What is the name of the red beetle with black dots?

Many people admire insects, not at all suspecting that some of them cause enormous damage to agricultural crops. In total, there are about 760 thousand species of various insects on Earth, among which there are more than 300 thousand beetles.

The order of beetles is divided into 3 suborders - ancient beetles, carnivorous and heterovorous. The first, richly represented in the past, contains only a few dozen species existing today, but it is also the source for the other two. Among such diversity, red beetles with black dots and, conversely, black beetles with red spots stand out against the background of greenery.

The article provides information about the more common and frequently encountered ones.

General information about beetles

Before we find out what red beetles with black dots are called, we will find out what insects are - beetles.

These are the most diverse and numerous types of insects, living in almost all areas of land and water - in the tundra, deserts, mountains, forests, fresh water bodies, and even in human habitation.

Beetles differ greatly from each other in appearance and size. Some are so tiny that they cannot be seen, others, for example, like the goliath beetle, can reach 15 centimeters in length.

How do red mites reproduce?

Like all mites, red mites are oviparous insects.

The active breeding season can occur between March and July, the exact dates depending on local weather and general climatic conditions of the current season.
Repeated oviposition can occur in the fall, but in the middle zone this does not happen every year.
If the laying was done in the fall, but the larvae did not have time to complete their development, they can overwinter in the soil under the cover of snow and continue growing in the spring, after the sun warms the ground again.
Each clutch can contain from several hundred to several thousand eggs.
The incubation period of eggs takes from 1 to 2 months.
After hatching, the larvae begin to parasitize insects; the stage lasts 1–2 weeks.
After turning into an adult insect, red mites repeat the entire reproduction cycle again.

Larvae are the most voracious stage of parasite development.

Structural features of beetles

The red beetle with black dots on its wings (shown in the photo below), like all other varieties of beetles, has its own structural features. The main distinguishing feature of beetles is their strong and rigid fore wings (or elytra), which when folded form a chitinous shell that protects the thinner second pair of wings - membranous.

There are so many creatures in the world who want to dine on bugs that others had to acquire such hard chitinous armor to protect their bodies. Like all insects, beetles have a head, thorax (abdomen) and thorax. Their jaws (three pairs in total) are extremely powerful and durable. Most beetles have good eyesight, but they rely mainly on their sensory organs of touch, the antennae located on the sides of their heads.

The heart is located inside the abdomen, and it is protected by a strong chest plate (pronotum). The abdomen also contains the intestinal tract, stomach and the entire respiratory system.

Many beetles have two pairs of wings, of which the lower ones are used for flight, hidden in a sitting position under the chitinous elytra. Before taking off, the beetle raises its elytra, and only then spreads its delicate, thin wings.

In total, like other insects, the beetle has 6 legs attached to the thoracic region of the body.

Prevention measures

It is enough to follow a number of rules to prevent the invasion of soldier beetles in your garden or summer cottage. For example:

Soldier beetles love legumes and alfalfa, so it is better to plant them in a separate area.
Alfalfa and weeds must be mowed so that no stems remain (at the root).
It is better to burn the remaining weeds, if any.
Do not allow rotting wood to remain on the site.
It is better to treat the trunks of fruit and berry crops with lime, and dig up the root zone well.
You should not get carried away with excessive fertilization of the soil on the site.

The soldier beetle is not a common pest, but under certain conditions, it can harm the future harvest. Bed bugs attack young shoots and plants more, so it is advisable to take a number of actions to prevent these pests, and others, from appearing on the site. There are pests that cause much more serious damage. In any case, it is necessary to take care of the future harvest, since a lot of work is put into it.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YC-dQz7A2LY%3Frel%3D0

Ladybugs family

Even small children are familiar with these cute little bugs. They are well known for their lack of fear of humans and their bright red coloration.

The best known is the seven-spotted ladybug (a red beetle with black dots), although their species diversity is enormous.

