Mole cricket or, as it is also called, cabbage weed, is quite widespread in our country. This is a soil pest that prefers to feast on tubers, bulbs and rhizomes of cultivated plants, as well as their seeds, which causes quite serious damage to agricultural land. Most often, mole cricket larvae are found in gardens, where the soil is always well cultivated and fertilized - it is in such soil that it is quite easy for the insect to make its tunnels. But in gardens where there is a lot of turf, this pest, as a rule, does not live, and if it does, it does not last long, trying to fly to the “cozy” garden as quickly as possible.
Medvedka. Description and photo
The mole cricket insect has clawed front legs, it is large, brownish-brown, so it is compared to a brown bear. Hence the name. Among the people , the beetle that loves to eat young cabbage seedlings has received a second name - “cabbage weed” .
Photo taken by: michel-candel Gryllotalpa – Orthoptera (license)
Photo taken by MirandaKate mole cricket (license)
There is also an official Latin name - Gryllotalpa, which means “mole cricket”. The cricket and the cabbage grass have a similar body structure and have the ability to make sounds . The similarity with a mole lies in the ability to move underground using the extended hands of the front legs.
The common mole cricket has a terrifying appearance. The length of her body, including the tail and mustache , is 12 cm.
Detailed description, photo and characteristics of the bear:
- cylindrical body shape
- body length 5-7 cm, head and abdomen are protected by a shell
- paired tentacles and long whiskers on the head
- two pairs of wings (the first are short and oval, the second are narrow and long), folded on the back, with the help of such wings the cabbage bird can fly up to a height of 5 m from the ground
- bulging, small eyes
- spatulate and massive front paws with claws, with the help of which the insect easily burrows into the ground
- the second paired limbs are long and thin, designed for rapid movement along the soil surface
- long hind legs allow the insect to jump
An example of adaptation and versatility. Runs fast, jumps, flies, swims and digs holes. Eats plants and animals. The head and abdomen are protected by a shell. That's why they are one of the most ancient types of insects.
You can see what a mole cricket and its larvae look like in the photo.
Fighting a mole cricket in a garden plot is not an easy task. Some of the larvae and adults are eaten by birds , insectivorous animals that also live underground. But gardeners still have to take measures to eliminate cabbage weed in order to save crops from death .
Often, summer residents themselves contribute to the appearance of a pest in the garden when they import manure to fertilize the soil in which cabbage mushrooms and their larvae live.
Appearance
You can see what a mole cricket and its larva look like in our article. This unique creature is unlike any other insect. You can see a photo of the kapustyanka below and get information about who the mole cricket is.
The common mole cricket reaches 7 cm, excluding the mustache and tail. With them, the length of an adult insect is 12 cm. The photo of the garden mole cricket looks terrifying and gives rise to various legends - the insect bites, the poison is deadly, etc.
Kapustyanka Photo and description of the mole cricket:
- Large insects with a cylindrical body shape and folded wings on the back reach a size of 12 cm, but the average body length is about 5 cm.
- Small but bulging eyes, like those of a crayfish, are clearly visible on the head.
- The forelimbs are spade-shaped and equipped with several claws. Strong, massive, designed for digging soil.
- The second pair of limbs are long, thin, and mobile. Helps the insect crawl quickly on the surface of the earth.
- The hind limbs are somewhat longer than the rest and springy. Allows you to jump well.
- The abdomen and head are protected by a dense shell. The abdominal cavity is 2 times larger than the thoracic cavity. The photo of the mole cricket demonstrates this well.
- On the head there are long mustaches and a pair of tentacles. The back of the body ends with long whiskers.
- Two pairs of wings are pressed tightly to the back. The first wings are oval-shaped and short. The second ones are long and narrow. Thanks to them, the mole cricket beetle can fly and rise 5 m high from the ground. The process of how a large insect flies can be described in one word - noisy. Only an adult bear is endowed with such capabilities.
The appearance of individual species may vary slightly. Due to underdeveloped or missing wings, the insect loses the ability to fly. Below is the mole cricket insect in the photo. Different species of this insect are distributed throughout the world. Habitat: fertile soil.
