in Jerusalem? There is none of them. It's all the goats' fault. Before herds of goats were brought to Africa, before the Moroccans began to cut mimosa to feed their goats - before that two thousand years ago... the mountains of North Africa, writes the eyewitness Roman consul Suetonius Paulinus, were green with forests. The climate was humid and the land was fertile. There were bears, deer and (imagine!) elephants in the forests.
Now there is no trace of any of this.
Herds of goats have flooded the Sahara and the savanna south of the Sahara, and the desert has gone on the offensive: it is now moving into the depths of Africa at a speed of one kilometer per year. Over the past 300 years, sands have reclaimed a 300-kilometer-wide strip from the savannah. The animals and birds that inhabited it retreated from the savanna.
There are an incredible number of goats in Turkey - 60 million! There is a goat on almost every hectare! Moreover, most herds wander unattended. In ancient times, Asia Minor was a flourishing country, buried in groves and gardens (the compilers of the Bible even placed the earthly paradise - the Gardens of Eden - somewhere on its eastern outskirts). Now it is almost entirely semi-desert. The goats continue to eat the last of the greens. Every year they destroy 300 thousand hectares of forest in Turkey.
But where the anti-goat laws were enforced with all rigor, the results of these measures more than compensated for the losses suffered by their herds.
Examples include Cyprus, Venezuela and New Zealand, where the struggle to preserve fertile lands was waged under the slogan: “Even a single goat left free poses a national danger!”
Now in these countries young groves are turning green again, the wastelands are receding, and forest animals and birds are returning to their native lands, from which man and his goats drove them out.
Zoologists have calculated exactly how much food a person eats per day Indian elephant medium size - 100 kilograms. From this we can conclude that a herd of mammoths of 100 heads destroyed about 10 tons of all kinds of vegetation every day. Having quickly devastated some copse, the mammoths had to move on in search of fresh greenery. They didn't stay anywhere for long. Legions of shaggy elephants roamed the ancient tundra, which lay its snow-covered swamps at the foot of retreating glaciers.
We can judge how numerous the herds of mammoths were by the abundance of their bones, tusks, and teeth, which people find in tons in the ground.
Oyster catchers, for example, caught more than 2 thousand mammoth molars from the bottom of the Dogger Bank in just 13 years. In Swabia alone, a small German province, the bones of three thousand mammoths were excavated. Paleontologists suggest that there is still more hidden in the soil of this country. at least 100 thousand skeletons of prehistoric elephants.
But a truly inexhaustible “warehouse” of mammoth bones is our Siberia. The New Siberian Islands are the largest mammoth cemetery in the world. Russian explorer Yakov Sannikov, one of the first Europeans to visit there, wrote that the soil of some New Siberian Islands consists almost entirely of half-decomposed mammoth bones. Even the seabed off the coast is strewn with mammoth tusks.
Over the past 200 years, Siberia has supplied about 60 thousand full-weight mammoth tusks to the world market - so many shaggy elephants once lived in our forests. It is difficult to say how much grass, shrubs and tree branches they ate. Probably at least two million tons per day - almost a billion tons per year, that is, a mountain of greenery a kilometer high, long and wide.
Some experts believe that mammoths, with their gluttony, maintained its specific landscape in the tundra: by destroying young trees, they did not allow the forest to grow. Now that they are all extinct, the taiga should supposedly begin to attack the tundra at a faster pace.
It is assumed that several tens of millions of mammoths lived on Earth and their appetites were no more moderate than those of Indian elephants. Bison, which occupied end of the XVIII centuries, a less limited area than mammoths in glacial times, inhabited the American forests and prairies, apparently in the amount of about 60 million heads! There were twice as many of them there at that time as there were people.
Dimitry Maslodudov became head of the region's forestry sector only in January of this year. Over the past 8 months, he became acquainted with the “inheritance” that he had inherited and agreed to talk about the problems he saw and the tasks that stem from them to the AiF-Krasnoyarsk correspondent.