In total, there are 5,200 species in the world in the family Ladybugs, in the order Coleoptera. This means that their relatives are numerous species of beetles. Some individuals are red with black dots, others have irregularly shaped spots instead of dots, and others are black with red spots. Very rare, but there are ladybugs of the same color, with a black color.

Prevention measures

It is enough to follow a number of rules to prevent the invasion of soldier beetles in your garden or summer cottage. For example:

Soldier beetles love legumes and alfalfa, so it is better to plant them in a separate area.
Alfalfa and weeds must be mowed so that no stems remain (at the root).
It is better to burn the remaining weeds, if any.
Do not allow rotting wood to remain on the site.
It is better to treat the trunks of fruit and berry crops with lime, and dig up the root zone well.
You should not get carried away with excessive fertilization of the soil on the site.

Soldier bug. In excellent quality. Full HD 1080p

Watch this video on YouTube

Description of the ladybug

These are small red beetles with black dots (photo can be seen below) with a rounded, convex body. The lower part of their body is completely flat. Their usual coloring is red, black and yellow in contrasting tones. The head is small. The legs are short, thin, and black. Body length is 5-8 mm.

In sunny weather, these heat-loving insects are active: they crawl hastily, quickly take off and land on plants again in search of food. Their flight is very easy, fast and silent.

Typically, the victims of ladybugs are sedentary insects, and therefore hunting for them involves only eating the victim.

Red tick in dogs

Dogs, just like people, are not food for red ticks. Insects do not specifically attack them and do not stick to them in large numbers, so red ticks in dogs are mostly a myth. At the same time, insects may end up in a dog’s fur simply because the dog was lying on the ground, and the larvae may try to bite because they cannot discern whether the food in front of them is suitable or not. Such bites are not dangerous to animals and are unlikely.

If you find red ticks attached to your dog, in the vast majority of cases these are one of the types of blood-sucking ticks. Tick bites are extremely dangerous for dogs, mainly due to tick-borne encephalitis, so as soon as you discover a parasite on your pet or notice any alarming symptoms in his behavior or appearance, contact your veterinarian immediately. This must be done even if you pulled out the tick yourself.

Distribution, features

Ladybugs are distributed throughout the world. They live on all continents of the world except Antarctica. Ladybugs inhabit open spaces with herbaceous vegetation - gardens, meadows, forest edges, steppes, and less often - forests. They form clusters only during wintering, but otherwise live alone. In search of food, they crawl along the leaves and stems of plants, and can also fly over long distances.

The peculiarity of these beetles is that when threatened, they secrete a rather sharp-smelling, poisonous yellowish liquid that scares away enemies. Only a few species of these beetles are harmful to crops. The rest (predatory species) destroy scale insects, aphids, psyllids and other pests of garden and garden crops.

The ladybug is not always a red beetle with black dots (the photo demonstrates this). Some of the varieties have a yellow outfit with black dots, others are black with red dots. There are even white ladybugs! All of these are young beetles that have recently emerged from the pupa. They acquire their normal adult colors several hours after birth.

Garden pests

We have already written in detail about the pests of each specific garden crop: about the “enemies” of potatoes, cabbage, beets, and parsley. And also about effective methods of combating them.

All garden pests in tables with descriptions, photos and control measures
We have compiled a “dossier” for you on each pest - save this collection!

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 the sake of brevity, under the conventional name of beneficial and harmful “bugs”, 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 functioning of plants. In addition, many of their species are capable of spreading diseases in the form of viruses and promoting the formation of various pathological anomalies (such as galls) in plants.

These are a variety of 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 (bighead), which “cuts” the leaves and young shoots of corn, sunflowers and other vegetables.

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

These are various cutworms, holey leaves, and sometimes stems of tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, potato tubers, carrots and beets.

These are leafhoppers (slobbering pennies) that destroy the leaves and ovaries of almost all garden plants.

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

These are miners that dig oblong tunnels in the leaves of legumes, cucumbers and tomatoes.

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

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

How to deal with mole crickets - effective drugs and folk remedies
Don’t know how to get rid of mole crickets on your property? Our recipes will help you protect your garden crops from this underground pest.

