Useful garden insects. Pests of the garden and vegetable garden: photos, names and breeding tips. What are the benefits and harms of frogs

In the struggle for the harvest in the garden plot, apart from you, numerous small, but very important creatures participate daily - useful and harmful bugs, mites, butterflies, spiders, bugs, aphids and others. In a word - a variety of arthropods.

Some should be driven out of the garden and fought in every possible way if we want our plants to feel good, but others should create all the conditions for a favorable existence - they can bring a lot of benefits.

How to figure out who is who and what to do with them? We will help.

garden pests

We have already written in detail about the pests of each particular garden crop: about the "enemies" of potatoes, cabbage, beets, parsley. And also about effective methods of dealing with them.

But there are also polyphagous garden pests - insects that can damage and destroy plants from different families. Such pest beetles are the most dangerous (we agree that for brevity, under the conditional name of useful and harmful "beetles", later in the article we will mean all arthropod inhabitants of the garden, specifying their species if necessary).

These are, for example, aphids - cotton and potato. They feed on plant sap, while secreting thick honeydew (honeydew), interfering with the normal life of plants. In addition, many of their species are able to spread diseases in the form of viruses and contribute to the formation of various pathological anomalies in plants (like galls).

These are various beetles. For example, the well-known potato, pumpkin and eggplant pests, the Colorado potato beetle. Or the click beetle, which is not dangerous in itself - its wireworm larvae are harmful, devouring the tubers, roots and bases of the stems of many plants. Or kravchik (golovach), which "cuts" the leaves and young shoots of corn, sunflower and other vegetables.

This is a spider mite that covers the foliage of many vegetable crops with a thin cobweb film, which prevents the plant from growing and functioning normally.

These are various scoops, perforated leaves, and sometimes stalks of tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, potato tubers, root crops of carrots and beets.

These are leafhoppers (slobbering pennitsy), which destroy the leaves and ovaries of almost all garden plants.

These are thrips, whose activity leads to the withering of plants and the deformation of their fruits.

These are miners digging oblong passages in the leaves of legumes, cucumbers and tomatoes.

These are whiteflies - greenhouse, tobacco, etc. - whose work is visible on the beds in the form of yellowed, spotty, withered, and then fallen leaves.

This is a terrible bear, from which all summer residents groan, watching how a huge insect digs passages in the soil in the garden, simultaneously gnawing all the underground parts of the plants encountered on the way.

True, the above is already enough to seriously take care of the health and safety of your garden?

Some of these small creatures are involved in the pollination of plants. These are all kinds of bees, butterflies, bumblebees, flies, beetles. Today we will talk about "biological weapons" - beetles that help us fight their harmful counterparts. These miniature crop-protecting helpers, when given the right amount, can be an alternative to the expensive and dangerous chemicals often used to control pests. It has been experimentally proven that with a balanced species composition of arthropods in the area, beetles useful for the garden can destroy up to 40% of harmful beetles. Let's get to know the "rescuers" better, learn how to recognize them outwardly and attract them to your garden.

Coleoptera

It is this detachment of insects that are real beetles. Their lower membranous wings, designed for flight, are covered by upper leathery or hard elytra.

Ladybug

These spotted predatory "round" bugs with yellow and red backs are familiar to everyone, even a baby, thanks to their elegant appearance. They are distributed all over the world, only in our latitudes there are 50-60 species of them.

Both adult insects and their larvae in the garden plot actively destroy aphids, suckers, scale insects. Beetles eat several dozen a day, and larvae - several hundred aphids! With the end of the warm season, ladybugs hide for the winter under the bark or fallen leaves, and in the spring they get out and again take up their useful activities.

Ground beetle

Not all representatives of this large family of beetles are useful for the garden. For example, the ground beetle is an economically significant pest.

But in the overwhelming majority, these large, elegant, shiny and fast beetles are precisely the defenders of garden plants, actively eating small slugs, as well as eggs, larvae, pupae and adults of many harmful insects. So, a ground beetle can destroy about 100 larvae or 5-10 caterpillars per day, depending on their size.

Beetle-"fireman", or soft-boiled

This elongated red and black beetle with powerful jaws is also a representative of the garden fauna, familiar to many. Adults destroy many small pests, and the larvae of the "fireman" beetle eat their larvae and eggs, respectively, and in an unusual way - first treating the victim from the outside with their digestive enzyme, and then sucking out its contents.

With a lack of animal food or an overabundance of these beetles in the area, they can switch to eating plant foods and begin to damage buds and leaves.

Diptera

Larvae flies-tahin or hedgehog they are distinguished by a rich "menu" - in their diet there is a huge number of pest species of the garden (leafworms, sawflies, moths, silkworms, moths, bedbugs, Colorado beetles, etc.). The larvae enter the body of the host in different ways. Some types of tahini lay their eggs on the leaves, which are then eaten by pest caterpillars, others directly into the body of the insect, and third larvae independently find the host and literally bite into it.

The effectiveness of this formidable helper in the garden is enhanced by the fact that the barnacles lay a large number of eggs.

arachnids

First of all, they are carnivores. mites of the family Phytoseiidae: phytoseiulus, amblyseius, neoseiolus and others.

Such predators eat up to 20 adult phytophagous pests per day (mostly other types of mites, such as spider mites). Due to their high efficiency, many types of phytoseiids are intensively used by humans in the process of biological protection of vegetable and flower crops both in open ground and in greenhouses and greenhouses.

Reptiles

lacewings- very graceful yellow-green insects with large openwork wings and bulging compound eyes. It is not they themselves that are dangerous for pests, but their larvae, menacingly nicknamed "mouth lions" for actively hunting small insects - aphids, mealybugs, etc. In a day, such a glutton can destroy up to 150 aphids or up to 50 small ticks. 1-2 generations of lacewings appear per year, in each larvae develop for about 2-3 weeks, all this time engaged in the fight against pests in your area.

Larvae of some species of lacewings during the hunt are specially masked from ants, which often guard aphid colonies. They throw various plant remains on their backs, empty aphid skins and wax threads plucked from them.

Hymenoptera

These insects can be used to control dozens of types of garden pests. Mass reproduction of trichograms is even put on an industrial basis, and you can buy these little helpers in specialized laboratories. And the fact that the help will be valuable, do not doubt - one female Trichogramma released onto the site can damage up to 1000 eggs of a pest insect.

Hemiptera

In this detachment, in terms of benefits for the garden, we are interested in active and "long-legged" predator bugs(anthokoris, orius, nabis, perillus), which are able to successfully fight thrips, miners, spider mites, Colorado potato beetle and sawfly beetle, small caterpillars, as well as other pests.

So, anthocoris bug per day can destroy up to 100 apple mites or a large clutch (more than 100 eggs) of a spider mite or sawfly beetle. The larvae of these bugs, although slightly inferior to them in voracity, also actively help to "care" for the garden.

Leatheroptera

Earwigs. These unusual species of insects with powerful "mites" at the end of the body have a lot of species, some of which are predatory. They hunt at night and prefer sedentary invertebrates like aphids and small spider mites at all stages of development. At the same time, the earwig can easily harm bees by climbing into hives and eating honey, as well as damaging the tender parts of young plants. Usually this insect chooses fallen, rotten fruits and stems, however, with irregular reproduction, it can cause significant damage to gardening, turning into a pest.

Of course, we have not mentioned all the useful beetles that help us save the crop. There are also a variety of spiders - a thunderstorm of meadow moths, many types of moths, the Colorado potato beetle, turtles. There are ants - if their number on the site is not excessive, the inhabitants of one anthill per year can destroy up to 20 million garden pests. There are wasps, many of which prey on caterpillars of other harmful insects. There are hoverflies, whose predatory larvae feed on psyllids and aphids. There are forest bugs that absorb aphids, spider mite eggs and gall midge larvae. There are powerful ktyri that can exterminate the largest insects and pest caterpillars.

How to attract beneficial beetles to the garden

Unfortunately, in a garden plot, the total population of beneficial arthropods is usually less than the number of harmful beetles. Therefore, it would be nice to engage in attracting the first to visit us, creating favorable conditions for them to live and eat.

To begin with, it is worth planting nectar-bearing flowers along the perimeter of the beds - this will allow predatory insects to carry out additional nutrition at different stages of reproduction. At the same time, selected plants should be planted so that they bloom for a long time, replacing each other.