"Long Potato"
Mikhail Markovich, correspondent "AiF-Krasnoyarsk": Dimitry Alexandrovich, any resident of the region knows from childhood that “the forest is our wealth”, that we live in the middle of the “green sea of taiga”. But these are well-established cliches, but how would you characterize current state forests Krasnoyarsk Territory?
Photo: Administration of the Krasnoyarsk Territory
Dimitry Maslodudov: To imagine the real state of our industry, you need to know a few numbers. Forests occupy almost 70% of the territory of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In terms of area, the region is in 2nd place in the country. We have about 4% of the world's timber reserves! This is if we talk about our wealth. As for the state of the forests in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the picture here is not so joyful. We have the concept of “forestry management”. This is a system of government measures aimed at ensuring rational use, increasing productivity, reproduction, conservation and protection of forests. So, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, only 10% of the area in the zone of intensively used forests has current forest management materials. This problem goes back to 2007, when forestry management powers were transferred to regional level. Since then, financing of forest management works from federal budget is completely formal.
About ten years ago I interviewed the head of one of the forestry departments. He then gave an interesting analogy: “A tree is the same as a potato, only it takes a long time to grow. Plant it on time, take care of it, and you will receive an inexhaustible valuable resource.” Are you talking about this?
Rough, but similar. Nowadays, reforestation is named by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a priority. The head of state calls to remember this work. And in our region, over the past 10-15 years, the principle of wasteful forest management has not been observed at all. The forest fund was considered as a source economic benefit, and momentary. But few people have thought about replenishing such a resource as wood. Now we are just beginning to take steps to restore our forest nurseries (there are 28 of them in the region). Today, 4% (!) of forest reproduction work is carried out through artificial restoration. The industry faces a very serious task - to increase this figure multiple times over the next 3-4 years and reach a volume of 30-40%.
Investment interest
- Solving large-scale problems is impossible without appropriate funding. Where will the LPK get money from?
This is where I don't see anyone like that serious problems. Investors are showing interest in the forestry industry in our region. Let me give you one figure: in 2017, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the volume of investments in the woodworking sector increased more than 3 times: from 2.7 billion rubles to 8.4 billion. Today, the Krasnoyarsk Territory is one of the leaders among Russian regions in the number of priority investment projects being implemented in the field of forest development. Over the past 4 years, we have already successfully completed 5 such projects: factories for the production of lumber, pellets, and plywood have been built and are operating. Another 11 are under implementation. The total planned volume of their investments is 132 billion rubles. A number of projects are at the approval stage. Separately, I would like to note that the requirements for investors have been seriously tightened, both at the federal and regional levels. We control all implementation deadlines, quarterly review and analyze each project, conduct on-site inspections, during which we check on the spot whether the reports correspond to the real actions of investors.
Given such strong investment support, where do you plan to focus your main efforts to restore order in the industry?
I think that the main vectors for the development of timber industry will be deep processing of wood and maximum efficient use timber resource base. By the way, the issue of efficiency is perhaps more important and multifaceted here. We need to make better use of wood waste - both from logging and wood processing. Currently, only about 20% of such waste is recycled in the region.
Silkworm problem
Speaking about the forest, one cannot help but recall its natural enemies. Since 2015, the region has been continuously fighting the Siberian silkworm invasion. What did you manage to do?
We managed to reverse the trend towards expansion of Siberian silkworm outbreaks. This spring, in the Yenisei and North Yenisei regions, we actually completed a campaign, unprecedented in terms of the volume of forest protection work, which was carried out in 2016-2017. In total, with the help of the latest biological and chemicals managed to process from the air and thereby protect more than 1.1 million hectares of forests, including especially valuable ones. In total, during the campaign to combat the pest, the Krasnoyarsk Territory received more than 1 billion rubles for aerial treatment of forest areas inhabited by Siberian silkworms, including 400 million from the regional budget. The effectiveness of the measures taken was 96% - several factors ensured such a good indicator: high level organization of work, compliance with production technology, processing and preparations.