Medvedka
Appearance of the larva
The offspring emerge from the egg after 2 weeks. The mole cricket larvae look helpless - blind, inactive, the color is close to red. The mole cricket larva in the photo is located below.
The mole cricket larva After birth, it immediately begins to feed. They eat plant foods. A few days later, the earthen mole cricket goes through its first molt and turns into a nymph, resembling an adult in appearance. Transformation into a full-fledged individual is a long, dangerous process. Only strong nymphs can cope with it. The weak risk death. Photo and description of the larva are below. Before this, it looks like a caterpillar, resembles a cockchafer larva, but has some differences.
How long does an insect live - the formation of the imago occurs slowly. It takes about 2 years for the larva to mature. During this time, the individual goes through about 10 molts, at the last stage the genitals are formed.
An adult lives about 1.5 years. In artificially created conditions – 3 years. The entire life cycle lasts about 5 years.
What does mole cricket eat?
The mole cricket's diet is extensive: the root system, tubers, seeds, underground parts of the plant, young shoots. The pest likes fruit, vegetable, berry, garden, and melon crops:
- beet
- potato
- cabbage
- cucumbers
- pepper
- tomatoes
- melons
- watermelons
- sunflower
- strawberry
- parsley
- beans
- wheat
- oats
- corn
- millet
- various shrubs
One adult can destroy up to 15 plants per night.
In warm regions, the insect feeds on citrus fruits, cotton, tea, and peanuts. In gardens, trees that suffer from cabbage weed include cherry, pear, apple, peach, and apricot. In forests, the beetle's diet includes the roots of young trees: oak, pine, spruce, and beech.
An adult is a predator that eats worms, ladybugs, larvae of May and Colorado beetles. Plants often die because cabbage grass moves underground in search of animal food and damages the root system on its way.
larva feeds on small roots, seeds, worms, and small insect larvae, as it leads a sedentary lifestyle and has poorly developed jaws.
Wintering of insects
Naturally, adult (and not completely) individuals overwinter in soil balls of earth, humus or manure heaps. Going 60-120 centimeters deep, insects survive the cold season well.
With the advent of spring sunlight, warming the soil to 15 degrees, arthropods emerge from hibernation and begin an active lifestyle.
Where does the bear live?
Cabbage grass lives almost throughout the entire European territory, with the exception of the Netherlands, Finland, and Norway. Residents of the Caucasus, Southeast and Central Asia, India, China, the Japanese and Philippine Islands, Australia, South and North America, and the Northern regions of Africa have to fight the pest. In Russia, the insect is found almost everywhere, with the exception of the northern regions.
The beetle lives in damp places, meadows, near ponds, and lives in tunnels underground. The insect likes fertilized, warm, humus soil, so it is often found in summer cottages, wetlands and near irrigation canals.
Clutches of eggs
You can sometimes find them in abundance in your garden plot. In this case, they need to be destroyed as quickly as possible. A photo and description of a mole cricket larva allows you to figure out who has really settled on your site and how to deal with this alien.
These are one of the few insects that make their own nest. This is a small camera. Most often, masonry can be found under a layer of soil or in manure. Externally, the eggs can be confused with ant eggs, only they are much larger. After about three weeks, the larvae will emerge. Usually the nests are located shallow, about 10 cm below the surface of the ground.
Lifestyle of the mole cricket
Kapustyanka is an ancient species of insects that appeared on our planet among the first millions of years ago, so it is difficult to fight this pest. It is resilient and easily adapts to changes in the environmental conditions in which it lives.
Photos of the garden pest demonstrate that the mole cricket genus is orthoptera. With the help of its wings , the beetle moves long distances in search of food. A large number of legs that perform different functions allows it to swim .
Mole cricket wings
To understand how to get rid of a mole cricket, you need to know what kind of life this insect leads. During the daytime, it hides in underground passages and hunts mainly at night . You can see where the cabbage grass has crawled by the winding loosening of the soil and small holes in the ground. If a healthy plant grew nearby and began to die , then it was most likely spoiled by an insect pest.