Of the nectar carriers that effectively cope with their task, we can recommend:

• tansy
• hypericum,
• sweet clover,
• marigold,
• calendula,
• clover,
• coriander,
• oregano,
• lupine,
• mint,
• dill,
• yarrow,
• clover,
• daisies,
• dandelions.

Please note that many of the listed plants, in addition to the main function (to attract beneficial insects), can also be useful for their other properties (greening and enrichment of the soil, accelerating the ripening of vegetable crops, raw materials for making medicinal or simply tasty drinks), not to mention that they will please the eye with their flowers.

It also helps to attract helper insects to the site by creating "houses" for them - shelters that help to survive bad weather or cold months. It can be either large hollow stems tied together and placed under a canopy (for bees, lacewings, bumblebees), or cuttings of large diameter branches with drilled holes, or even just boards laid on the ground, sprinkled with bark and leaves (for earwigs, ground beetles, centipedes).

Your voluntary assistants will also be "delighted" if you refuse pesticides on the site - after all, they suffer from them no less than beetles that are harmful to the garden.

We hope we have convinced you that by attracting and protecting beneficial insects in your garden plot, you can effectively deal with pests and get better yields. Good luck!

Birds in the garden

The owner of a garden plot, who spends most of his time in his garden, bending over in three deaths and picking in the ground, does not always notice what a hectic life is in full swing around him. His eyes and all his thoughts are riveted to the ground and to the plants, and he does not hear the singing of birds, does not see how they flutter from branch to branch or run around the beds, looking for something under the grass or lumps of soil. If, nevertheless, he would turn his attention to the birds and observe them a little, he would be quite surprised to find that a very diverse bird population lives in his garden. There are more than three dozen species of birds in the gardens. Some live here permanently and even make nests, others, having built nests in forests and meadows, fly to the garden to feed, others visit the gardens only along the way during flights in spring and autumn. The gardener would be even more surprised if he knew what a huge number of pests birds eat in his garden. Probably, then he would have immediately abandoned pesticides and started building birdhouses and titmouses.

The tree sparrow, which prevails in gardens, differs from the house sparrow in its smaller size, more elegant and thin "figure", less pugnacity, and also in color.

People have long been accustomed to consider starlings the most desirable garden bird. It is the starlings that are welcomed in every possible way, they are hung for them wherever possible, artificial houses - birdhouses. Therefore, the starlings almost forgot that they are forest birds, and moved to the apartments prepared for them. In early summer, starlings feed mainly on insects. They arrive in the spring just when garden work and digging of beds begin. Starlings run along the freshly dug up earth and deftly catch the inhabitants of the soil turned up to the surface. No matter how the larva hurries to burrow back into the saving depth, the starling turns out to be more agile and in a split second manages to grab it with its beak.

During the summer, the starling lays eggs twice. It searches for insects for feeding chicks mainly on the surface of the soil, less often on trees. Having finished feeding the chicks and gaining freedom, the starlings often form large flocks that gather to spend the night together on several nearby trees.

The same joint overnight stays in large flocks are observed in other birds living near human habitation: rooks, jackdaws, sparrows, gray crows. This is a rather important moment in the life of birds, allowing them to exchange information about the availability of food. The place of spending the night is compared with the information center. Birds that have found places rich in food, for example, places of mass reproduction of some pest or scattered grain, let you know about this by a certain behavior, and in the morning a whole flock flies after them.

Perhaps the most useful and only useful bird that does no harm is the great tit. It is almost exclusively an insectivorous bird that feeds mainly on fruit trees. Methodically examining every branch, every leaf, she destroys all the pests that live on the tree: adults, larvae, and eggs. The need for feed in titmouse is very large. She lays eggs twice a season, 7-12 at a time. Chicks are very voracious, as they grow rapidly: in 2-3 days their weight doubles. Parents have to work tirelessly to feed their offspring. During the day, they fly up to their nest with food about 400 times, destroying about 10 thousand insects during the feeding period, of which 30% are pests, including codling moth caterpillars. During the breeding season of the codling moth, sometimes whole flocks of tits appear in the gardens, flying from all the surroundings. As a result, the codling moth is exterminated almost completely. One pair of tits can clear about 40 apple trees from pests over the summer.

For the winter, tits do not fly away and continue their useful work, clearing the garden of wintering forms of pests, for example, pecking eggs of the ringed silkworm, golden tail caterpillars, etc. The great tit is a forest bird that has not yet forgotten its forest skills. She prefers to nest in her natural habitats - in the forests. She comes to gardens only to feed. Fruit trees with their sparse crown, poorly protecting the nest from bad weather, do not seem to her a reliable refuge. But if you hang a tit house in your garden, then it is possible that the titmouse will settle in it.

In autumn, tits leave their nests, unite in nomadic flocks and fly closer to human habitation in the hope of finding food.

The titmouse, which got its name from its blue cap, has a short beak like strong tweezers.

It is very convenient for them to peck small eggs of insects from the branches, to tear off scale insects that have stuck to the bark.

Gray flycatchers, coot redstarts, and white wagtails nest in or near human habitation.

From forest birds, rooks have also nailed to human habitation. For old times they make their nests in tall trees and often, like jackdaws, create large colonies numbering from a dozen to a hundred nests. Rooks feed mainly on insects, of which 50-70% are pests living in the upper layers of the soil: caterpillars of gnawing scoops, beetles, wireworms. In the stomachs of rooks, sometimes several dozen wireworms are found. The rook digs so hard in the ground with its beak that the feathers at the base of the black beak are wiped off and a characteristic light border forms. During the period of feeding chicks, a pair of rooks daily transfers 40-60 g of insects to the nest.

In the case of mass reproduction of pests in the fields or in gardens, rooks can provide invaluable assistance to a person. In large flocks, they flock to places of accumulation of insects and indulge in a feast until the garden is completely cleared. The rook is a rather large bird, and if he has an opportunity to profit from a vole, he will not miss this opportunity.

In the gardens you can also meet those birds that arrange their nests on the edges, in rare light forests, in bushes. These are the little thrush, several species of thrushes, greenfinch, goldfinch, linnet, warbler.

The sonorous trills of warblers can be heard late in the evening or at dawn, and sometimes even at night.

The gray warbler living in the bushes is an exclusively insectivorous bird and also not the last songbird.

Some of the garden birds are so-called sedentary, that is, they do not fly anywhere, and some are migratory.

The settled ones include jackdaws, gray crows, sparrows, tits, blue tit, goldfinches. In winter, they all move closer to human habitation, where there is always something to profit from. Although they look for wintering insects on the trees, they certainly lack this. And here berry bushes can become a great help to them, on which berries are preserved even in winter. Having somehow made it through the winter, in the spring these birds are in a better position than migratory ones, since early in the spring, in the absence of competition, they occupy the best nesting sites. During the summer they have time to breed two or three broods. Since mid-February, you can hear the wedding song of the titmouse. It consists of two notes and sounds like a joyful bell announcing the approach of spring (although they make nests much later).

Of the migratory birds, the rooks are the first to return. They confidently fly to their old permanent nesting sites. They are followed by starlings, also early spring birds, flying not very far for wintering - to the Crimea, to the Caucasus, although some of the starlings prefer to spend the winter in North Africa. Finches, greenfinches, wagtails, gray flycatchers, blackbirds fly away and return early. Almost later than all from afar, from Central Africa, barn swallows - killer whales arrive.

In the old days, their arrival served as a sign for the peasants that the severe morning frosts had passed and sowing could begin.

The swallows' ancestors lived in the mountains and built their nests under the ledges of the rocks. In barn swallows, this ancient instinct is expressed in the fact that they stick their nests glued together from clay and blades of grass to the walls of houses under the ledges of roofs, and sometimes even inside buildings.

Swallows can rightly be called children of the air. They spend most of their lives in flight, and do not walk on the ground at all.

And they get food in flight, grabbing mosquitoes, horseflies, flies, butterflies, small beetles, flying aphids on the fly. They also feed their chicks with this flying midge. In bad weather, when living creatures hide in shelters and do not fly, swallows are forced to starve. Because of this, their chicks grow more slowly than those of other birds, they sit in nests for up to 30 days (for other birds, 12-16 days). It is estimated that during the period of feeding chicks, one swallow consumes up to 130 g of insects, and over the summer it catches a total of 0.5-1 million midges.