And for the future, we plan to build forest chemical industry enterprises in the Yenisei region, carry out systematic scientific research for the development and implementation of new modern technologies that make it possible to obtain industrially processed products from illiquid wood, ensuring fire safety and arrangement of fire breaks in areas bordering areas of pest spread.
The most important thing for us is that the forestry industry remains one of the most important and socially significant in the region. Last year, an increase in the volume of shipped products was recorded, and most importantly, for the first time since Soviet times, the volume of timber harvested in the region increased by a quarter!
In 2018, it is planned to restore forest on an area of 62 thousand hectares in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, which is 20% more than in 2017. The volume of growing planting material will increase by 22% - up to 25 million pieces. In 2028, the volume of forest seed procurement will increase by 36%. Now the region has created a reserve of seeds of small coniferous species (5 tons) in case of lack of harvest. This is a one-and-a-half-year norm for an annual supply.
Natural natural enemies Forests, like any living organism, are subject to pests and diseases, which the forest successfully copes with if its growing conditions are not disturbed.
Such a formidable pest as the gypsy moth periodically appears where plantings have been weakened in the past by intensive logging, fires or excessive grazing. Such areas in Crimea are the southern and southeastern slopes of the mountains with their harsh forest conditions.
In the mid-80s of the last century, the gypsy moth outbreak spread over an area of 50 thousand hectares, 8 helicopters and 2 airplanes were simultaneously lifted into the air, naturally, the outbreak was localized and eliminated.
The role of forests in Crimea is invaluable; mountain forests perform important water and soil protection functions, and this is their main purpose in the life of the peninsula. Forest provides ecological balance everyone natural processes, creates a unique climate for which the South Coast is so famous.
In the recent past, our region was called the “All-Union Health Resort”, attracted, and still attracts thousands of tourists, including from foreign countries. Unfortunately, our forests are accessible and vulnerable; the value of Crimean timber led to massive logging in the past, and even now the ax constantly threatens unique plantings.
One of worst enemies the forest is fire, in individual years Crimean foresters and fire fighters from the Ministry of Emergency Situations eliminate more than 200 fires, and, as a rule, 99% of these fires are caused by careless and sometimes criminal behavior of people in the forest.
Next to fires in terms of threat is unregulated grazing of livestock on mountain slopes, especially goats.
Unregulated logging, forest fires, grazing on mountain slopes - all this occurs due to human fault, and we can conclude that one of the worst enemies of the forest is man himself.
At the same time, every 4 hectares of forests in Crimea are grown by humans. One person, in violation of fire safety rules, is lighting coniferous forest fire, throws away an unextinguished cigarette butt, and hundreds of people extinguish the fire that has arisen, sometimes risking their lives.
Studying archival materials on 200 years of forestry in Crimea, you come to the conclusion that negative impact on Crimean nature in the last decade has become clearly threatening. Never before have the barbaric procurement of Red Book plants been carried out so intensively, and even more so they have not been dug up and taken away from the forest along with roots, bulbs and soil.
Removal of household waste into the forest, squatting of forest areas, uprooting and felling of trees, poaching, unauthorized grazing of livestock, fires - far from full list forest violations that the state forest guard has to deal with.
Unsatisfactory financing of forestry has led to a sharp reduction in reforestation work, construction of forest roads, and the volume of sanitary felling.
Indifference and greed are the main enemies of the forest. Until each of us realizes our responsibility to nature and behaves when visiting the forest with full responsibility for its fate, there will be no changes for the better.
Project goals and objectives:
Identifying the influence of wildlife on our forest;
Identify the positive and negative roles of insects;
Get acquainted with the insects most harmful to the forest;
Develop a caring attitude towards nature, towards your land;
Learn to systematize and use observational material;
Draw certain conclusions and suggestions on issues of interest.
Introduction
“I praise the miracle of miracles -
Dear Forest, Green Forest!
R.Luka
Currently, there are a lot of environmental problems. I, like many others, love nature and think about its condition, health, and protection.
We live in the beautiful village of Korzhovka, which is surrounded by forest. When caring for nature, we must first of all take care of what surrounds us. I consider caring for the forest a top priority. After all, if the forest dies, it will be bad not only for birds, animals, rodents, insects, but also for us - people.