Is it true that the above is already enough to seriously concern yourself with the health and safety of your garden?

Of course, harmful insects can be successfully controlled using chemical methods, but this article will discuss another possibility. Let's take a look at the “bright side of the force” and find out how you can save yourself from dangerous “bugs” with the help of their relatives - insect predators and parasites. It turns out that it is often cheaper and more effective.

Varieties

Among the many varieties of ladybugs, there are, as noted above, not only red beetles with black dots, but also black and red in color.

The four-spotted ladybug is a black beetle with 4 large red spots on the elytra and a body length of up to 6 mm. This is a ubiquitous common species. They destroy colonies of sedentary insects that suck juices from plants: scale insects, scale insects and hermes.
The two-spotted ladybird is a species that is variable in color. Usually these are beetles with a black pronotum and red elytra, each with a black spot. The body is up to 5 mm long. They destroy (both beetles and larvae) aphids.
The broad-fronted ladybug is a black beetle with 2 red spots on the elytra. The body is 3 mm long and covered with hairs. Both larvae and beetles feed on scale insects and aphids, and during its full development cycle, one beetle can destroy more than 600 pests.

What harm do insects and their larvae cause?

Some time ago, the soldier bug was not considered a harmful insect at all: it crawled and crawled on its own, without bothering anyone. But science, studying an increasing number of plants, insects and animals, got to him and delivered a verdict - guilty!

In addition to the fact that soldiers, like aphids, eat sap and are scavengers, their aggression towards beneficial insects, for example, lacewings, has recently become noticed.

With soldiers, everything ends up the same as with aphids, the leaves become bent, the shoots stop growing. Photosynthesis decreases, the plant’s consumption of nutrients is reduced, hence the reduction in yield. It often happens that plants attacked by hordes of beetles simply die. And fruits and berries, speckled with bites from such insects, look, to say the least, not at all attractive.

Grape plantings are at particular risk, and, by the way, these bugs are seen there most often. The strength and durability of the soldiers' proboscis is quite enough to pierce the grape stems and the fruits themselves, turning them into something wrinkled and completely unattractive. You need to constantly fight soldier bugs, and now we will tell you how.

Distribution and behavior of toy soldiers

Beetles live in temperate climate zones in Eurasia, and are also found in North Africa and North America. The bug can be seen at almost any time of the year, except winter. There are especially many of them in the spring, when the sun warms up well. They sit in small groups in open areas.

On trees, red beetles with black dots take a liking to old bark. They are also located on loose boards, on bricks, on fences, and even in houses they can be seen in rural areas. In essence, these insects are completely harmless.

The composition of their diet includes fruits that have fallen to the ground, seeds, and plant juice. Their main feature is that they sometimes eat their relatives when they live in large colonies.

At the end of autumn, beetles with red backs and black dots lie down for the winter under fallen leaves, under the bark of trees and in other places sheltered from the wind and severe frosts. With the onset of winter, soldiers enter the adult insect stage. Nature has endowed them with an unpleasant odor to repel natural enemies.

Preventive methods

Preventive methods are necessary in order to eliminate the risk of re-appearance of “uninvited guests” in your home.
So, the first thing to remember is not to make large stocks of cereals. You should keep no more than a month's supply. The longer the cereal sits in your house, the higher the likelihood of weevils appearing in food. The second preventive method is to decompose all cereals into separate bags and store them in different places (for example, on different shelves). After purchasing cereals, you can place them in the freezer for a day as a preventive measure, and then put them on a shelf intended for storing food.

Use airtight containers to store cereals and be sure to monitor the expiration date of the product.

The kitchen should always be clean and tidy. If you spill something, immediately clean up after yourself. Once a week, wipe all shelves with soapy water or adding a drop of aromatic oil.

You can also place garlic cloves, cloves and other fragrant plants on the shelves.