In different species of garden birds, the time of laying eggs and feeding the chicks does not coincide, and as a result, it turns out that during the summer they seem to pass the baton to each other in supervising the garden and catching pests. At every moment of the summer season, birds of one kind or another are in the stage of feeding their chicks and, therefore, in the stage of increased hunting.

The attitude of birds to the Colorado potato beetle deserves special attention.

The bright color of the beetle and its larvae in itself indicates that they are inedible for birds. They have no need to hide, the birds will not touch them anyway. Once a bird tastes the Colorado potato beetle once and is convinced of its disgusting taste, it will not repeat this mistake a second time. Scientists have experimented with a large number of species of wild and domestic birds and have not found among them any that would be tempted by the Colorado potato beetle. In the Voronezh region, a family of turkeys with poults was released into a potato field, and they grazed there all day, looking for insects, but did not touch the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle, although the potato bushes were strewn with them.

American farmers, on the other hand, note that wild partridges often visit their potato fields and peck the beetle with pleasure. Obviously, an American beetle is familiar to American birds and not familiar to European ones. Indeed, in Europe, including Russia, it appeared relatively recently. True, sometimes one hears that we also have a bird that does not disdain the Colorado potato beetle - a guinea fowl, but this needs to be verified.

If you have poultry, you can conduct such an experiment: mix the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle into the feed for chickens, ducklings, etc. Maybe then they will get used to its taste and they can be released to graze on potato fields infected with a beetle.

The fact that birds protect gardens from pests has long been known, but when scientists undertook to calculate how much birds eat, the numbers turned out to be amazing. Eating insects, birds, of course, do not distinguish between harmful and beneficial ones. They eat everyone. However, studies have found that gardens are dominated by harmful insect species. For example, in one of the gardens where such studies were carried out, 70 species of insects were found in the crown of an adult apple tree, of which 71% were pests, 17% were beneficial, and the rest were so-called neutral. Therefore, in birds feeding in gardens, most of the food is pests, of which 60-90% are caterpillars and butterfly pupae, 10-30% are beetles.

Here are the results of research conducted in the gardens of Moldova. We will give only those of them that relate to the nesting period, i.e., the period of the most intensive hunting of birds for insects. So, it was estimated that there were about 2 million insects per hectare of gardens with a total weight of 250-350 kg. Of this number, birds destroyed 1.1 million insects with a total weight of 140-180 kg in three months, of which 42% were pests and 12.8% were beneficial insects. Birds ate 2-2.5 kg of insects per day. These numbers are impressive. And yet, as we see, the birds are not able to cope with the entire armada that inhabits the gardens. This is explained by the fact that even in large gardens, birds do not nest very willingly, and even more so in small garden plots. In garden plots, according to scientists, the number of nests is approximately two times less than in large gardens.

How to attract birds to your garden - this question has long occupied the minds of gardeners, and they still came up with something and even apply it. First of all, these are artificial nesting houses. In such houses, the so-called hollow-nesting birds willingly make their nests, that is, birds that naturally arrange their nests in the hollows of trees: tits, starlings, wrynecks, redstarts, flycatchers, sparrows. The most simple are titmouses, which can populate not only tits, but also other hollow nests of suitable size.

Sinichniki are made of lightly planed boards of soft wood 1-2.5 cm thick. The size of the bottom is 12x12 cm, the height from the bottom to the roof is 25 cm, the diameter of the notch is 3-3.5 cm, the distance from the notch to the bottom is 18 cm, the height of the suspension is 1- 3 m. The roof is made removable and protrudes 4 cm above the notch.

Wood or grass dust is poured at the bottom with a layer of 1.5 cm. After the end of the season, the roof is removed and the remains of the old nest are cleaned out. The letok can be round or square, facing west. Titmouses are hung at a distance of no closer than 15-20 m from each other, so as not to create competition for birds for food.

The dimensions of the birdhouses are somewhat larger: the bottom is 16x15 cm, the height from the bottom to the roof is 30 cm, the diameter of the notch is 5 cm, the distance from the notch to the bottom is 24 cm, the suspension height is 3-5 m. see Under the houses they make protection from cats from barbed wire, prickly branches or a collar made of tin.

In the first year after hanging, sparrows mainly settle in bird houses, but later they can be replaced by those for whom they are intended - starlings and other birds. Female starlings are quite belligerent and will not hesitate to drive the sparrows out of the birdhouse they have chosen and even throw out the eggs that have already been laid.

For birds that make open nests in natural conditions, the main attraction condition is hedges of shrubs of various heights, at least 2-3 m wide with uncut grass under them.

Hedges should be varied in species composition to satisfy different bird tastes, and include thorny bushes (rose hips, hawthorn, barberry, blackthorn), berry bushes and trees (goof, elderberry, shadberry, mountain ash, wild cherry and apple tree). In addition to attracting birds with food, berry bushes of wild species play another important role: they distract birds from cultivated fruit and berry plantations. Birds and humans do not have exactly the same tastes. Man prefers juicy sweet fruits, and birds love sour small game. Therefore, if enough wild birds are planted around the garden to provide food for the birds, they will not touch the cultivated trees. All bird robbery is due to a lack of food.

An American gardener tells how he was forced every year to enter into a competition with birds: who will harvest the strawberries and cherries first, and often suffered defeat, since most of it went to the birds. However, having carefully studied the habits and tastes of birds, he began to plant in his garden among fruit trees and around the garden wild berry crops that grew in those places. As a result, he received several wins at once: the birds stopped pecking at cultivated fruits and berries, wild berry crops greatly decorated the garden with their flowering, and the birds that settled in the plantations cleared the garden of pests. To this we can add that among these birds there were also songbirds, who delighted his ears all summer. And lastly, flowering shrubs attracted a lot of pollinating insects to his garden.

Berry bushes are also beneficial in that they to some extent replace the winter feeding of birds. Not all gardeners visit their gardens in winter and cannot regularly fill bird feeders. The one who can do this must ensure that the feeders are always filled, as the birds forget the empty feeders and stop coming for food. The composition of the feed includes sunflower seeds, wheat and rye grains, oats, millet, unsalted lard, pumpkin seeds, melons. Open feeders are placed under a canopy or make special feeder houses with a roof. In summer, drinking bowls with water are placed in the garden. All these measures to attract birds - artificial nests, hedges and feeders - lead to an increase in the number of birds in the garden by 1.5-2 times and, accordingly, to an increase in the number of pests eaten by them. For example, it was found that in the garden where the attraction of birds was carried out, the number of pests decreased by 50-60% in the spring.

In conclusion, we note one more detail related to birds. Empirically, scientists have found that bird singing has a beneficial effect on plants, and this coincidence is not accidental: bird trills sound loudest in late May - early June, when intensive plant growth occurs. Only males sing. Each species of bird has its own characteristic song, but the artistry of its performance depends entirely on the individual abilities of the singer. Particularly talented singers diversify their simple song with many variations, short and long trills and laps. It is noticed that with age, singers improve their singing gift. In addition to the nightingale and the aforementioned warbler-robin, whitethroats, finches, goldfinches, greenfinches, linnets can please with beautiful singing. Birds can deliver many wonderful moments and unforgettable experiences.

From the book of N.M. Zhirmunskaya "Garden without chemistry"

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Insect pests of plants are a real scourge of the garden. What measures are not taken by experienced growers to protect their plantings! Unfortunately, most methods of struggle turn out to be useless, and all because each pest needs its own “approach” - it’s enough to collect some with your hands, and you can’t do without pesticides to destroy others.

Just like people, plants can get sick. In addition, there are also numerous insect pests of plants - lovers of feasting on leaves, roots, buds and flowers. And the gardener becomes very hurt and hurt when his pets suffer from diseases and pests. How to protect the garden? The main thing is proper care, and a healthy plant can already stand up for itself. It is not difficult to deal with many pests of cultivated plants if measures are taken in time, but if this is not done through ignorance or negligence, then it will be much more difficult to defeat this scourge.

For successful control of plant pests, "enemies" need to be known in person. It is equally important to have an idea about the nature of the damage that this or that pest causes, since thrips cannot be seen without a magnifying glass, the slug hides for a day in secluded places, and many, having eaten to satiety, fly away.

You can find photos and names of plant pests, as well as their description and the most effective methods of control on this page.