Mole crickets lay their eggs in nests near plants. To ensure that the nest is well ventilated, the female constantly cleans the underground tunnels. She gnaws the roots of plants that cast a shadow on the nest, so the plant crops die. The mole cricket larva can also cause a lot of harm to gardeners. It gnaws small roots, after which the crop begins to hurt and wither.
The fight against cabbage weed must begin in the fall . All crops should be removed from the land, even fruits and roots that are not suitable for food. With the arrival of spring, the remaining fruits are good food for the insect.
Biological methods
The mole cricket has many natural enemies. First of all, these are birds. The greatest damage to the population is caused by rooks, crows, starlings and even ordinary chickens.
Hoopoe catching a mole cricket
It is recommended to let the latter out into the garden from time to time. Naturally, this needs to be done at a time when the chickens themselves cannot harm the crops; for example, before the beginning of periods of active growth of young plants, fruiting, harvesting, etc. Chickens are able to perfectly find mole crickets and their larvae and destroy them.
In addition, hedgehogs, lizards, shrews, moles and ants are involved in the destruction of mole crickets. Attracting, for example, a hedgehog to your garden is very simple - just place a saucer of milk in the garden every evening.
With birds, everything is also relatively simple - birdhouses or nest boxes on the site will significantly improve the situation with any harmful insects, including mole crickets.
There is also a highly specialized enemy of the mole cricket – the Larra anathema wasp. This type of wasp lays eggs exclusively in mole crickets, where their development occurs. After the larva matures, it leaves the host, who soon dies.
Larra anathema wasp, a natural enemy of the mole cricket
This insect does not pose any harm to humans, plants and other inhabitants of the garden, therefore, if you encounter this wasp, there is no need to destroy it. The wasp is quite widespread in the south of the European part of Russia, in the Krasnodar Territory, as well as in Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia.
If the issue of counteracting mole crickets is very pressing, you can also try to use wasps to combat them. Legumes are used to attract wasps. The “larru” is best attracted to a plant called “partridge pea”.
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Mole cricket reproduction
In the spring, when the soil warms up well, pests crawl out of their holes en masse. The mating season begins in May. Insects mate underground, and in the summer they already have offspring.
Kapusyankas are responsible and caring parents who carefully prepare for the appearance of their offspring. They dig underground passages in a special way to provide air access from different sides. A spherical nest, the diameter of which is 10 cm, is formed at a depth of about 5 cm. One such nest can contain up to 500-600 eggs; in appearance they resemble millet grains - oval, yellow-gray, about 2 mm long.
The female is constantly at the nest, providing the necessary temperature and ventilation. After about 15 days, the eggs hatch into larvae that look similar to the offspring of the cockchafer.
Mole cricket larva
Description of the larva:
- small gray creature
- body size 3 cm, covered with a dense shell
- has 6 legs
- without wings
The female for about a month , after which she dies . The strengthened larvae begin an independent life, dig holes and look for food. To acquire the appearance of a full-fledged adult, the mole cricket larva goes through a long period of development, including 4 stages:
- egg
- larva
- nymph
- imago
Full development takes up to 2 years. molts 10 times ; the formation of the genital organs occurs at the last stage of the individual’s maturation.
Mole cricket eggs
Mole cricket nymphs
Mole cricket in late nymph stage
Mole cricket in the imago stage (adult)
Mechanism of action of the drug "Prestige 290 FS"
The active substance imidacloprid blocks impulse transmission at the receptor level in the postsynaptic membrane. The active component pencikuron is able to penetrate the cuticle of the plant. The substance is an inhibitor of myceium germination. Pencycuron affects the functional state of the nucleus and cell, slows down stearic biosynthesis, as well as the interaction of fatty acids. There is also a significant decrease in glucose content (transport forms). The product "Prestige 290 FS" is characterized by a high rate of activity from the moment of processing. To soak the roots of seedlings, make a solution in the proportion of 100 ml of the drug per 10 liters of water. The product provides protection not only from pests, but also from some diseases. Exposure time is from six to eight hours.
