Soldier bug: what harm it does, what it eats and how to get rid of it

At first glance, it seems that the soldier bug is an attractive-looking and completely harmless beetle that is not capable of causing anything bad to a person. In fact, the situation is completely different. If such bugs gather in groups, they can easily destroy a large volume of crops.

This is especially true for those who have a vegetable garden, or just a small garden bed - here the soldier bug causes the greatest harm.

Therefore, today the task of getting rid of this small pest is very urgent. To combat such insects, both chemical and folk remedies are used.

Bug "Soldier"

External differences of the soldier bug

The body of the soldier bug is round and slightly flattened. The insect has a bright color: the body is black, there is a red pattern on the pronotum and elytra. Bedbugs don't have wings. The eyes are red, the mustache and legs are black. The length of the soldiers is 8-11 mm. The oral apparatus is equipped with a perforating-sucking proboscis, which is located in a horizontal position.

When eating food, the proboscis tenses and becomes like a needle. With its help, the insect pierces plants and feeds on cell sap.

Red bugs often gather in groups in one place - adults and larvae, which is a distinctive feature of the species. The name “soldiers” comes from the ability to gather in a kind of division and from the color of the chitinous cover.

Who is often confused with?

The red bug is often confused with two insects:

1. Firefighter beetle, soft beetle (Cantharidae). In fact, there is nothing in common between insects, except for confusion in names. The fire beetle belongs to the order of beetles. Its body length is 1-1.5 cm - twice that of the soldier insect. The elytra and tarsiers are black with stiff whiskers. Gnawing mouthparts. Insects have wings that move through the air. The beetle's belly is orange or red.
2. Blackhead (Corizus hyoscyami). In appearance, insects are very similar to each other. The differences lie in the position of the head: triangular, slightly inclined and shaped like a pattern on the back. The eyes are darker than those of the soldier insect, closer to brown. Insects live mainly on umbrella plants: onions, dill. The larvae feed on henbane and tobacco leaves.

In England, the soft beetle is called the soldier beetle due to the similarity of its color to the uniform of the royal guards.

Folk remedies

And therefore, the best option would still be to exterminate the soldiers using folk biological means. Among them is a soap solution prepared from laundry soap diluted in water (about 300 grams of soap is taken for 1 bucket of liquid). Spraying with this composition will help get rid of many insect pests (not only soldier bugs).

A variety of tinctures and decoctions demonstrate a high degree of effectiveness. For example, the onion broth already mentioned above. To prepare it, 200 g of husk is taken per 10 liters and all this is infused for five days. It is recommended to spray plants with onion infusion no more than once every five days.

You can also escape from the invasion of soldiers by attracting birds to your garden plot. But you need to be careful and watch that the birds and the bugs do not peck the crop.

Soldier bugs also cannot tolerate the effects of Sarepta mustard. A solution is prepared from it (a total of 100 g of dry composition is dissolved in water to a paste). Next, this mixture is stirred in a bucket of water. This solution is used for spraying garden plots.

Actually, when creating folk remedies against soldier beetles, this factor is fundamental. Natural remedies will not harm the crop, but will help drive away unwanted pest beetles from the area. You can also remove the soldier bug using:

• There is another option - dissolve wood ash in water and also treat the beds with this composition.
• Another good folk remedy against red bugs that have entered the home is wormwood. The owner of the house will only need to make a good broom from this plant and place it in the house (you can even under the bed). Both dry and freshly harvested wormwood are suitable for expelling pests.
• An excellent way for those who are looking for how to get rid of red-black bugs that have penetrated inside the house would be to treat baseboards, plinths, and bed feet with vinegar or kerosene.
• One cannot help but recall camphor oil and turpentine. You can find these drugs in any pharmacy, and it is recommended to treat the same baseboards and bed legs with them (since soldier bugs most often move on such surfaces, at the bottom of the room).

There are a number of preventive measures aimed at preventing the penetration of soldier bugs into garden crops. Many gardeners note that these pests of cabbage, dill, parsley and other greens settle on alfalfa and legume residues in the winter. Therefore, it is recommended to plant useful crops as far as possible from these types of vegetation.