The click beetle damages many flower plants, including tulips, poppies, gladioli. This is a small pest 1.5-2.5 cm long, black in color, there are striped individuals. Distributed everywhere, but most numerous and harmful on wet soils.

As you can see in the photo, the larvae of plant pests, known as the "wireworm", are narrow, long, consisting of segments, with a very dense yellow or brown shell:

They live in the ground and damage the bulbs or roots of plants, eating holes and passages in them. Fungi, bacteria settle in the damage, and the plant dies over time. For the winter, insects and larvae hide deep in the soil; in spring, when the soil warms up, they rise up.

hoverfly, or a large daffodil fly. Its larvae cause great harm to bulbs, hyacinths, and can also damage gladiolus corms, rhizomes. Larvae about 1 cm long overwinter in bulbs. These pests of plant roots eat away the bottom, and the bulb becomes soft. In the spring, weak plants with ugly, quickly yellowing leaves are formed from the affected bulbs, flowering usually does not occur. With a strong defeat, the entire inside of the bulb turns into a black rotting mass.

Root onion mite harms bulbous plants - daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, lilies, and also damages gladiolus corms and dahlia tubers. The tick is dangerous, both during the growing season and during the storage of planting material. These insect pests of cultivated plants remain in the soil on plant residues and quickly penetrate into the bulbs planted in the ground through the bottom or mechanical damage, but healthy planting material can also be affected. Pests settle between the scales and feed on juice, wear out the bottom, which becomes loose and easily peels off. At the same time, the plants develop poorly, turn yellow, wither, and with a strong colonization of the bulbs by mites, they do not germinate at all. The adult has a convex oval body up to 1 mm in size, light yellow in color, with four pairs of legs. The larvae are smaller. Females lay up to 800 eggs in bulbs. A week later, larvae appear, which develop and feed inside the bulbs within a month. Adult mites and their larvae make numerous moves, as a result of which the spent bulb can turn into dust. The pest loves heat and moisture. At humidity below 60%, the development of mites stops, they lose their mobility and go into a dormant stage. In this state, they can remain for a long time. It is very difficult to destroy the pest.

Iridescent and winter scoops- dangerous pests of bearded and, especially, Siberian irises. At the beginning of the growing season, the scoop caterpillars eat out the bases of the peduncles, and they turn yellow and dry out. These pests of garden plants are not able to “cut off” the powerful flower stalks of tall bearded irises, however, the damage they cause is sufficient for the flower stalks to be knocked down by the wind. In addition, caterpillars can also damage rhizomes, which are then easily affected by bacterial rot. In dry summers, planting irises are affected by scoops to a greater extent. Scoop caterpillars also harm bulbous plants, gnawing holes in the bulbs and eating the roots. Plants often die.

May beetle, or May beetle. This large red-brown beetle eats irregularly shaped holes on the leaves in May-June. This plant pest got its name because the years of beetles begin in May. It is dangerous for plants not so much by itself as by its thick curved larvae, more than 2.5 cm long. For several years, the larvae develop in the soil, gnawing and damaging roots or bulbs. As a result, the plant weakens and may die. In large numbers, larvae are found in organic residues, manure.

What are the main pests of cultivated bulbous plants

What other insect pests of cultivated plants cause great damage to garden plantings?

gall nematode- one of the main pests of plants, including viola, daffodils. It is a microscopic worm, invisible to the naked eye. Adult males are up to 1.5 mm long, their body shape is filiform. The females of these pests of garden plants have a pear-shaped body up to 1.3 mm long. The female lays up to 400 eggs. The larvae develop in galls - swellings on the roots of plants. Roots damaged by the gall nematode are not able to provide the plant with sufficient nutrition and water. Plants are stunted and do not bloom. Often the roots rot due to the entry of pathogens into the galls. From the galls, the pests pass into the soil and penetrate into the small roots of other plants, which also stop growing, turn yellow and often die. The gall nematode spreads better on light soils. Pests bring great losses to bulbous plants. The larvae feed on the juice of leaves and stems, and then pass into the bulb. It softens, brown rings are visible on the transverse section, the so-called "ring rot". Affected plants become smaller, the leaves turn yellow and swellings are visible on them. The development of plants is delayed, they bloom poorly, and die if severely damaged. These pests of bulbous plants penetrate healthy planting material when planted in contaminated soil, as well as during storage. If the damage reaches the bottom and extends to the rest of the scales, the bulb dies.

thrips clouds hover over their favorite "food" - gladioli and irises, leaving silver spots on flowers and leaves. The buds do not bloom well, and with severe damage, the inflorescence does not form at all. Hot and dry summers are favorable for pest reproduction. Up to 9 generations of thrips develop during the season in the southern regions. The pest can also damage planting material in storage. Thrips are especially active at temperatures above 10 °C. A sign of thrips damage is shiny crusts on corms, bulbs, or tubers. Thrips, when there are many of them, can cause great harm and even destroy planting material during storage. Thrips damages irises, gladioli, clematis, roses, less often dahlias and other crops. Small, about 1.5 mm long, barely visible to the naked eye, insects cause significant damage to garden plants. Thrips settles in the axils of the leaves. The upper surface of the leaves, damaged by many injections, acquires a silver sheen. With a large accumulation of pests, the leaves are covered with small black spots of insect excrement. As a result of severe damage, the leaves turn yellow, dry out and fall off, which adversely affects the development of the whole plant, the laying of peduncles and flowers.

Medvedka(top, cabbage, earth cancer). The pest poses a serious threat to tulips and gladioli, not averse to nibbling bulbs and other flowers. Dangerous for irises, especially in the southern regions. It can completely destroy newly planted seedlings of flyers.

Pay attention to the photo - this insect pest of plants in length reaches from 3.5 to 5 cm:

It has wings, strong movable horny jaws, strong front claws, equipped with a nail file-toothed to make it easier to dig passages in the ground. When moving in one direction, the nail file folds up and forms the sharpest spear, and in the other direction it opens at a certain angle like a saw blade and cuts the soil, and with it the roots, tubers, and bulbs. The pest easily travels underground, swims quickly in water and flies through the air. Crawling to the surface of the ground, it moves quite quickly. The "uniform" of the insect is durable, waterproof. The pest is endowed with a very subtle sense of smell. It causes the greatest harm on loose fertilized soils and in warm areas, where it can multiply in large quantities.

What do mass pests of garden plants look like?

The cabbage scoop is polyphagous. Caterpillars damage various crops. Of the flowers, daffodils, tulips, gladiolus, and dahlias are most often damaged. This is a dark brown butterfly with a wingspan of up to 5 cm. The pupae hibernate in the soil. According to the description, this insect pest looks like a moth. Butterfly flight begins in May-June and lasts for a long time. During the season, one female lays up to 1500 eggs on the lower surface of the leaves. After 2-3 weeks, caterpillars come out of them. During their development, they cause significant damage to flowering plants, gnawing holes in leaves and buds.

Khrushchi. Golden bronze and garden beetle - small beetles that eat stamens, pistils and flower petals, penetrate into buds. Because of this, the flowers become ugly, often in the form of one half.

Scoop leaf-eating- a butterfly with a wingspan of up to 3.5-4.5 cm. The front wings are yellow-brown with kidney-shaped, wedge-shaped and round spots, the hind wings are white. The caterpillars of this mass plant pest are up to 5 cm long, light green or brown-brown, with even rows of white spots with a black rim all over the body, with a bright yellow side stripe and three pale narrow ones along the back. Caterpillars feed at night, eating the petals, and during the day they hide in the depths of the flower, so they are difficult to notice.

cabbage moth- small butterfly Its years begin in the second half of May. Butterflies lay 2-4 eggs on the underside of leaves. One female can lay up to 150 eggs or more. Cabbage moth gives up to 4 generations. Very mobile, light green caterpillars with sparse hairs hatch from eggs. They eat the upper epidermis and the pulp of the leaves, leaving the lower epidermis intact, which dries up and breaks. They also eat buds and flowers.