Therefore, I chose the theme of my project “Enemies and friends of our forest.” this work I was very interested in it, I learned a lot of new and interesting things.
Materials and methods
Studying the forest, we are convinced that its fauna is diverse, it is connected with local natural conditions, age and composition of forest plantations, their undergrowth, ground cover, as well as economic activity person. Animal world influences the soil, forest growth and durability, fruiting, seed distribution, change of tree species others.
Exclusively big role Insects play a role in the life of the forest, and their role can be both positive and negative. Ants are very useful for the forest: one nest of them can destroy up to 10 million within a year. harmful insects. Where there are ants in large quantities, the forest grows healthy. Many larvae and caterpillars of forest pests are destroyed by weaver spiders and cross spiders. The role of bees and bumblebees in cross-pollination of plants is well known. However, many insects - butterflies and beetles, mainly in the stage of caterpillars or larvae, cause enormous harm to the forest, sometimes being the scourge of tree nurseries, forest crops, valuable oak and other plantings.
Insects that attack healthy trees and eat leaves and roots are called primary pests, while insects that attack weakened trees and eat bark or wood are called secondary pests.
Particularly dangerous are leaf-eating primary pests: the gypsy moth, which is extremely polyphagous and is found on a wide variety of deciduous trees, especially oak. May beetle causes great harm to plants; its voracious larvae, developing in the soil for 3 years, eat up the roots of plants.
Secondary forest pests include bark beetles, longhorn beetles, and pine beetles (deciduous tree pests). Of the various forest pests, insects make up the bulk of its most dangerous enemies.
Hot and dry weather, extreme fertility, and the absence of birds - enemies of insects - contribute to the massive appearance of primary pests. The spread of secondary pests is associated with the weakening of tree stands due to forest damage by primary pests, fires, logging, and lack of proper control of forest pests.
In some years, pests multiply so abundantly that they sometimes destroy the foliage of trees over large areas, causing the trees to weaken and often dry out.
Forest insects
Let’s get acquainted at least briefly with the insects most harmful to the forest; what butterflies look like, their eggs and caterpillars, beetles and their larvae, what time of year they appear.
Gypsy moth. Female butterflies are larger than males (50-70mm), dirty white wings with black lines. Male butterflies are 45 mm, the upper wings are brownish-gray with stripes and fringe. They fly in July–August in the evening and during the day. Females lay up to 1000 downy eggs, in clusters of several hundred, mainly in the lower part of the trunks. In the fall, 16-legged caterpillars develop in the eggs and overwinter in the eggs. In the spring, the eggs hatch into very hairy caterpillars that are easily dispersed by the wind. Crawling across the crown, the caterpillars eat buds and blossoming leaves. In autumn they reach 70-75 mm in length. The caterpillar is grayish, densely hairy. Hairs piercing a person's skin cause itching. During the growth period, the caterpillars molt 4-5 times, by the end of August pupation occurs, and after 2-3 weeks a new generation of butterflies emerge from the pupae.
Fig. 1. Gypsy moth: 1 – female; 2 – male; 3 – laying of eggs; 4 – caterpillar; 5 – pupa.
Oak traveling silkworm. The butterfly is yellowish-gray, up to 30 mm long. Flies in August–September. Lays up to 200 disc-shaped eggs with a diameter of 1 mm on oak bark. groups of several rows in the form of a rectangle, covering them with a transparent, quickly hardening liquid. The eggs overwinter; in May, grayish-colored caterpillars emerge from them white, covered with long white hairs. The caterpillars have red-brown spots on their bodies. Silkworms form web nests on oak trees and destroy their foliage. When there is a lack of food, it makes mass “hikes” - invasions of other oak forests, for which it received the name marching.
Willow silkworm. Damages willow, poplar, hazel and other deciduous trees. A butterfly with silky white wings, their span is 40-55mm. Oviposition is 1-3 cm, each contains up to 50 eggs. The caterpillars reach a length of 50 mm.
