The turtle bug is a dangerous pest that causes damage not only to agricultural crops, but also to vegetable gardens and orchards. You can get rid of it in different ways, including biological and chemical treatment of plants.
The bug bug is a dangerous pest of cereal crops.
There are also folk remedies that are used by summer residents on their plots.
Appearance of a turtle bug
A special feature of these bugs is their varied colors. The gray bug destroys the wheat crops, the green bug settles near the roots of the dill and on the raspberry bushes, and the brown bug eats the ovaries of the tomatoes. There are even insects that are green with light spots or red with black stripes.
This is due to the fact that insects adapt and change color to escape their natural enemies. Such mimicry is characteristic of the entire family of shield insects.
But representatives of this species have distinctive features that can be used to determine their belonging to the same family:
- flat round body from 8 to 14 mm in length and from 7 to 10 mm in width;
- two-layer wings in the form of a hard chitinous shield covered with dark spots and streaks;
- 3 pairs of limbs that allow you to quickly crawl and even swim in water;
- blunt head shape (with its base wider than its length);
- an insect's mouth, similar to a proboscis made of bristles;
- long thread-like antennae on the sides of the mouth.
The turtle bug has a variety of colors.
The chitinous shell resembles that of a turtle, hence the name of the flying pest.
Tomato pests in a greenhouse: photos and their treatment
Many pests can operate on tomatoes in a greenhouse and can completely destroy the fruits of a vegetable grower’s labor in a few days. Insects quite often destroy the root system of seedlings and adult plants, gnaw holes in the fruits, causing them to rot and deform. If you do not promptly notice the appearance of insects in the room and do not begin to destroy them, then they will multiply in a very short period and it will not be easy to fight them.
Whitefly is an uninvited guest in many greenhouses. This attractive, delicate-looking moth is a severe pest that causes leaves on bushes to wither, become deformed, and curl. Experienced vegetable growers and farmers know a number of effective methods for dealing with whitefly on tomatoes in a greenhouse.
Root damaged by root-knot nematode
The root-knot nematode is a microscopic worm reaching a length of only 2 mm. It attacks the roots of tomatoes. As a result, the root-knot nematode destroys the cells of the suction zone at the root, which leads to starvation of the tomato. The latter suffer from a lack of moisture and mineral salts, and the plant itself quickly dies.
Prevention and control methods include the following activities:
- Destruction of all plants affected by the nematode.
- Regular loosening of the soil.
- Use of drugs “Dimethoate”, “ROGOR”.
The larva of the nightshade miner leaves winding, chaotic passages on tomatoes. It occurs most often when growing tomatoes in a greenhouse. The pest is introduced by a fly that lays eggs on plants. The danger of leaf miner damage is that the normal production of nutrients in the leaves is disrupted, since photosynthesis in the leaves stops. Affected leaves first turn yellow, wither and fall off. Spraying bushes in a greenhouse with Actellik and Fufanon leads to positive results.
Biological properties
This bug belongs to the class of insects, order Hemiptera (Hemiptera), family of shield bugs. The group of turtles is classified as a biological species of pests of cereal crops.
The insect reproduces bisexually and develops according to the type of incomplete metamorphosis, that is, bypassing the pupal stage.
With the onset of cold weather, young individuals hibernate, spending the winter under leaf litter in forest belts, gardens and summer cottages. The first bugs wake up in mid-April, when the daytime temperature reaches +14°C, and within a few days they fly to the fields. They move in the direction of the wind at a height of 2-3 m and cover distances of up to 100 km in search of food. At the moment of awakening, the number of males exceeds the number of females almost twice.
Males begin migration first, and by the time fertilization occurs, the gender ratio in the population is equalized. Depending on the geographical location, the flight takes time from mid-April to the end of May.