Life cycle

The lifespan of a wingless insect is 12-14 months. In warm regions, two generations of insects appear, in cold regions - one. By the end of August, the soldiers' metabolism slows down, that is, they are preparing for hibernation - suspended animation. After going to sleep, insects survive thanks to nutrients accumulated over the summer and a slow metabolism. Bugs wake up in March - April, as soon as the sun begins to warm the earth and the first vegetation appears. Some young individuals and females cannot withstand the spring cold and die. Adult females lay eggs in May. The process of insect formation occurs in several stages: egg - larva - insect... Newly formed females continue reproduction in mid-late June.

What does it eat?

Soldier insects feed on seeds, plant and fruit juices, as well as the remains of other insects. They bring food closer to the ground; they will climb a tall tree only as a last resort. In the absence of sufficient nutrition, bedbugs feed on weeds and even their own relatives. Red insects have a powerful proboscis that can pierce fairly hard shoots and plant seeds. Insects cannot harm humans. The proboscis cannot pierce the skin of an adult or child. Small larvae feed only on the sap of young shoots. The mouthparts are not fully developed, and insects cannot pierce other plants.

Soldier bugs, like all representatives of the species, have scent glands. In adult insects they are located on the chest, in larvae, on the abdomen closer to the dorsal part.

Description of the pest

Soldier bugs rarely exceed 1.2 cm in length, more often up to 1 cm, and can be fiery red or bright crimson in color. They have black spots that create a characteristic pattern, as if on soldiers' uniforms of yesteryear (hence the name). Colonies of insects can be found on the walls of barns, decrepit stumps, especially many of them near compost heaps; they do not disdain bugs and carrion.

Insects appear early. The snow has not yet completely melted, there are still frosts at night, and during the day the soldiers gather in platoons to find some kind of plant. The bugs move through the thawed patches in dashes, because they do not know how to fly at all.

The insect has a sharp proboscis, with which it pierces the stems and foliage, then drinks the juices.

Where is it distributed?

The soldier bug is widespread in Eurasia, northern Africa and the USA. Countries with temperate climates favor the breeding of insects. Bedbug habitat:

• under the bark of trees;
• on the stumps;
• in piles of dry grass and leaves;
• at the foundations of houses, resorts, gazebos and other outbuildings;
• in the fence and its foundation.

During hibernation, insects are found under heaps of garbage, in humus, on trees - under the bark or in hollows.

How does it reproduce

Insects reproduce quickly in spring and summer. In warm regions, bed bugs produce two generations from May to July. The colony quickly increases in size and, living on the site, quickly “attacks” cultivated plants. During mating, the male and female are attached to each other with the back of their body. Insects can remain in this position from one to two hours to several days. After the seed cells enter the female’s body, the insects separate. The female lays her eggs in the natural habitat, on the leaves of plants or in a place that makes it easier for the larvae to feed. A clutch may contain 16-30 white eggs, similar to rice eggs. On the top of the eggs, peculiar caps are formed, through which the larvae emerge after seven to ten days. Young individuals can remain motionless for a long time, feeding on the sap of the plants on which they are found. In appearance, they differ from adult insects not only in their small size. The larvae are completely red, without black inclusions.

Black on red

Essentially, soldier beetles are a type of land bug. Their longitudinal backs are painted in a rich red color, on which there is a symmetrical black pattern. The largest individuals are a little more than a centimeter. It looks like such a beautiful bug, but what will be the result of it - benefit or harm?

There will be no particular harm to a person from soldier beetles in the house - they do not bite, do not torment at night and do not spread infections. And the children will enjoy the beautiful insects. House plants are a completely different matter. Until recently, by the way, it was believed that these bugs feed only on other insects and fruits that have fallen from branches (apples, for example).

Also, young beetles feed on their juice using a special small proboscis. And a plant that has lost its juice begins to die almost immediately. But if all living things are eaten, only then do the soldiers take on dead insects and rotting plants. Be that as it may, we have absolutely no need for such inhabitants in the apartment. And if you have green friends living on your windowsill, you need to fight soldier beetles.