The caterpillars are yellowish in color with red warts and yellow stripes and emerge in the spring, spreading across the crowns. Pupation occurs in early June. The pupa is shiny black with white spots and tufts of yellow hairs. Butterflies emerge in June-July.
Rice. 2 Willow silkworm. 1 - butterflies; 2 – laying of eggs; 3 – caterpillar; 4 - doll.
Goldentail. Damages deciduous trees, especially oak. The butterfly is snow-white, with a silky sheen, wingspan 30-40 mm. The butterfly flies in July in the evenings and at night, willingly flying into the light. Females lay up to 300 eggs in a heap, usually on the underside of leaves, densely covering the clutch with golden fluff. After 2-3 weeks, 16-legged caterpillars emerge from the clutch of eggs, crawl along the crown and eat away the upper skin of the leaves, making holes in them. They overwinter in nests made from leaves, covering them with dirty gray cobwebs. Several hundred and sometimes thousands of young caterpillars gather in one nest. In early spring, even before the leaves bloom, the caterpillars emerge from their nests and damage the buds, and then gnaw leaves, young shoots and even fruit ovaries. The length of an adult caterpillar is up to 45 mm. The caterpillars are covered with yellow-brown hairs and have a double reddish stripe running along their backs. During development they molt 6 times. The caterpillars pupate in early June, and after 3-4 weeks the new generation of butterflies emerge from the pupae.
Fig.3. Goldentail.1 – female; 2 – laying of eggs; 3 – caterpillar; 4 – pupa.
Winter moth. The male butterfly has a wingspan of 20 -25 mm, yellow - gray. The female has rudimentary wings and cannot fly. Male butterflies fly in the evenings and at night in late autumn. Females lay up to 350 eggs (one, two, in groups) in crevices in the bark, on young shoots, and buds. At first the testicles are bluish-green, then they become yellowish-red. At the beginning of May, 10-legged caterpillars emerge from them, eat the buds, and then eat the blossoming leaves, rolling them into tubes like a web and hiding in them. The adult caterpillar is up to 20 mm long, light green, with three lateral white lines on each side. It crawls, arching its body upward. In the first half of summer, adult caterpillars descend on cobwebs from branches into the soil, where they pupate at a depth of 10 cm.
Forest apple and pear trees are affected by the codling moth butterfly, which is ubiquitous. Its caterpillars develop in apples. They overwinter in dense cocoons under the remaining bark of trees, in cracks in supports. They pupate in the spring. Butterflies appear in early summer after the apple trees bloom.
Fig.4. Winter moth.1 – female; 2 – male; 3 – egg laying; 4 – caterpillar.
Apple flower beetle lays eggs in the buds of apple blossoms. The larvae emerging from the eggs bite into the bud and feed on the ovary and stamens. Damaged buds do not bloom. Larvae pupate inside the buds.
Common insect pests of forests include May beetles, bark beetles, longhorned beetles.
May beetles live for about a month. They eat leaves and flowers of trees and shrubs. Particularly dangerous are the larvae that develop in the soil for 3-4 years.
Everyone knows ants. There are several species of them in our fauna, including the very useful large red ant. Ants of an average-sized anthill can destroy more than 30 thousand caterpillars in one day, and up to 2 million in a season.
Benefits of amphibians
The benefits of amphibians (common toads, lake and pond frogs) and reptiles (spin lizards, grass snakes, snakes) in the fight against harmful insects are also significant, but they are often underestimated by the population, and these animals are undeservedly destroyed. More than 10 species of insects are found in the stomachs of toads, including darkling beetles, click beetles, longhorned beetles, crickets and grasshoppers. Snakes destroy in large quantities mouse-like rodents.
Rice. Grass frog.
Birds of the forest
One of the significant regulators of the number of pests in nature is birds, which, unlike beneficial insects, amphibians and reptiles, destroy pests throughout the year. Most of them belong to the passerine order, of which tits, warblers, warblers, wrens, and orioles are especially useful. A family of great tits protects up to 20 trees from pests, and a pair of starlings nesting on the edge of the forest during the feeding period brings up to 8 thousand May beetle larvae and other large insects to their chicks. Kinglets collect food in the summer exclusively in the paws of spruce trees, and occasionally pine trees, usually at a height of 8-10 meters from the ground. The basis of the food ration of adult individuals is Homoptera (73.5%), represented almost exclusively by psyllids.