Aphid- the most common pests of cultivated plants in the garden. Great damage is done to ornamental shrubs (viburnum, mock orange, euonymus). Small insects ranging in size from 1 to 2.5 mm have different colors: light and dark green, black, orange, reddish. Insects and their larvae settle on various parts of plants: young shoots, leaves, buds and flowers. By sucking out cell sap, they retard the growth of plants, cause deformation of leaves, peduncles, buds do not open. The leaves are covered with sticky honeydew. Sooty mushrooms can settle on the sweet secretions of aphids. Plants lose their decorative effect. During the season, aphids can give up to 17 generations; the pest breeds especially well in warm weather. When storing bulbs of tulips and gladioli, colonies of green aphids may appear under the outer scales. Damaged bulbs subsequently give weakened shoots.

Insect pests of cultivated plants and disease vectors

Meadow bug. A rather large sucking insect with a length of b mm causes damage mainly to young shoots, leaves and buds. The body of the bug is light or dark green, covered with black dots, the stripes on the sides and the tip of the abdomen are also black. Adult insects are winged, larvae are wingless, very similar to aphids. The larvae can make jumps and easily avoid danger when spraying buds. The female lays her eggs in the apical buds of plants. The hatched larvae pierce the tender skin of young leaves and buds and suck the juice from them. Damaged cultures grow ugly, with deformed inflorescences. This insect pest of plants is a carrier of diseases, including viral ones.

Naked slugs. The pest is polyphagous, damages a wide variety of flower plants, attacks vegetable crops. Naked slugs are gastropods, have a gray, brown or light yellow elongated, fusiform, mucus-covered body. In wet years, slugs multiply strongly and cause significant damage to plants. They eat oblong holes on the leaves, can eat flowers and young shoots, damage the bulbs. Slugs are nocturnal, during the day they hide under lumps of earth, large leaves, and in other secluded places. The presence of a pest is indicated by the appearance of silvery mucus on the leaves. Leaf-eating caterpillars do not leave such traces. In thickened plantings, favorable conditions are created for the reproduction of the pest. Like the onion bug, these insect pests of cultivated plants are carriers of diseases, in particular, bacteriosis.

Mammals can also pose a danger to the ornamental garden: moles, mice, rats, hares.

Look at the photo what plant pests look like - now you can recognize the “enemies in the face”:

How to protect plants from pests: ways to fight

Sometimes plants suffer less from pests and diseases than from ignorance and laziness of flower growers themselves. A careless gardener can destroy his plantings at a speed that even locusts would envy.

How to protect plants from pests and prevent hordes of insects from spreading around the site? In order for crops to develop and bloom well, it is necessary to choose the right place for planting, prepare the soil well, purchase healthy planting material and, finally, strictly follow the rules of care.

But insect pests also want to live and eat deliciously, so they rush into the gardens in slender and not very slender rows. Each region has its own specifics depending on climatic and weather conditions. In some areas there is no life from a pirating bear, someone has “devoured” everything tripe, somewhere enemy number one is bacteriosis.

An experienced florist, taking measures to combat plant pests, begins his day in the garden with an inspection of the crops. If during the next “contemplation” he notices twisted and perforated leaves, twisted shoots, mutilated buds and flowers, he will immediately understand that pests have attacked the garden. If there are few of them, you can simply pick them off with your hands or rinse with a stream of water. But if you miss this moment, a few pests will turn into hundreds and thousands, and nothing will remain of your flowers.

Remember the following rules on how to deal with pests on the site:

1. The problem is easier to prevent than to eliminate.

2. If the "invasion" has begun, do not put off the fight for an hour.

3. The devil is not so terrible as he is painted. In a single garden, it is unlikely that you will encounter more than three to five varieties of uninvited "guests".

To calm down this gang of "robbers", do not immediately grab the pesticides. There is no need to panic if you find harmful insects on plants in a small amount - slugs can be picked off with your hands, aphids can be washed off with a stream of water. Whether pests turn into a natural disaster that can only be dealt with with the help of “chemistry” largely depends on the condition of the plants and weather conditions. For example, plants weakened by lack of light become easy prey for sucking insects. Thrips multiply excessively in dry and hot weather. The task of the gardener is to do everything so that the plants are strong and healthy, because such plants are too tough for pests.

In addition, uninvited garden guests have natural enemies. There is a balance in nature: every pest has at least one opponent. Ladybugs, lacewings, predatory hover flies and silver flies are enemies of aphids. They do not refuse from leaf-eating caterpillars. Ladybugs and their larvae can destroy up to 150 aphids per day. Other beneficial insects - ichneumons - lay their eggs in living caterpillars, and their larvae eat the caterpillars alive from the inside. And, of course, birds relentlessly devour harmful bugs and caterpillars. Hedgehogs perfectly destroy the larvae of the beetle.

How to deal with insect pests: plant protection methods

In order not to disturb the natural balance, try to give preference to such means of controlling plant pests that would not harm beneficial insects and birds. The main thing in protecting plants from pests is a system of preventive measures: it is easier to prevent a disease than to treat it. The main role is given to plant care activities, from the purchase of planting material to wintering or laying in storage.

Cultural rotations prevent the accumulation of pathogens and pests in the soil and create conditions for the normal growth and development of plants. It is known that nasturtium, mustard, calendula, which release volatile substances, help cleanse the soil from infection. Therefore, planting bulbs is recommended to alternate with these summers. Plants are returned to their original site after 5-6 years.

How else to deal with plant pests in the garden? An important point is the preparation of the soil. On poorly drained, humus-poor soil, plants are more likely to get sick, grow weak and be attacked by pests. Before laying the flower garden, the site must be cleared of debris: branches, stones, chips, etc. Deep digging of the soil in the flower garden in the fall will help get rid of the larvae and eggs of harmful insects wintering in it (scoops, wireworms, earwigs). When using manure or manure, you need to be careful not to bring May beetle into the flower garden, which often settles in compost heaps. The larvae must be carefully selected and destroyed; you can feed them to chickens. Seedling boxes must be disinfected annually (with a solution of potassium permanganate or boiling water), and the ground in them must be changed (it is better to use ready-made mixtures for seedlings).

For most ornamental plants, areas with light loose soils are more suitable. Heavy acidic soils that promote the spread of fungal infections are limed. To do this, fluff lime is applied in the fall at the rate of 100-200 g per 1 m2.

If you have purchased healthy planting material, then there will be much less problems. Therefore, it is better to make purchases in specialized stores. Try to avoid dense plantings, in such conditions the plants lack nutrition and excessive moisture appears, which also leads to the reproduction of pests and pathogens. It is necessary to systematically remove weeds, as they are a reservoir for many diseases and pests. In addition, they thicken plantings and compete with cultivated plants for nutrients.

Plant residues (leaves, stems, fallen flowers) often become a haven for pests. You can not leave garbage near the plants. Carefully rake it with a rake and destroy it.

What to do if pests appear in the garden

But what if the pests still settled in your garden? Many insects can be destroyed mechanically. Beetles (bronzovka, May beetle) are collected and destroyed, and the affected buds are cut off. Aphids are washed off with a stream of water. Scoop caterpillars, click beetles and their larvae are selected when digging the soil. An excellent way to control plant pests such as click beetles and their larvae (wireworms) is to lay out baits (potato tubers). Pests drill passages in the tubers and linger in them for a while. The bait is collected and destroyed.

Baits are also used to protect plants from insect pests such as slugs. Near the plants in the aisles, bunches of dill, burdock leaves, boards, pieces of slate, wet rags are laid out, under which pests accumulate during the day. Then the pests are collected and destroyed.

From slugs, dusting the soil around the plants with superphosphate, a mixture of ash and quicklime, and shag dust helps. This should be done in the evening or early morning when the slugs are on the surface of the soil. But still the most effective means of combating - metaldehyde. Granules are scattered in places where slugs accumulate under plants (4 g per 1 m2).

There are many methods for protecting plants from bear pests:

1. Collect more eggshells during the winter, grind into powder. In the spring, during planting, moisten the powder with vegetable oil for smell and put 1 tsp in the wells. Medvedka, having tasted the bait, dies.

2. Pour the earthen passages of the pest with soapy water (4 tablespoons of washing powder in a bucket of water). Medvedka either dies underground, or crawls out to the surface, where it is easy to collect and destroy.

3. Another effective method on how to deal with bear pests is to plant marigolds along the boundaries of the site. This will prevent the insect from entering your garden from the neighboring area.