Natural enemies of mole crickets
The beetle is to the taste of many animals, is susceptible to fungal diseases, and acts as an intermediate link in the reproduction cycle of other insect species.
Moles feed on cabbage grass ; birds, lizards, rodents, toads, and spiders prey on it.
Burrowing wasp and mole cricket
Wasps lay eggs in the insect's body. The body of the cabbage plant serves as food for the hatched larvae.
How to deal with a mole cricket
Summer residents are constantly looking for an answer to the question of how to get rid of mole crickets in the garden forever. To achieve this, there are many preventive measures and methods of pest control: the use of all kinds of chemical and biological preparations, traps, repellers, and folk remedies. It is better to start the fight with folk remedies that do not harm the soil and plants and do not lead to the death of worms. If the effect of the methods used is small, then you can move on to more radical measures and use chemicals.
When deciding how to deal with mole crickets, you need to understand that an insect that managed to survive mammoths will not be easy to destroy. An integrated approach is needed, which includes several methods of struggle.
The most effective fight against mole crickets is in the spring, when the larvae and adults have not yet fully awakened and there are no cultivated plants on the land plot.
By May, the number of adults in gardens increases. During this period, the beetles leave their wintering places, crawl to the surface and mate. It is important have time to fight the insect before the eggs are laid. In May, there is still little vegetation in the gardens, so the cabbage grass willingly crawls into traps and baits and eats the poison.
Traps
Adherents of ecological farming should figure out how to deal with mole crickets in the garden using traps. Local places with favorable conditions for insect habitat and reproduction are created on the site. Traps are effective in spring and fall.
To form a trap, make a hole , the width and depth of which should not exceed 50 cm. Polyethylene , and a mixture of straw and manure is sprinkled on top. In the spring, cabbage ducks look for such places for nesting, and in the fall - for wintering.
After about 30 days the trap is checked. If adults, eggs or larvae appear in it, then the polyethylene should be removed along with the contents and burned . frosts occur , manure along with nests must be scattered over the land. During this period, insects are no longer active and will not be able to hide underground, so they die from sub-zero temperatures.
Mole cricket trap
Folk remedies
The fight against mole crickets is based on the behavioral characteristics and food preferences of the pest.
- Proper soil cultivation. The soil must be dug up twice a year: in autumn and spring. During digging, the underground tunnels and burrows of the cabbage plant are destroyed and the larvae are destroyed.
- Baits with a poisonous substance. The method is suitable for early spring, when the first plants have not yet sprouted in the garden. To construct the bait, steam wheat, corn or barley and sprinkle it generously with Aldrin (an odorless powdered pesticide). For 1 kg of grain you will need about 50 g of the substance. The prepared grain is placed in different places on the land. After some time, you need to walk through the area and collect dead pests.
- Using vegetable oil and soapy water. For this method it is necessary to discover the entrances to underground tunnels. Pour soapy water in large quantities or drop a few drops of oil. The soap solution is prepared in arbitrary proportions using laundry soap or washing powder.
- Shadow traps. The effectiveness of the method is based on behavioral factors. On warm spring days, the insect crawls to the surface to bask in the sun. To destroy the pest, shadow traps are organized. Take dense dark material, which quickly heats up under the sun's rays, and lay it out over the area. Bait with poison is placed under pieces of such material After a few days, all that remains is to walk through the garden to collect the “harvest.”
- Water and beer traps. Cabbage grass is attracted by the smell of beer and honey, so jars are buried , the neck of which is placed at the level of the soil surface.
The jar is filled 1/3 with beer. A board is placed on the neck, leaving a gap of 1.5 cm. Beer can be replaced with water. But in this case, the neck of the container is lubricated with honey. Beer trap for mole cricket - Formation of mechanical barriers. Seedlings and young plants can be protected with plastic. plastic bottles are dug around the bed . When planting seedlings, you can put a nylon stocking on each plant. In this case, large roots will be protected from the pest, and damage to small roots that will penetrate through the holes in the nylon will not affect the health of the plant.