They bring a lot of benefitscuckoos and woodpeckers . Particular attention should be paid to securityowls and raptors diurnal birds . The point is that in last years There is a sharp decline in the number of these birds, and the use of pesticides, which directly lead to their death or chronic poisoning, is of no small importance in this. In the eggs of birds of prey, the shell becomes thinner, proper metabolism is disrupted, and other physiological and biochemical disorders occur, as a result of which the embryo dies while still in the egg or shortly after hatching. With a decrease in the number of owls and daytime birds of prey, the number of pests is suppressed in to a lesser extent, and they cause significant harm forest plantations. But the kestrel, for example, feeds mainly on mouse-like rodents and large insects (May beetles, dung beetles and others). In the “mouse years” the buzzard feeds mainly on rodents, and in the “non-mouse years” the percentage of large insects in its diet increases significantly.
The Scops Owl owl is very useful, as it hunts not only in the forest, but also on open places– clearings or meadows adjacent to the forest. This small bird destroys a lot of beetles, lumberjacks, click beetles, and moths. The main diet of the tawny owl consists of rodents (up to 85%) and insects (10%), of which it eats most of the May beetles, lumberjacks, forest dung beetles, and sometimes tape caterpillars and poplar hawk moths. Moreover, the number of these owls strongly depends on the number of rodents - their main food. The preservation of hollow trees in the forest, which are very often destroyed when caring for the forest, is also of great importance. Owls populate artificial nesting sites very rarely.
Invaluable assistance in protecting forest resources is provided byinsectivorous birds and small feathered predators . They are the most active natural enemies of harmful insects, destroying them at various stages of development in huge quantities, especially during the period of feeding their voracious chicks. Birds that are very useful for the forest include: tits, woodpeckers, starlings, pikas, flycatchers - pieds, cuckoos, morning dawns, rollers, jays, wrens. Swallows, siskins, goldfinches, larks and many other birds also feed on insects. Many harmful rodents and large insects destroy small ones predator birds: buzzard, falcon, small falcon - kestrel, many owls - these are the most useful of birds of prey.
A tit eats as many insects per day as it weighs. The chicks of some insectivorous birds are capable of doubling their weight in 2-3 days. You can imagine how many different insects their parents need to get to ensure such a gain in weight for their voracious young. Small birds, such as pied flycatchers and their chicks, destroy 500 or more eggs of future harmful caterpillars per day. These miniature birds sometimes completely eliminate outbreaks of such dangerous pests, like pine and other cutworms, moths.
The main food of starlings in the forest is the gypsy moth, goldentail, mayweed, moths and many other pests, which these birds, appearing in flocks, often completely destroy.
Woodpeckers actively destroy the worst enemies of the forest - various types bark beetles, as well as large larvae of golden beetles, longhorned beetles, living under the bark and in wood and inaccessible to other species of birds.
Cuckoos, which come to us from hot countries for 4-5 summer months, are one of the most useful birds for the forest. They destroy a lot of hairy caterpillars of various silkworms, lacewings, moths, exterminate May beetles and many other dangerous pests. The undoubted great benefit of the cuckoo is reduced by the fact that it lays its eggs in the nests of small insectivorous birds. Cuckoo chicks, growing up, throw out the chicks of their adoptive parents and thereby cause harm, especially to young steppe forest plantations, where there are still few valuable insectivorous birds.
Many forest birds feed on seeds and fruits of tree species for some part of the year. And if in in some cases Birds feeding on the seeds of trees and shrubs during the difficult autumn-winter period causes known damage to the forest; then, by destroying a lot of harmful insects in the spring and summer, they repay our green friend a hundredfold for his help.
At the same time, birds, feeding on the seeds of forest plants, bring great benefits as sowers of the forest. By dropping tree seeds, birds help spread them. Jays carry heavy acorns for many kilometers.