Notes
- [www.biolib.cz/cz/taxon/id17122/ BioLib] Profil taxonu - čeleď Scutelleridae Leach, 1815 (Czech)
- [fauna.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/full_results.php?id=12859 Fauna Europaea : Taxon Details] (English). 2013-08-29. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
- ↑ 1234
[bugguide.net/node/view/4874 BugGuide] Family Scutelleridae – Shield-backed Bugs - ↑ 123
[zooex.baikal.ru/hemipteroidea/scutelleridae.htm Zoological excursions around Baikal. Fauna in pictures]
Habitats
The turtle bug is found in fields, summer cottages and vegetable gardens. It is rare in houses, even old ones. The insect is active in the dry and warm season, and with the onset of autumn it falls into torpor. It is believed that it was brought to Europe from warm tropical countries, where this species has a life cycle of up to 10 months a year.
The turtle bug is found in vegetable gardens and fields.
The pest survived, adapted to the continental climate and now causes enormous damage to grain and vegetable crops.
Its main habitats are steppes and forest-steppes; in cold regions, these flying pests do not have time to produce full-fledged offspring in a short summer.
Mating period
The genitals of insects of different sexes differ markedly in external characteristics. The male and female have almost the same dimensions. Active mating begins approximately a week after the pests invade the crops.
The females, dropping their eggs, are always on the leaves of plants and do not try to find shelter even when the ambient temperature sharply drops. This period is especially destructive for wheat: white heads and sometimes rot appear. Mating activity subsides towards the beginning of July.
Life cycle
Active reproduction begins after wintering, when adult individuals gain strength and fly to fields and vegetable gardens.
1 female can lay up to 40 eggs in 1 clutch. During the summer season there can be 3-5 such clutches, depending on weather conditions. Insects make their first clutch 10-12 days after they find food.
The drier and longer the summer, the more active the pests are. Larvae emerge from eggs after 6-10 days and reach sexual maturity after 20-25 days. Externally, they differ from adult stink bugs only in size (2-5 mm in length).
The bugs that gave birth after winter die and are replaced by young pests that increase the population until the fall. Individuals at the adult stage go into hibernation; the survivors wake up and begin a new cycle of life.
The life cycle of an insect pest is interconnected with the development of cereal crops.
Preventive measures
In order to preserve the future harvest and avoid encounters with the parasite, it is necessary:
- carefully select material for planting grain crops.
- Remember the sowing rules - the planting depth should be optimal. In this way, more plants will sprout, which will have an adverse effect (little light and low temperature) on the survival of the bug larvae.
- Fertilize the soil. Ammonium nitrate and melt are especially suitable for this purpose - these substances have a detrimental effect on adult insects.
- Give preference to early varieties of cereal crops. You should also not delay harvesting and subsequent harvesting.
- Choose the place for sowing wisely - give preference to areas fenced with forest plantations.
Turtle bugs are one of the most common pests in our latitudes. However, timely preventive measures will help cope with insects and prevent damage to the crop.
What does it eat?
The harmful bug is fixed at the base of the stem, because active growth processes take place there, the leaf structure is loose and juicy. Then it moves higher as the bud rises upward.
The insect makes a puncture in the plant with its sharp proboscis, introduces digestive enzymes that corrode the inside of the stem and cause it to rot. The bug sucks out the decomposed tissues of the plant, and it can no longer bear fruit, since the flow from the root to the ovary is disrupted.
Particular harm is caused to the following crops:
- wheat;
- millet;
- corn;
- oats;
- raspberries;
- tomatoes;
- sweet pepper.
The turtle bug damages wheat.
Benefits and harms
The harmful turtle is a malicious pest of agricultural crops that does not benefit farmers. In the summer, the bug is active, causing significant damage both in the fields and in granaries.
The bug harms cereals throughout the growing season. Its activities lead to:
- death of the central leaf on young stems;
- white-headedness (whitening followed by drying of the ear);
- deformation of the spine of the spikelets;
- damages wheat grains;
- the defectiveness of the grain and its emptiness.
The turtle causes harm in the following way: it pierces the young stem at the base with its proboscis, sucking the juices from the plant. The parasite injects saliva into the green organism, which contains a special enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates. The damaged plant stops growing and dries out.