Reasons for appearance

The main reasons for the appearance of soldier bugs on the site include:

• rotten stumps in the garden;
• dried plants;
• piles of dry garbage and leaves;
• a large number of weeds, especially quinoa and wormwood;
• legumes;
• piles of wood;
• alfalfa in your or neighbors' garden;
• growing carrots, cabbage, beets, currants on the site.

Insects especially love alfalfa. To get rid of the larvae, you need to uproot the grass and burn it.

The insects often nest in legumes and alfalfa to combat winter cold.

In some cases, insects may appear in an apartment, more often in a private house. If you have indoor flowers, seedlings or other vegetation, insects will multiply very quickly. There is a tendency that when a soldier appears, other relatives run after him. If there is no food, they die or go to other places.

Methods of disposal

A garden bug that appears on private property will definitely show itself soon, and not in the best way. And therefore, immediately after discovering an insect, you should look for ways to get rid of toy soldiers.

In order to remove the soldier bug from the garden plot, gardeners use many different means. The most famous of them are:

1. Mechanical destruction of pests by collecting and removing them outside the garden.
2. Exposure of soldiers to repellent or poisonous chemicals.
3. The use of folk remedies to combat insects with soldiers.

Both artificial chemicals and beneficial plants that have a pungent odor and repel insect pests are used. Among the simplest methods of combating red bugs, there is a certain recommendation from specialists that is preventive in nature. If colonies of insects with red and black backs have been noticed in the garden, you can simply collect them and take them outside.

This will prevent damage caused to fruit and berry plants by insecticidal preparations used to poison these same bugs. Well, in order not to worry about the soldier beetles returning to the site, you can destroy them after removing them from the residential area. This is the so-called mechanical method of combating soldier bugs, but besides this, there is another one that involves the use of catching belts.

They can be purchased at hardware stores, or made by hand. When creating a catching belt for soldier bugs yourself, take a strip of corrugated cardboard approximately 25 cm wide. It should be cut into two parts across the grooves, then coat all parts with PVA glue. Next, glass wool about 1.5 cm thick is attached to the prepared cardboard.

This product is attached to the tree with wire. Why is this so? The fact is that soldier bugs are known to many as pests of wood; their colonies can often be seen on tree bark, and therefore the first thing to do is protect trees. However, other garden plants may also suffer from the attacks of these bugs. But they are protected in other ways.

There are also more radical measures aimed at solving the issue of how to get rid of soldier beetles. They begin with planting a special plant in the garden that repels bedbugs - black cohosh. Black currant pests, which are the soldiers, cannot stand the smell of this vegetation and simply leave the area. Interestingly, not only red bugs will leave the garden, but also other insects that plague cultivated plants.

Gardening stores offer customers many different pesticides to make pest control easier. However, it should be understood that their use will harm not only red bugs, but also the soil, as well as cultivated vegetation. In addition, black-and-red beetles gradually get used to the constituent components of chemicals and no longer react to the poison.

We suggest you read: What do soldier beetles eat?

One of the most famous chemicals. One of these drugs against soldier bugs is Bankol. It does not have a sharp or unpleasant odor, and in addition it is absolutely safe for both people and pets and beneficial insects. You only need to dilute 5-7 ml of the product in 10 liters of water. It is recommended to pour the prepared solution into a bottle with a sprayer and process it.

How to fight insects

When parasites appear, it is necessary to immediately take measures to destroy them. Insects reproduce quickly and can cause significant damage to garden crops. There are several ways to get rid of the soldier bug.

Natural enemies

Birds, mantises and bats are natural enemies of soldier insects. The pungent odor can frighten certain birds, such as tits. Sparrows are good at killing insects, but at the same time they can damage cultivated plants. When red bed bugs get caught in a web, many spiders discard them due to the pungent odor.