Ventilate food – this is also an important rule of prevention. If you follow all these basic rules, then there will be nothing left for pests to leave your home, since you will deprive them of food and will also drive away pungent odors from your apartment

Tips and tricks for storing cereals

Capacity. Avoid disposable bags. They are easy to chew through. Try to use sealed containers or plastic. Before pouring the cereal into the container, be sure to rinse it. You can even use soap or dishwashing detergent. Wait for the cereal to dry completely and pour it into the prepared container.
Purity. Keep your kitchen shelves clean.

Shrenk's Blister

Red beetles with black dots also include the Schrenk's blister beetle. He is easily recognizable by his bright, characteristic appearance. Its elytra are red or orange, with transverse stripes and black spots. The body is distinguished by dense hair.

On sunny days, these beetles can be seen sitting one or several individuals on flowers. They are usually slow and lethargic. Their larvae are more mobile than adults. Penetrating into locust egg capsules, they feed on their eggs.

These insects received this name due to the fact that their blood contains poison (cantharidin), which strongly irritates the skin and causes the appearance of water blisters (abscesses). It may also happen that an animal that swallows this beetle with grass will get sick and die.

The carpet beetle bites

The bite of the skin beetle is painful and often dangerous - infection with parasites. For people with sensitive skin it will appear as bright red spots, for others it will appear as small harmless dots. The larvae spread the viral infection wherever they crawl. To get rid of it, you need to clear the room of both the bug and the eggs.

Skin beetle bites are painful for children and women. If a skin beetle has bitten you, use a disinfectant or hydrogen peroxide or alcohol to treat the bite site. An allergic reaction is relieved with an antihistamine. For quick healing, use a moisturizer if there is no infection. If inflammation appears, you should see a doctor.

How dangerous are these insects?

The main danger of skin beetle larvae is their gluttony and indiscriminate eating. If in wild (or semi-wild) nature they feed mainly on the remains of dead animals - wool, dried and hardened meat, skins, skin, chitinous coverings of dead insects, feathers, sometimes even dry grass - then in apartments they look for substitutes for such food, and easily damaged:

Fur
Wool knitwear
Leather shoes and clothes
Carpets made of natural wool or cotton
Various collections – herbariums, insect collections
Skins
Stuffed animals and birds
Various animal products - cheeses, sausages, dried fish and meat, meat and bone meal, dog and cat food
Cereals and groceries (by the way, they are not eaten by the larvae of all types of skin beetles)

This is, for example, what a fur coat looks like after encountering skin beetle larvae:

And it is clear that if, say, no one is particularly upset because of a kilogram of damaged cereal, then a chewed expensive fur coat, or good shoes with ugly furrows, is serious damage.

On a note
Skin beetle larvae can eat any tissue of the animal body, except bones. This is used in some museums: the remains of animals whose bones they want to preserve for collections are specially placed in a room where thousands of beetles and their larvae are located, and in a few days these voluntary cleaners “remove” absolutely everything from the bones, including ligaments, tendons and places muscle attachments. After their work, the bone will not rot or stink - there is simply nothing left that could rot.

Moreover, due to their small size, immediately after hatching from eggs, the larvae of skin beetles can get through the smallest cracks into boxes, for example, with collections of insects . Of course, doors to closets with fur coats and sweaters will definitely not stop them.

It is interesting that larvae can begin their destructive activity in an apartment, for example, in a sofa drawer, or behind a baseboard, where they will simply eat microscopic exfoliating pieces of skin, hair and the remains of cockroaches. And when they grow up and their appetites increase, they will already go in search of more abundant sources of food. And at this stage the larva is already dangerous for things: it can gnaw through a sweater, “shave” a stain on a fur coat, or make holes in the carpet. And when there are many such larvae, this danger increases many times over.

For example, in the photo there is litter damaged by larvae:

And here are slippers, forgotten under the sofa and found by hungry leather-fed children:

In fact, this can happen to any natural fabric - leather beetles will happily eat silk, cotton, and wool. And if they get on a leather sofa, they will gnaw the leather too.