Punctures of the stem by the bug before heading of cereal crops lead to underdevelopment of the grains. Wheat gluten loses its elasticity under the influence of the saliva of the harmful turtle. This has a bad effect on quality characteristics.
The bug is voracious. Five adult individuals can destroy 50% of the vegetation per 1 m² of planting. The larva of a harmful turtle causes no less harm. It damages the central leaf, and inflorescences on cereals do not form.
Reference. As the air temperature rises, the pest moves en masse into gardens and vegetable gardens. It is often seen on tomatoes, cucumbers, and raspberries.
By feeding on the sap of tomato seedlings, the parasite leads to a decrease in planting yield. The bug does not cause much damage to raspberries. The main danger from the pest's activity is posed to cucumbers.
Why are they dangerous?
The bread bug is a harmful turtle that is not dangerous for humans and pets. You can hold the turtle in your hand without fear of an insect bite. The pest is not able to bite through human skin.
Attention. This type of bedbug does not suck blood. The insect does not carry dangerous diseases.
The harmful turtle is not a predator and does not destroy other insects.
What to do if there is a wound in the house
A harmful turtle sometimes flies into the window by mistake. There is no suitable food for her in the apartment. Grains that are stored in homes in the form of cereals are unsuitable for this pest to eat.
If an insect was found in a residential area, there is no need to take measures to exterminate it. The bug should be released outside.
Method of reproduction of a harmful turtle
The breeding process of bedbugs begins when the air temperature reaches 20°C and humidity does not exceed 40%. And after just one mating, the female can lay a clutch several times within a month, because she retains sperm in her body that is suitable for fertilizing eggs. Intervals between clutches range from 5 to 20 days.
The maximum life expectancy of a female in the climatic conditions of the middle zone is 55 days. Of these, she can bear offspring for 30 days. Males live less - 35-40 days - and are sexually active for half their life.
During the summer period, the female can lay up to 200 eggs. They look like greenish translucent millimeter-sized balls that are attached to plant stems. When the eggs change color to pink, it means they are about to hatch into larvae.
Development
The eggs are arranged in two, less often in three rows. The female can even lay them on post-harvest foliage or weeds. The harmful turtle is quite prolific and drops from 50 to 400 eggs at a time. The latter have an oval shape and a greenish tint.
As the egg develops, both pattern and color change. On the third day it becomes covered with small dark dots, and on the fourth day large brown oval spots begin to appear. After just a week, the color changes to orange, and by the ninth day the egg acquires a pink tint.
How to fight insects
Pest control is most effective when, after flying to the crops, they are on the soil surface.
If single individuals were not detected at the growth stage, then their presence on adult plants can be determined by the following characteristics:
- the presence of individual areas with wilted seedlings;
- unusual color of the fruit (dark spots on red tomatoes or sweet peppers, white ears on wheat, light spots on raspberries);
- drooping bunches of vegetables that are setting fruit.
The presence of a pest can be recognized by the unusual color of the fruit.
Natural enemies of the harmful turtle
The natural enemies of this type of bug are ants, centipedes, takins (or hedgehogs), the larvae of which eat turtle larvae. In addition, turtles are destroyed by ground beetles, spiders and birds. Therefore, the presence of the latter at the dacha is useful for preserving berries and vegetables.
Traditional methods
For gardeners who do not want to use insecticides and chemicals, the best way to save their crops from destruction are greenhouses and shelters.
Tall tomatoes, cucumbers, and sweet peppers are well preserved in greenhouses. In shelters under film you can grow dill, lettuce, parsley and other herbs.
Most often, folk remedies that summer residents use in their garden plots do not work on the stink bug. It does not react to wood ash, tobacco dust, onion peels, potassium permanganate and soap solution, which are used to treat plants to combat pests.
Mustard powder diluted in water (250 g per 1 liter of water) and garlic planted between the rows repel but do not kill the bug. Also, the bug does not like the smell of black cohosh. This perennial plant is popularly called “black cohosh” and is planted by gardeners along the perimeter of the site so that stink bugs do not fly onto it.
Mustard powder repels bedbugs.
But for high-quality crop protection, other measures must be taken: spraying, fumigation or pollination of plants.