The red color of the insect is the camouflage with which it protects itself from natural enemies. For birds and spiders, red is a sign that the insect is poisonous and should not be eaten. Soldier insects are well protected from destruction precisely because of this property.

Chemicals

When using chemicals, you need to take into account that when killing insects, they damage the soil and the plants themselves. Soldier bugs have the ability to adapt to pesticides, so each subsequent generation does not die from the poison used previously. Ways to get rid of soldier beetles:

• autonomous site treatment. In this case, you must carefully read the instructions, observing the indicated dosages, processing times and precautions. Karbofos, Malathion and Aktara are used as poisons, causing paralysis of insects. The powder drug "Bankol" effectively destroys soldiers. To use the product must be diluted in water. The pesticide is considered to be of low toxicity to plants, soil and people;
• professional pest control. Experts will select a product taking into account the characteristics of the soil. This type of treatment is especially recommended for large areas. The advantage of using disinfectants is the complete destruction of various types of parasites.

In a house or apartment, soldier insects can be destroyed using regular Dichlorvos.

Light traps

Light traps are used to catch insects. With their help, it is possible to reduce the population of soldier insects, but it will not be possible to completely destroy it. Most often, unfertilized males and females end up in them. There are many types of traps and you can easily buy the most suitable one from the stores. The operating principle depends on the type of light emitted:

• ordinary light is visible radiation. Parasites crawl into the light and stick to the sticky surface or are sucked in by the built-in fan;
• ultraviolet light is invisible to humans. An insect attracted by radiation dies due to the electrical network.

Various powders and agents are added to some types of traps to prevent the movement of bedbugs or paralyze them, as a result of which the insect dies.

Traditional methods

To destroy soldier insects, you can use traditional methods that will not damage cultivated plants and soil. The following means are used to control insects:

1. Onion peel. Pour the peel halfway into a large container and fill with cold water. Leave for 5-6 days. Strain the finished infusion and treat the plants in the area with it.
2. Soap solution. For ten liters of water, grate 300 g of laundry soap on a coarse grater. Treat the plants with the prepared solution. It is not recommended to increase the amount of soap.
3. Mustard powder. To treat 1 sq.m of soil, add 100 g of powder to 10-12 liters of water. Leave the solution for 1.5-2 hours. Treatment can be done once every 10-14 days.
4. Ash. Dissolve 200 g of product in a bucket of water. Wood ash can do more than just kill insects. The natural remedy has a beneficial effect on the soil - it enriches it with potassium.
5. Fishing belts. Special windings are attached to tree trunks, onto which poisonous or sticky substances are applied that limit the movement of insects. They can be made in the form of funnels and bowls with container equipment.
6. Manual assembly. Soldier beetles move quickly, so picking them up won't be easy. Place large clumps in prepared containers for disposal. Press individual insects directly into plants, such as Colorado potato beetles.

When soldier insects enter the living room, they are destroyed with kerosene or vinegar. For this purpose, baseboards, furniture legs, and skirting boards are treated. To capture individual representatives, you can lay adhesive tape on the floor - Velcro.

Habitats

Beetles, popularly called soldier beetles, are most often encountered on the street or in the garden. They nest in old rotten wooden logs, tree trunks or plank fences. Sometimes such surfaces are literally strewn with colonies of soldiers.

But in these places, insects just rest, but to obtain nutrients they go hunting, depositing young growth in the garden and causing irreparable damage to the crop in the garden. Gardeners often find soldiers in cabbage, carrot or beet tops, on the leaves of garden trees or currant bushes.

Despite its outwardly harmless appearance, the bug causes serious damage to garden crops. The insect lays eggs directly in plants (on leaves or stems), while simultaneously sucking out all the juice from them. They are especially dangerous for elite grape varieties. Due to the fact that they feed on the juice of garden crops, they are classified as serious pests.

The gardener must understand that it is not so much the adult soldier bugs that cause harm, but rather their eggs and larvae. And for this reason, their appearance in the garden area should be prevented in a timely manner. Often these garden pests cause damage to young shoots of beets, carrots, dill and other garden vegetation. Plants that have not yet become strong and have not gained vitality simply die from the influence of soldiers.