4. You can get rid of the bear with the help of infusion of chicken manure, watering the ground with it in dry weather.

5. In autumn, in the places where the bear lived, they dig trapping holes 0.5 m deep and fill them with fresh manure. The pits are located at a distance of 5 m from each other. A hill of earth is poured over the hunting pits and marked with a peg. When the cold comes and snow falls, they find the places of trapping holes by pegs and throw manure out of them to the surface. Medvedki, hiding in manure for the winter, die in the cold.

A selection of photos "Pest Control" will help you choose the most affordable way to protect plants on your site:

Plants that protect against pests in the garden

If you want to enjoy the scent of flowers rather than pesticides in your garden, it's best to use insecticidal plants to control pests. Infusions and decoctions from these plants, which protect against pests, practically do not pose a danger to humans, as well as to birds, hedgehogs, etc. They relatively quickly lose their toxic properties and do not accumulate in the soil and plants.

Wild and cultivated insecticidal plants are collected in dry, clear weather, dried in the shade. Later stored in a dark, well-ventilated area. You can prepare decoctions and infusions and immediately after collecting the plants.

After infusion or boiling, the liquid is filtered through a double layer of gauze or burlap. If the concentrated broth is drained hot and tightly corked, it can be stored in a cool room for up to 2 months. Before use, the broth is diluted to the required concentration.

When treated with infusions and decoctions of plants from pests in the garden, insects die within 3 days. After 4-6 days, the treatment must be repeated to consolidate the result.

Many flower growers plant insecticidal plants (calendula, garlic, onions) in separate groups for preventive purposes.

One of the biological methods of natural protection of plants in the garden involves the use of beneficial insects as natural enemies of harmful organisms, their study and assistance in settling in the garden and life in it. What insects are beneficial? Let's get to know them a little closer.

Froinda

Ladybug

The ladybug is a well-known beneficial insect in the garden. It belongs to round beetles and, depending on the species, is 4-9 mm long. The most common is the seven-spot ladybird. The beetle got its name for 7 black dots on the red elytra. But there are also beetles with yellow elytra and black dots, or dark beetles with light spots or without them at all. Also, the number of spots or the pattern of the wings can be varied. In total, we have about 70 species of large ladybugs, among which about 50 species feed on leafy aphids, and the rest on shell aphids and spider mites. Ladybugs, along with other leaf aphid killers, are the most important helpers in the garden.

Adult ladybugs hibernate outdoors, such as under foliage or dry grass. In spring, ladybugs lay 10-20 eggs vertically in a group on branches or on the inside of a leaf close to aphid colonies. The larvae from the eggs go through 4 stages. They are usually painted in dark gray with a yellow or red pattern. At the end of the larval stage, ladybugs begin to pupate and, as a rule, acquire a yellow color. After leaving the pupa, the beetle needs another 2-3 days before it acquires the final color. It is especially important that both the larvae and the beetles themselves belong to the species of predatory insects and feed on aphids.

The seven-spot ladybug known to us destroys up to 150 aphids per day, smaller species - up to 60. While still larvae, insects devour a total of up to 800 aphids. So, the female beetle destroys about 4 thousand adult aphids in her life.

Cesare Oppo Christian Arghius Gilles San Martin

Settlement in the garden:

• When using a ladybug as a plant protection, her development cycles should be taken into account!
• For wintering, provide an insect with a shelter (foliage, stones, bark, etc.).

Gallica

Various species of the gall midge family are better known to amateur gardeners as harmful insects (the larvae of a number of species develop in plant tissues, causing the formation of galls) than they help in pest control. The body length of gall midges varies from 1 to 5 mm. Known pests in the garden include, for example, pear gall midge.

Useful gall midges feed at the stage of aphid larvae. The most important species is Aphidoletes aphidimyza. The female (about 2-3 mm in size) lays 50-60 eggs in one life span of 1 week not far from the aphid colony. Orange-red larvae hatch on the 4-7th day. The latter bite the aphids by the legs and inject a paralyzing fluid. The bitten aphid dies and is used by the larva for food. After 2 weeks, a fully formed larva falls to the ground and turns into a cocoon on the ground. After 3 weeks, a second brood hatches, whose cocooned larvae overwinter on the ground and hatch in the spring as adults.

agralan

Settlement in the garden:

• No special conditions are required, except for the complete exclusion of the use of chemicals in the garden.

ground beetle larvae

Ground beetle larvae feed on vegetable fly eggs, small insects and their larvae, worms, and slugs. These beetles are rarely seen in the garden during the day, they hide in shelters. The length of the ground beetle is up to 4 cm, it is very mobile. Many species cannot fly and therefore are active at night. The color of the ground beetle is the most varied: large black and completely yellow shimmering species are known. Adult insects hibernate in the garden in secluded protected corners, for example, under the house or woodpile.

Large ground beetles lay 40-60 eggs separately in shallow holes in the ground. The eggs hatch into larvae after a few days and hatch, depending on the species, 2-3 years before the pupa. After a pupal period lasting approximately 2-3 weeks, adult (developed) ground beetles hatch from them. Along with ground beetles, which live mainly on the ground, there are also arboreal and flying species. They feed on small insects and worms and therefore live in decaying organic matter, such as compost.

David Ball

Settlement in the garden.

• It is necessary to provide ground beetles with shelter (foliage, sawdust and shavings, small heaps of stones), they live on open ground, sometimes hiding in earth cracks.
• Pesticides are the most terrible enemy of ground beetles!

Hoverflies

Hoverflies are of great importance in horticulture because their larvae feed on aphids. Larvae develop in different conditions - in the soil, slurry or on plants. Visually, the hoverfly looks like a wasp, the length of an adult is 8-15 mm. The peculiarity of hoverflies, reflected in their name, is that in flight they can, as it were, hover in place, while making a sound that vaguely resembles the murmur of water.

Mick Talbot

Egg laying occurs in aphid colonies. Eggs are 1 mm long and white. The larvae hatched from the eggs do not have legs and move like snails. They are white or yellow in color and look like fly larvae.

To hunt for aphids, hoverflies use their hook-shaped jaws, with which they firmly hold prey, sucking it out. The development of the larva to the pupal stage lasts 2 weeks. During this time, the larva eats up to 700 aphids. Hoverfly larvae are active mainly at night and do not go hunting until dusk. The hoverfly survives the pupal stage in a shell in the form of a droplet, located near the aphid colony on leaves or on the ground. Some species breed several generations, most - up to 5 per year. In some species, females hibernate in the same way as larvae or pupae. The hoverflies themselves feed on flower and honeydew, as well as aphid secretions.

Pauline Smith

Settlement in the garden:

• Areas with flowering plants are most suitable for hoverflies, but not well-groomed lawns. Plants that bloom with yellow flowers are especially fond of hoverflies.
• For overwintering hoverflies, you can leave small wooden boxes filled with dry grass or shavings.

Lacewing and its larvae - Aphid lions

The lacewing, along with ladybugs, is an enemy of aphids. In our gardens, the most common species is green with yellow eyes. The beetle got its name precisely for these eyes. An adult has a wingspan of up to 3 cm. Green oblong insects wear house-shaped, transparent veined wings, folding them on the lower part of a long body.

Conall

The female lays about 20 greenish eggs individually or in groups on the bark or leaves. The larvae hatched from eggs develop within 2-3 weeks depending on weather conditions. Their length is only 7 mm, the jaws are long, sickle-shaped and pointed. The larvae feed on small insects, especially aphids. Individual individuals are capable of destroying up to 500 aphids during development.

After 18 days, the larvae hide in a protected place, wrap themselves around and turn into a white round cocoon. After the lacewing emerges from the cocoon, the next generation begins. In total, 2 generations can appear in a year. Adults feed, as a rule, on honeydew and pollen, on occasion they do not disdain small insects. The adult lacewing hibernates in secluded corners, so sometimes it can be found in residential areas. During the wintering period, the insect may acquire a yellow or brown color, but in the spring it turns green again.

Daniel Cohen

aphids lion

Along with the common lacewing, we also have about 42 species of secret lions, which, like the lacewing, belong to real lacewings. One of the most famous species has a wingspan (brown with a specific shape) of about 3 cm. Adults and larvae feed on aphids and contribute to the biological balance in the fight against this pest.

Settlement in the garden:

• Prefer areas rich in flowering plants.
• Green-eyes need shelter for the winter in the form of small wooden houses stuffed with straw.