Goldfinches, larks, bullfinches, gray partridges and many other birds are of considerable benefit, exterminating great amount harmful weeds and thus preventing their spread.
Some birds along with great benefit, brought by their tireless activity to exterminate insects dangerous to the forest, also cause harm. For example, rooks, settling in entire colonies on tall trees the most diverse species (in forests, usually bordering vast fields, meadows or steppes), breaking shoots for building nests and constantly polluting branches and leaves with droppings, spoil nesting trees to such an extent that they sometimes die.
In turn, the forest does not remain in debt to its feathered friends. He gives them shelter and food. The huge role of birds in the life of the forest is reflected in popular saying: “A forest without birds and birds cannot live without a forest.”
Goshawk, Sparrowhawk, Marsh Harrier and some others large predators They exterminate birds useful to the forest. But it must be said that this harm is relative, since predators are quite rare. After all, the hunting area, for example, of a goshawk has up to 8 km. Within radius. It is clear that there are a lot of birds in such a huge area, and the percentage of their extermination by the goshawk is very small. In addition, there is a biological law according to which victims adapt to the predator in such a way that the predator cannot catch an absolutely healthy victim; it catches a sick, weakened victim, performing the role of an orderly. As an illustration of this, the following example can be given: by decree of the Norwegian government, it was decided to destroy all predators that feed on the ptarmigan in order to stop the decline in its numbers. As a result, after a few years, almost all white partridges died out from frost diseases. The task of man is not to destroy predators, but to intelligently regulate their numbers.
Most of our feathered friends fly to warm countries. Starlings, blackbirds, dawns, warblers, finches, and wagtails winter in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy; flycatchers, orioles, nightjars, nightingales - in Africa. Siskins, bullfinches, waxwings and tap dancers come to us for the winter from higher latitudes. IN middle lane About 15 species winter northern birds. Our sedentary insectivorous birds: woodpeckers, tits, nuthatches, pikas, crossbills, kinglets. These birds that constantly live with us in winter often do not have enough food, and only feeding saves them from hunger and death. Tits, which produce two or even three broods, die especially often without feeding.
Wood grouse, black grouse and hazel grouse, which are of commercial importance, lead a sedentary lifestyle. They also contribute to the spread of seeds of shrubs and berries.
The following nests are built in hollows of trees and stumps: woodpeckers, starlings, pikas, nuthatches, tits, flycatchers, redstarts, whirligigs, rollers, long-eared owls, tawny owls, barn owls, scops owls, wood pigeons (clint owls) and other birds.
Orioles, finches and jays, as well as well-known ones, useful not only for Agriculture, but also for the forest, rooks nest in trees. Inhabitants of bushes and undergrowth - warblers, thrushes, nightingales make nests in bushes. Very often you can see the nests of blackbirds, songbirds and nightingales in piles of cut brushwood. Buntings and nightjars make nests directly on the ground.
To attract hollow nesting birds, nest boxes are hung in the forests. During protective afforestation, shrubs are planted, artificial nests are created, and water bodies are provided.
Benefits of mammals
Some can also provide significant assistance in the fight against forest pests.mammals : moles, hedgehogs, shrews, the bats, caresses and others. They destroy mouse-like rodents and harmful insects. For example, the mole is the only exterminator of soil pests.
conclusions
Effective protection Controlling forests from pests is possible only if all natural enemies of the forest from the animal world are used for this purpose. Therefore, when carrying out forestry work, you should always remember to preserve the habitats of our assistants from the animal world. It is also necessary to scientifically and educationally promote nature conservation among the population, especially among the younger generation, to involve the public in carrying out various biotechnical activities in the forest.
Fig. 6. Hedgehog. Fig. 7. Mole
Benefits of beetles
Many harmful insects are destroyed by beetles - ground beetles. Bugs with funny names " ladybug"(seven-spotted) destroy a lot of harmful aphids on trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, preventing the massive spread of these unusually prolific pests. The offspring of one aphid, if it survived, would cover the entire globe in a year.