- Application of chicken manure . The droppings must be diluted with water, water the plants with the resulting solution and pour it into the beetle holes. Chicken manure contains many beneficial substances for soil and plants. Nitrogen, which is part of the droppings, is a means of combating the pest, as it makes it difficult to breathe underground. The insect will not die from it, but will immediately leave the land plot. To breed cabbage weed, you need to use only chicken manure. Applying cow dung will increase the number of beetles in your garden.
- Summer residents often use the proven Michurin method of getting rid of cabbage weeds. It will require sand to which a few drops of kerosene . Such sand must be spread out into the holes in small quantities.
- The insect does not like the smell that rotting fish gives off. At the beginning of the summer season, fish heads are buried along the edges of the beds. The “treasure” gradually begins to decompose and expels the pest from the area with its smell.
If within 2 years of use folk remedies do not lead to the desired result, it is necessary to use chemicals.
Chemicals
The fight against mole crickets in the garden using chemicals involves the use of imported and domestic preparations. They are available in powder or granule form and are always effective in controlling insects.
Preparations that have proven themselves well among gardeners:
- Medvetox - the drug is intended for the destruction of cabbage grass and garden ants, does not harm the soil and earthworms
- Rembek - the drug has a long-lasting effect, fights cabbage grass, chafer beetles, and garden ants
- Medvetsid - granules that lead to the death of the insect within 3 hours after eating
Calcium carbide , which gardeners place in small quantities in the pest's holes, 5 g in each hole, will also help get rid of mole crickets During the reaction with water, acetylene gas is released, which fills all underground passages and leads to the death of the insect.
Ultrasonic repellers
If you are interested in the question of how to get rid of mole crickets without using chemicals and traps, then you can use ultrasonic repellers. This expensive but effective remedy will help get rid of not only cabbage weeds. Snakes, moles, and shrews, which are unwanted guests in summer cottages, respond to ultrasound.
The device is safe for humans, plants and pets. The sound produced by the device has a special frequency that is unbearable for pests, and they will try to move away from the device.
Biological agents
Experienced summer residents know how to deal with cabbage grass without destroying beneficial insects - with biological products. For these purposes, the powder preparation Boverin is used. It is the causative agent of a fungal disease that can infect the body of an insect. The drug contains fungal spores. When they enter the body of a pest, they begin to grow and lead to its death. The composition of Boverin is safe for humans, animals, birds and other insects.
Another popular biological product is Nemabact. It contains bacteria and predatory nematodes. The nematode is able to penetrate the body of the larva and infect it with bacteria. As a result, decomposes . Nemabact provides good results in pest control, but it must be used and stored correctly.
The drug can only be used at an air temperature of no more than +25ºC, distributing it over the beds. You can use the refrigerator for storage.
Mole cricket (cabbage moth) is a pest that can destroy almost the entire crop in the garden; peaceful coexistence with this beetle is impossible. The insect is resilient, so to remove it from a summer cottage it is necessary to use a set of control methods. In addition, preventive measures should be carried out, such as mandatory digging of the soil to a depth of 15 cm in autumn and spring.
Prevention measures
A mole cricket can appear in any area at any time, thanks to its ability to fly. In search of food, insects can travel long distances. Therefore, you need to always be on alert, making sure that pests such as mole crickets do not appear in the garden.
Useful tips:
- Be sure to dig up the soil in spring and autumn.
- Although manure is an excellent fertilizer, it is with it that mole crickets can enter the site.
- It is better to plant plants such as marigolds, chrysanthemums, coriander, etc. along the perimeter of the site.
- Apply mulch between rows to reduce soil temperature.
- Monitor humidity standards, especially in the greenhouse.
The mole cricket is a rather harmful insect that threatens the plantings of various garden crops. It is especially dangerous for planting potatoes, although it is considered an omnivore, and especially loves cabbage, which is why it is popularly called cabbage. If it is found on the site, you need to immediately take measures to get rid of such a voracious insect.
HOW TO FIGHT MEDVAKKA, THE SIMPLE WAY