Method using chemicals
To combat the turtle bug over a large area, organophosphorus compounds and pyrethroids have proven effective. These are neurotoxic poisons that block the receptor connections of insects and lead to their rapid destruction.
These include:
- “Rogor-S”;
- “Bi-58”;
- “Phosbecide”;
- “Talstar”;
- “Danadim”;
- “Sumition.”
“Rogor-S” helps fight the turtle bug.
These drugs have a prolonged effect and have a detrimental effect on pests even in conditions of high humidity, but are not recommended for use in garden plots due to their high toxicity. Chemicals are dangerous to humans, animals and bees.
Biological method
Biological pesticides are less dangerous for household use than chemical ones. This is due to the fact that such drugs contain substances of biogenic origin. These are analogues of natural compounds found in living organisms.
These include:
- concentrate-emulsion “Kinmiks”;
- “Fitoverma-M”;
- "Engio";
- “Ephoria KS”.
“Kinmiks” is a biological pesticide against the turtle bug.
Laboratory studies have proven that the effectiveness of these biomaterials is more than 80%.
But in order to avoid the larvae adapting to the toxic substance, it is necessary to change it at least once a season.
Natural enemies
Natural enemies of the harmful turtle include:
- predatory beetles;
- spiders;
- ants;
- birds.
Other enemies of the bug:
- The greatest danger to the bug is the tachina fly, called the golden phasia, and the Telenomus egg eater.
- Telenomus makes a clutch in the turtle egg, from which the larvae subsequently emerge. They eat the contents of the egg, leaving an empty shell.
- Contact with the gray phasia fly is also detrimental to the bug. She lays eggs on the body of a harmful turtle. The emerging larvae make their way inside the pest, weakening it and depriving it of the ability to reproduce.
- In the wintering area, bedbugs suffer from ground beetles and rove beetles. The species is also threatened by attacks from forest ants.
The harmful turtle is the most dangerous pest of cereal crops, causing significant damage to the agricultural industry. Using preventative measures helps prevent the problem. If infection occurs, it is necessary to immediately treat the crops with preparations with insecticidal properties.
How to get rid of bugs on plants
For different garden and vegetable plants, methods of control have their own characteristics. Also, control measures on a personal plot and on a farmer’s field will be different. Before poisoning stink bugs, it is necessary to check the weather forecast for the coming days. Substances that poison pests are easily washed off with water, so make sure that the weather center does not promise precipitation in the next 2 days.
To completely destroy bedbugs, treatment should be carried out twice with an interval of 15-20 days in order to get rid of not only adult insects, but also hatched young ones. The last treatment should be carried out no later than 2 weeks before harvest.
On wheat
The pest appears on winter wheat sprouts and barley seedlings when warm, dry weather lasts 3-4 days. If the fields are not cultivated before this time, they will be covered by a disease called “white ear”. This disease is determined by the light color of the ear, which will not be able to ripen and produce full-fledged grain. The reason is the stem damaged during the booting period.
The pest appears on wheat in dry weather.
The best time to monitor and treat crops is the second half of April, when warm daytime temperatures set in. If you are late with these actions, the plants will rise high above the ground and it will become difficult to detect the pest. Entomologists believe that a population of 3-4 shield insects per 1 m² already poses a danger to the crop.
Grain crops are treated en masse, by spraying over the fields, with chemical insecticides such as:
- “Contador Duo”;
- “Betadim”;
- “Kinmiks.”
The average consumption rate of the substance is 0.15 l/ha. These are two-component long-acting drugs that can be used against both larvae and adults.
On tomatoes
If mass wilting of tomatoes has begun in the area, this means that the bushes are infected with a pest. White or dark spots on the fruit are an indication that digestive enzymes have already entered under the thin skin of the tomato and the process of rotting has begun there. The berries become bitter in taste and cannot be stored for long periods of time.
If the tomatoes wilt, this means that the bushes are infected with a bug.
Intestinal poisons “Karbofos”, “Karate”, “Aktara” are well suited for spraying beds. If they enter the body of an insect, they disrupt digestion and lead to death.