Fig. 8. Ladybugs of different types. Fig. 9. Ground beetle.
Damage caused by rodents
Mice cause great damage to plantings. They gnaw the bark of young trees, eat thin shoots and buds, and destroy the seeds of many trees. But these same rodents also bring some benefit in that, storing fruits and seeds for the winter, they often lose them on the way to their burrows and thereby contribute to the spread of shrubs and trees.
Fig. 10. Rodents.
Benefits of animals
Foxes and badgers are very useful for the forest, destroying rodents; They also eat May beetle larvae, extracting them from the upper layers of the soil. Small predatory animals, weasels, are no less useful.
Hedgehogs are very useful, destroying mice and feeding on the larvae of forest pests. Hares damage the forest by gnawing the tops and bark of young oak trees.
Fig. 11. Fox.
Our observations
Tits fly to human habitation in winter, it is easier to feed here and inspect all the trunks and branches of trees.
Crows drop nuts from above onto the asphalt so that they break, and then take them to a secluded place and eat.
In autumn and winter, woodpeckers, jays and crows themselves fly to visit us - home, if anyone has trees walnut or hazelnuts (hazel) and, without hesitation, but often looking around, feast on nuts. The nuts are either crushed, inserted in half into the branch of the branches, or a hole is hollowed out and a delicacy is taken out, and jays and crows lose the nuts in the gardens, so they plant trees.
When examining an area of approximately 1.5 hectares of forest, only one anthill was found near a poplar stump; its height was 52 cm on September 20, 2005.
On an area of 100 m2 one tree (wild apple tree) whose bark was damaged by rodents was discovered (observation was carried out on January 9, 2006) and two willow trees growing along the river.
In the forest area to the left of the bridge near the village. In Selivanovka, 21 oak trees were damaged by gypsy moth larvae, and the foliage was destroyed (observations dated August 14).
Our affairs
Several decades ago, almost no work was done to reduce the number of insects that harm forestry. Church ministers called for salvation from these disasters through prayers. Nowadays, a powerful network of special institutions for plant protection has been created, and various methods have been developed to reduce the number of insect pests. The simplest of them are mechanical.
In cases of severe spread of insect pests, use chemical methods: pollination and spraying of plants with toxic substances. Chemical methods are used very carefully, since beneficial insects and birds that have eaten poisoned insects may die along with the pests.
In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to biological methods pest control: protection and attraction of insectivorous birds, bats, breeding of insects - natural enemies of insects - pests, use of biological preparations, causing diseases insects insect diseases. The highest results in reducing the number of insect pests are obtained with the correct combination of mechanical, agrotechnical, chemical and biological methods.
In the harsh winter, birds die not from cold, but large ones from hunger, because it is difficult to find food under the snow or in the icy bark of trees. We brought them gifts in plastic bottles - feeders. These are seeds, millet, millet, unsalted lard, meat, crushed wheat, bread. And under New Year They decorated the bushes with food, like a Christmas tree with toys.
Conclusions and offers:
Create a network of special institutions for plant protection;
Develop various methods to reduce the number of insect pests;
Use chemical methods for pollination and spraying of plants;
Pay attention to biological methods of pest control;
Help birds in the winter season (make feeders, feed them);
Involve the population to implement measures aimed at protecting nature;
Use funds mass media to draw attention to environmental problems nature
Literature
"For schoolchildren about the forest." T.G. Zorina, publishing house "Forest Industry", Moscow, 1967.
Annual magazine “Forest and Man”, publishing house “Forest Industry”, Moscow, 1984.
“Forest is the wealth of our country.” L.A. Alferov, Moscow, “Knowledge” publication, 1963.
"Forest Life" S.I. Ognev, Moscow, Nauka publishing house, 1964.
Encyclopedia “I explore the world.” Moscow, publishing house "Prosveshchenie", 1999
Encyclopedia “What is it? Who it?". Moscow, publishing house "Prosveshchenie", 1995
“Birds and forest pests” by A.N. Formozov. Moscow, publishing house "Nauka", 1983