Gilles San Martin

The use of lacewing for targeted biological plant protection in greenhouses and protected ground has been tested with good results. To do this, it is necessary to place 20 lacewing eggs for each square meter of surface, which can be purchased at special biological laboratories.

Riders

Naezdgik is a parasitic wasp from the Braconidae family (Braconidae). © David Ball

Riders can hibernate as larva, pupa, or adult. For 1 time, the female lays about 30 eggs in the cabbage caterpillar. In total, she can lay up to 200 eggs. After the larvae hatch in the caterpillar, the shell of its body cracks, releasing the larvae, which turn into pupae a little later.

itchydogimages

Settlement in the garden:

• It is necessary to arrange wintering "apartments" in tall grass or in roots under bushes, etc.
• The rider likes to settle in umbrella plants (dill, coriander, lovage, cumin, kupyr, etc.)

earwig

The common earwig, belonging to the leather-winged order, is well known to gardeners and gardeners. The length of the body is 3.5-5 mm, the front wings are solid, the hind wings are membranous. There are also wingless forms. Its claws located in the back of the body are impressive. The earwig hunts mainly at dusk and at night, and during the day it hides in dark narrow crevices.

By exterminating harmful insects, such as dahlia woodlice, earwigs can damage delicate young dahlia plants.

Francesco

In spring and autumn, the female lays up to 100 eggs in a mink, which she digs herself, guards them and takes care of her offspring - first the eggs, and later the larvae. Earwigs overwinter in shelters - in the bark of trees, cracks in buildings, in the soil, flower pots filled with small chips or some other material, such as moss.

Settlement in the garden:

• As shelters, you can use flower pots filled with wood shavings, moss or hay. Such pots are displayed between vegetable crops or hung on trees.
• For the winter, the pots should be cleaned out, and refilled in the spring.
• Digging near the trunk circles of trees contributes to the normal functioning of the insect. Often, earwigs also seek shelter for the winter precisely under the trees, in its fallen leaves.

bedbugs

The predatory bug belongs to the class of weevils. Its various species have specific food sources. For some, it is the juice of a plant, for others, insects. For the gardener, the latter are primarily interesting, which, among other things, destroy aphids. These include soft-bodied and false bugs, among which some species feed mainly on spider mites.

Flower bugs are small predatory insects 3-4 mm long. For 1 time, the female lays up to 8 eggs, mainly along the edges of the leaves. For a year, bugs breed 2 generations, and in areas with a warm climate even 3. Predatory bugs overwinter as adults. Larger species of flower bugs also feed on gall midge larvae.

JJ Harrison

Settlement in the garden:

• No special requirements and recommendations, except for the exclusion of the use of chemical plant protection products.

How to attract insects to the garden?

If we take a lot of useful insects from somewhere and release them into the garden, then the effect will be only short-term. It is much more important that beneficial insects take root in the garden. To do this, you need to create suitable conditions for them. First of all, it is a food base and places for shelter and reproduction of beneficial insects.

For reproduction and increase in the species composition of beneficial insects, including predatory (entomophages), it is important to take into account their features:

• predatory insects are attracted by flowering plants, and not by pests (phytophages);
• predatory insects use for reproduction and destroy that kind of "host" i.e. pest on which they have developed themselves.

So, beneficial insects are attracted to the garden by flowering plants (flowering weeds), not pests.

Sandie J

The presence in the garden and on lawns, in the fields of natural nectar-bearing flowers, even in small quantities, allows predatory insects to carry out additional nutrition in the breeding stages. Moreover, some predatory insects are able to reproduce effectively only by combining feeding on nectar or honeydew and insect prey. Therefore, the presence of flowering weeds, even in the fields where crops are grown, at a level below the economic threshold of harmfulness, increases the effectiveness of predatory insects and is considered appropriate.

There must always be a certain number of different pests in the garden in order for beneficial insects to survive.

Specialized predatory insects are looking for their "master" i.e. pest, regardless of its abundance. Therefore, once again, there should always be a certain number of different pests in the garden, no matter how paradoxical it sounds! Usually, plants are planted in a hedge around the garden, on which pests develop and predatory insects survive. Only in this case can they prevent pest outbreaks. Polyphagous predatory insects show interest in one or another type of pest only when its abundance is high, so they are usually late.

Therefore, a variety of predatory insect species is necessary for sustainable pest control. And to expand the species composition and reproduction of predatory insects, their fodder nectar-bearing plants should be sown. These are usually compound umbelliferous and paniculate plants whose many small flowers provide many sources of nectar and together form a place where beneficial insects, including bees, and butterflies can sit.

wigglywigglers

Plants that attract beneficial insects

Among the plants that attract insects - the defenders of the garden, the following should be noted:

Many types of legumes have the ability to attract beneficial insects, for example, crimson clover, creeping clover, and vetch. They provide beneficial insects with constant food and moisture, enrich the soil with nitrogen.

To ensure that there are flowering plants that are attractive to beneficial insects for the whole season, you need to start with those that bloom earlier, for example, buckwheat, which will be replaced by fragrant dill. Immediately you need to plant marigolds, calendula, so that they bloom in the middle of summer. You should grow tansy, sweet clover and navel, which bloom for a long time from year to year.

The task of using beneficial insects is not to completely destroy pests, but to control their numbers.

By creating conditions that would combine a favorable environment for beneficial insects and decorativeness, a natural balance can be achieved between the number of harmful and beneficial insects.

Looking forward to your advice and comments!

With the advent of the summer season, every gardener is faced with various kinds of insects, which not only do not cause pleasant impressions, but can also harm the future harvest. To date, people have learned a lot, managed to gain experience over the years of cultivating land in combating the growth of pest populations. There are different types of threats to crops and plantings, each needs its own approach, because they lead a different lifestyle, which means that they need to be dealt with in different ways.

The appearance of various insects on the site is quite normal, if they are - this does not mean that they need to be dealt with. Only their excessive number speaks of the need to sound the alarm. For example, bugs and many spiders are not dangerous for young shoots and further harvest. Only those who can use for food what the summer resident tries to grow all summer are harmful. There are not many of these pests, but if their numbers make you resort to searching for a method of destruction, then it's time to study information about the types, threats and ways to drive them out of your territory.

Many factors contribute to the increase in population and rapid reproduction. Cluttering the site, the location of the garden, overgrown territories of neighbors, grass that was not weeded during the time, acidic soil - all this leads to an increase in the number of threatening and ordinary insects.

First you need to put things in order in your garden, free the earth from rotting stumps, logs and boards. It is necessary to remove flat objects from the ground, which do not allow the sun to dry and warm the soil. Watering should only be done in the beds, water in shady areas can maintain constant moisture, which attracts some species.

Tree trunks must be whitewashed, dry bark is removed, cracks and crevices are sealed with a special mixture. Various pests (aphids, beetles, butterfly larvae, and others) climb into the bark, they find it in this dwelling for the winter. Many do not even think about dealing with trees, thinking that everything creeping under their feet is a big delusion.

In the ruins of broken bricks and large stones, two-tailed, wood lice, various spiders and large beetles hide. Anything that can become a home for the pest should be removed, if possible.

Under the tank for watering water reigns its own atmosphere, the grass breaks through better there, it is always humid and there is something to profit from. This place is very attractive to crawlers, in order to avoid this, it is necessary to put the tank on a flood foundation or on a pillow of dense gruss, to create an environment that is not suitable for pests.

It is recommended to carry out cleaning in early spring, as soon as the snow melts, when the awakened insects did not have time to give birth. At the end of the season, a thorough cleaning should also be carried out, because everything that was not cleaned will give “fruits” the next year and there will be twice as much work.

To know how to deal with harmful creatures and other methods, you need to understand how they used to spend their life days. This will give a useful advantage to the gardener, which will speed up the release of the land from excessive numbers of insects.

How to get rid of wood lice and bivostok in the garden?

Two-tailed and woodlice live only where it is damp and dark if it is daytime. They go hunting at night, so only after sunset can one estimate their number. Often they crawl into the house and can no longer get out of there, this does not mean that they are more comfortable indoors. On the contrary, they do not really like being next to a person, because for them there is no food in a clean and tidy house. They crawl by accident, but this is a sign for a person, which means that the local area is the home of these insects. They hide under the porch, in the trash, in the crevices of the foundation, or in any other place located near the front door.