On cabbage
The cabbage stink bug differs from the cereal one in color. The leaves of the cabbage are parasitized by brick-red bugs with black spots. They are also called “soldier bugs.” They are larger than their relatives and reach a length of 14 mm. They are easy to spot, but they need to be destroyed. The cabbage pest is characterized by increased fertility and accelerated maturation of the larvae. Two undetected “soldiers” in the spring can damage a large harvest.
Cabbage leaves become stained.
Cabbage leaves become covered with light yellow spots and subsequently begin to rot, infecting neighboring ones.
The cabbage stink bug can be repelled by the smell of black cohosh or kerosene. But if mass reproduction has already begun, then you will have to use the preparations “Belofos” or “Enzhio”, which have proven themselves excellent in the fight against bedbugs.
On the raspberry bushes
On raspberries you can find different types of stink bugs that parasitize berry bushes. These pests spoil currants, gooseberries, and honeysuckle. A distinctive feature of “raspberry” bugs is the greenish tint of their chitinous wings. They feed on the juice and pulp of the ripening crop, infecting it with a fungal infection.
The berries acquire a bitter taste and the smell of sour wine. Such raspberries are not even suitable for jam.
The best way to combat the parasite are bactericidal drugs: “Boverin” and “Bitoxibacillin”. These substances are safe for human health, but have a delayed effect and an unpleasant odor. Since the ripening time of raspberries is short, it is often impossible to get rid of this smell through natural ventilation. Therefore, summer residents choose a difficult and tedious way of fighting - collecting parasites with their hands in jars with a lid.
The use of chemical insecticides on berry bushes is strictly prohibited. This is due to the fact that it is impossible to wash off toxic substances from granular fruits.
Effective drugs
Insect control
How to treat wheat fields is an individual choice. There are many combination products available on the market.
- Aktara. A highly effective drug with an immediate effect. Treatment is carried out by spraying. Within an hour, the harmful turtle stops feeding and dies within 24 hours. The active components of Aktara provoke muscle paralysis and inevitable death of the harmful insect. It remains valid for about 30 days. Effectiveness is not affected by weather conditions unless it rains within 2 hours of spraying.
- Karate Zeon. A professional product to combat harmful insects. Available in the form of a concentrated emulsion. Before use, it must be diluted in cool water. It acts similarly to the first drug. Damage can be healed within a few days.
You can achieve quick, long-term results using combined methods. The use of poison in early spring significantly increases the chances of victory; by the time of harvest, the toxins are destroyed. The grain does not lose its taste and beneficial qualities. The owners of the fields reap a rich harvest.
It is necessary to periodically inspect fields with grain crops. Take emergency measures immediately after detecting a pest.
Prevention of occurrence
To identify the pest and prevent it from destroying the crop, monitoring of plants must be carried out at all stages of growth. The turtle can cause harm both during the growth phase and during the flowering period, and during the formation of the fruit ovary. If you notice even single representatives of this species, do not expect that you can do without treating the entire area with insecticides.
Particular attention should be paid to weed control on the site. Female stink bugs readily lay eggs on their leaves and stems.
Since bedbugs overwinter under leaves and in the upper layers of the ground, clearing the area of fallen leaves and planting the soil before frosts would be good preventive measures.
Morphology
. A bug with a broadly oval body, 9–13 mm long, 6–7 mm wide.
varies. Most often the covers are light brown, less often gray, light gray and even black.
large, wide, chitinized, covers
. On the top
usually rounded, but sometimes there are individuals with straight
. In the middle
clearly visible
. It is bordered laterally by triangular zygomatic plates. Side edges
rounded and convex.
The genitalia of different-sex individuals differ in external structure. The structure of the male genitalia is an important species characteristic. Secondary sexual characteristics are not designated.[1]
The egg is round, green. Diameter 1 – 1.1 mm. As it develops, it changes color and pattern. On the second - third day it is evenly covered with brown dots, on the third - fourth the light green color is restored, at the same time a dark round spot appears on the lid.