In order to effectively combat garden pests, it is necessary to understand what these insects eat and where do they live?

The red beetle with black spots, popularly known as the soldier bug, is completely unpretentious in food. Few people know what soldier beetles eat, but this information is very important, especially for gardeners who can suffer significant losses from black-and-red pests.

Why is the soldier bug harmful?

Soldier insects are not at all harmless animals, as is commonly believed. They feed not only on seeds, but also on the remains of dead insects. Pests suck the juice from young shoots, leaves, and fruits, thereby causing severe damage to garden crops. Damage caused by fire insects:

• They like to suck the juice out of grapes, as a result the yield of the bushes is significantly reduced. Damaged berries become unsuitable for food;
• The insect's proboscis is quite powerful, so it can pierce hard seeds and thick shoots. The plant, from which insects suck out beneficial juices, gradually stops blooming, bears fruit and dies;
• infect tree trunks and branches;
• damages cabbage and beet leaves, leaving small punctures on them;
• destroy the seeds sown in the ground;
• they are dangerous pests for emerging seedlings. Bed bugs suck out the nutritious juice, causing the shoots to dry out.

A large colony of insects can cause significant damage to summer cottages, farms and vineyards.

What harm can insects cause?

Garden bugs are unpretentious eaters. For normal life, the juice of any plants is enough for them. They can obtain food from leaves, trunks, stems and fruits. The consequences for the land are disastrous. The seedlings slowly dry out and die over time, and their fruits become completely unsuitable for consumption.

Important! These parasites are absolutely safe for humans and cannot take up residence in any residential premises. If you do find this insect in your apartment, then you just need to take it outside, and the bug will not return.

Undoubtedly, there are parasites that cause more widespread damage to agricultural land than soldier bugs, but the latter can also cause a lot of trouble. This is due to their intensive reproduction and feeding habits - having gathered in large colonies, they do not leave young weak shoots a chance to survive. If the land is not enough for them to satisfy, then they can switch to the corpses of their fellow tribesmen, other insects and even vertebrates.

Attention! Even large grape plantations can suffer from the invasion of these pests. Insects destroy both stems and elite fruits.

Preventive methods

To prevent the appearance of soldier beetles, you can take the following measures:

1. Planting in place of black cohosh. Translated from Latin, the plant is called black cohosh. The smell of flowers frightens insects, and they try to hide from it. It is convenient to plant a plant around the perimeter of the site. You can also use other plants - wormwood, mustard.
2. Plant grape bushes and other cultivated plants away from alfalfa and legumes, which are especially loved by soldier insects.
3. On-site weed control. Weed the garden in a timely manner. As the grass grows, the number of parasites increases, as does the number of eggs laid. If possible, burn the grass as there may be worms on the leaves.
4. If there is a lawn on the site, the height of the grass should be as low as the type of surface allows.
5. Do not leave piles of garbage on the site; fallen leaves are the favorite habitats of red insects.
6. If there are rotten and old stumps, they must be uprooted and burned.

Soldier insects reproduce quickly and are capable of causing significant damage to crop plants. In addition, they have a thin chitinous cover and an underdeveloped nervous system, so they are easy to destroy. Carrying out preventive measures will protect the area from insect infestation.

Frighten with smell

It is no secret that substances with a specific odor repel many insects, and toy soldiers are no exception. Pour vinegar over the places where they accumulate, also treat the corners of the room, secret places, the legs of the bed and chairs - the beetles will simply run away, frightened by this aroma.

If you yourself don’t want to breathe vinegar fumes, pick a couple of sprigs of the most common wormwood, which grows everywhere. Moreover, you can take dry branches. Tie a small broom (or several), hang it on the wall, or place a few branches in corners and hard-to-reach places. After that, you can forget about insects.

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A decoction of onion peels, a solution of mustard and an aqueous solution of ash will also help. In addition to these methods, you can also use kerosene, turpentine or camphor oil - in short, anything that has a specific fragrant aroma.