Perhaps rainwater from the roof flows very close to your house, creating ideal conditions for moisture lovers to live. In this case, it is necessary to build a drainage system that will lead the collected drops away from the building.

All kinds of rubbish, garbage containers, broken bricks or stones, deposits of various items should be removed to a special place or away from the front door and windows. Cracks and crevices are covered over to prevent possible entry for the two-way.

Or at home they are less common, their favorite place is stumps, rotting tops, rotten boards that summer residents use as paths between beds. By lifting one such board, you can see which types of insects mainly live on the site. Only there will be only those who are accustomed to increased dampness. They can start up in a shower cabin for the same reasons - high humidity and the availability of places for shelter.

Folk methods

Getting rid of earwigs and wood lice is very simple with the most common method. You need to find places where they accumulate and go on a real hunt, after boiling the kettle. Hot water does not leave a chance to survive, thus the population will decrease significantly if you walk through all such places. After treatment with boiling water, you can sprinkle the found dwellings salt so that no one will ever return.

Insecticides

How to deal with aphids in the garden and vegetable garden?

Aphids are a big threat to the summer resident, they are not always noticeable because of their small size (1-2 mm). Many do not understand why the leaves of a shrub curled up or completely dried up and crumbled. This pest eats plants, sucking the juice out of them. Aphids are found in large numbers on stems and leaves. capable of destroying a tree, it will at least cease to bear fruit, and in the worst case scenario, it will die.

The source of the appearance of aphids in the garden or in the garden at their summer cottage are ants if there are anthills on the territory. The aphid prefers to settle on a young tree or shrub, it does not touch old leaves and branches, because it cannot pierce dense foliage with its proboscis.

To fight aphids, you need a method that does not harm garden plants, birds and humans. The choice should be approached responsibly, taking into account all the nuances.

Aphids will disappear over time if periodically knock it off the branches with water. She cannot climb back, because ants are needed for this. Most likely, insects thrown from the bush will get lost and die, because there is no source of food for them on earth.

One of the most harmful insects is the bear. It destroys both young and adult plants. If the seedlings perish in the open field, despite sufficient watering and the consumption of sunlight, then most likely this earthen crayfish has started up in the garden.

It is very difficult to calculate for sure whether this pest is in your garden. In its habitats, you can see small minks or tubercles, resembling traces of moles on the surface of the earth. This is an amazing insect, it can fly, crawl and even swim. Activity gets closer to the evening, and during sunset you can hear characteristic sounds like chirping grasshoppers. A mole cricket may appear on a particular site quite by accident, choosing it for its permanent residence.

Manure heaps and compost pits serve as a place for laying eggs for the bear, it is warm and there is enough food. However, under a simple dry bed, she can also feel good, eating the roots of vegetable crops. Despite the benefits in medicine, they are a real disaster for the gardener, in order to get rid of them, you need to take a responsible approach to business, otherwise a large number of crops will die, and next year there will be much more of them.

Folk methods of breeding a bear

Without resorting to chemical methods, you can use folk advice. Kapustyanka, as summer residents also call her, loves to huddle in manure, she is attracted to manure heaps in which they lay their eggs and stay for the winter. Using traps From this fertilizer, you can significantly reduce the number of insects or get rid of them completely.

At the end of the season, several holes are dug on the site with a depth of about 50 cm and manure is poured into them. As soon as the temperature drops significantly, you can dig up the contents and scatter them in those places on the surface where necessary so as not to waste fertilizer. In order not to think and not to guess when to do it all, it is better to focus on the snow. With the first snow, you can go to check the traps. Although it is not necessary to check, having pulled everything out of the recesses, the bear will simply freeze, because she is in a dream, she will not find a new place.

In the spring, you can place traps throughout the territory, scattering heaps of manure in 2-3 shovels. It is necessary to make embankments as often as possible, at a distance of 2 to 4 meters from each other. Before checking the traps, it is worth waiting at least three days for this earthen cancer to get to it and understand that this is its new home.

If the alleged hole of the bear is found, you can pour water into it with the addition of a small amount oils. Solution soapy water also suitable for this case. She will get to the surface or die without crawling out into the light. Another bear is afraid the smell of pine needles, kerosene And rotten fish, of all the above, the most pleasant option is definitely the first one.

Insecticides against the bear in the garden

There is also a chemical method of exposure, but it is not as simple as the previous ones. A drug Metaphos added to corn or wheat porridge with butter, and then laid out under the same manure traps or under the beds to a shallow depth. The method is effective, but not very convenient, because when planting on a garden bed, you don’t really want to think and bother about digging to place poisoned porridge, all the more so, you need to do this more often than simple dung blendes.

It is up to the gardener to decide everything, because besides Metaphos there are other poisonous drugs, but they all require a careful and deliberate approach. Using such products can harm the crop, this should always be remembered and used with caution.

Carrot fly and its larvae

By carrot tops it is easy to understand that someone eats these fruits underground. This is the larva of the carrot fly, which itself is small and black in color. If the tops begin to dry out or acquire a reddish tint, then you should think about pest control so as not to lose the entire carrot crop.
During the flowering period of the bird cherry, the first flights of flies are made in order to increase the offspring, it is at this time that you should think about persecution. To delay processing means to miss the chance to get rid of the flying ones completely this season. However, it is also important to remember that if there are more of these insects, then the balance in the garden is disturbed - there are fewer beneficial insects, their numbers were unable to cope with the population of harmful ones. This could be due to improper processing of the summer cottage from insects, during which those who stood to protect your crop died out.

Not only carrots can be affected by the carrot fly larvae, it is also capable of destroying parsley with celery. To use the chemical method of baiting, you need to know that the population is large enough. Effective drugs against the carrot fly and its larvae include: Arrivo, Karate and other similar insecticides available from gardening stores.

Folk methods for breeding carrot flies

With advice from the people it is much easier, the best option would be moving carrot beds. If this year the fruits were eaten, next year they should make landings away from this place, these flies are not able to fly to a new habitat.

Just as worth it plant less often seeds, so that the root crops are located farther from each other. Normal thinning will not work in this case. Better in advance process seeds drugs against rot: trichodermin, azotophile or phytocide.

By the way, varieties with a high sugar content are more resistant to this pest. For example, Flakke or Calgary will not be spoiled by worms hatched from carrot fly larvae.

A very effective method would be mixed fit, parsley or carrots can be sown along with onions or garlic, their smell will scare away annoying earth flies. You can also sprinkle ground pepper on the beds, its sharp aroma will also be an effective remedy against the pest.

How to destroy the wireworm?

Beets and carrots, but bypasses legumes. He himself has the appearance of a dense beige worm, which is inactive on the surface. No wonder he was given just such a name, he really looks like a piece of wire. To prevent its occurrence in much larger quantities, vegetables should be planted. further apart. Can be applied every three years dolomite flour, which will reduce the acidity of the earth, which this worm loves so much.

Weeding should happen more often if once a summer resident noticed this insect. There should not be any weeds even in potato plantings. By the way, if you plant vegetables and legumes in discord, then the harmful destroyer will die. He gets used to one type of food, even his favorite potatoes and beets will not replace each other, such an alternation is an effective deliverance. It is not difficult to fence your crop by planting something across the row with peas or beans. The gardener will not lose anything, he will only improve the quality and quantity of fruits, and the wireworm will die as soon as possible.

When planting potatoes, it is worth pouring a little into the holes ash or add potassium permanganate solution. The acidity of the soil will decrease, which means that there will be no temptation. periodic soil loosening also contributes to population decline. Wireworms living in the soil will be on the surface, so the gardener can easily collect and destroy them.

Can be easily built traps which are placed at the end of the season. Do not rush to remove heaps of foliage before wintering, it is better to leave them on the site. The wireworm will climb into a rotten hill for the winter, and the gardener needs to collect these traps and burn them as soon as the cold sets in.

Not all pests that can ruin the crop and destroy seedlings are listed above. There are a huge number of them, so you should be attentive to your garden and vegetable garden in order to notice the appearance of harmful insects in time. When resorting to the complex treatment of a summer cottage with poisonous drugs, you need to know that beneficial insects that protect garden plants can also die.

There is a lot of practical advice that did not appear in vain, people have been using this or that method for many years to achieve results and find an effective recipe. It is not necessary to sound the alarm, today these tips are available to everyone, so you can easily grow a good and big crop.