- Garden bugs: harm and benefit
- Useful garden bugs for the vegetable garden Macrolophus
- Perillus
- Podizus
- Green forest shieldweed
- Do garden bugs bite or not?
Proper planting and proper care of garden crops does not yet guarantee a good harvest, because throughout the entire season, each plant is a potential “victim” of various diseases, rodents and parasites, such as the stink bug and other representatives of this suborder. Let's figure out what kind of garden bugs the family of stink bugs are, why they are harmful and useful.
Garden bugs: harm and benefit
Gardens and vegetable gardens are home to a large number of garden bugs, some of which are not only harmful, but also those that can be beneficial. All of them belong to the Shield family, which has more than 4 thousand subspecies, which differ in color, shape and body size. The insect species got its name due to the presence on its body of a hard, massive shield with elytra.
But among these creatures there are also beneficial species - predatory bugs that feed on pests such as Colorado potato beetles, aphids, caterpillars and other pests. They are an effective means of combating agricultural parasites, which is why they are specially bred.
Are predatory bugs enemies or friends of humans?
Predators are pests that feed on other individuals. Moreover, some of them attack brothers of a different species, but of the same family.
There is no fight against such insects, because they help destroy many dangerous pests, for example, the Colorado potato beetle.
From this point of view, predators can be considered man's friends. But they are not that safe.
Predatory bugs
Do garden bugs bite?
When meeting a predator, you need to remember that it will not attack purposefully. Such individuals do not feed on blood; in most cases they need plant sap. However, in the tropics there are also dangerous bugs.
Pests of these species bite, and quite painfully.
Only, unlike tropical predators, those insects that are found in Russia will not attack a person as long as he is at a safe distance. They bite for the purpose of protection, nothing more.
Varvara, 38 years old, Omsk
I happened to encounter a black and red bug (not a soldier bug, but another one). Oh, and the bite was painful. I didn’t see him at first, I noticed him already at the moment of the attack. Now I'm afraid to walk in the grass.
Garden bug bites can be very painful
Useful garden bugs for the vegetable garden
Breeding predatory bugs on an industrial scale and using them as a harmless alternative to toxic pesticides to kill various pests is now actively practiced in the agricultural sector.
On the territory of Russia, only a few subspecies of useful Shield insects have taken root, which were able to adapt to our harsh climate.
Macrolophus
A polyphagous bug from the horsefly family. The adult individual has an elongated body (2.7-3.7 mm) with a light green color. Most often, this insect is used on closed ground (in greenhouses) to protect tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, sweet peppers and ornamental crops from aphids, thrips, spider mites, tomato leafminer moths and whiteflies.
Every day, one Macrolophus individual destroys 30 adult whitefly larvae or about 40 aphid adults. During its life, this predator is capable of eating 2.5 thousand whitefly larvae or 3.5 thousand whitefly eggs.
Perillus
A predatory bug from the order of secretive bugs of the Shield family. The length of an adult is 8-12 mm. These insects are distinguished by their bright appearance: their black shell is decorated with red or orange spots, and on their head they have a proboscis that resembles a sharp beak, with which they pierce the flesh of the victim and suck the juices from it.
The favorite food of adult bedbugs and their larvae are the eggs and larvae of the Colorado potato beetle. Perillus is most active in hot weather. During its development, the larva of the predator eats 250 eggs of the beetle, and the adult destroys 3.5 thousand eggs of the potato pest during its life.
These insects also feed on aphids, thrips, spider mites, butterfly eggs and whitefly larvae.
Podizus
A polyphagous bug from the Scutellidae family. Its homeland is North America, but in Russia it is bred for pest control. The body of adult individuals is brown and reaches a length of 14 mm.
These predators are unable to tolerate cold, so every spring new crop defenders have to be released into the sown fields. The Podizus menu includes over nine dozen species of coleopteran and lepidopteran insects, including the Colorado potato beetle, potato moth, white American butterfly, etc.
Features and harm caused
The insect is distributed almost everywhere and is voracious and polyphagous. Among flowers, it most often settles on chrysanthemums, asters, roses and dahlias; it also prefers gerbera, hydrangea, nasturtium and calendula.
Damages some field crops, as well as vegetables and berries - beets, legumes, flax and strawberries, and sometimes harms lawn plantings, especially meadow fescue.
The adult has a body length of up to 7 mm, a brownish or greenish color and a characteristic pattern in the form of spots and dark lines. The larvae are light-colored and resemble the adult in appearance. Meadow bugs overwinter in plant debris and fallen leaves in autumn. In the spring, with the arrival of warmth, the flight of insects begins, and subsequently their mating.
Females are capable of laying up to 200 curved, oblong eggs directly into the tissue of stems and leaf petioles, and in some cases they lay translucent eggs singly or in groups in the main veins.
After a week or a week and a half, the larvae appear and begin feeding, becoming imago-like, sucking the juice from flowers, foliage, stems and buds. Individuals are active during the day and love warm weather - hot, dry days usually cause mass reproduction. The development of larvae takes about a month.
During the season, depending on environmental conditions, from 2 to 4 generations of the meadow bug can develop. Damage to plants appears as discolored whitish areas, which subsequently acquire a brown tint.
For example, if dahlias are affected by the meadow bug, their damaged leaves curl and fall off, and the buds often cannot open and produce deformed inflorescences. Shoots affected by the bug are often twisted.
Garden bugs pests
As for Shield insects, which pose a threat to garden and vegetable crops, there are a great many of them living on the territory of Russia. Entomologists conditionally divide them into two subgroups:
- summer cottages are parasites that feed only on the juices of fruit and berry plants;
- forest bugs - bugs that live in forests and feed on wild vegetation, but easily switch to garden crops.
Green forest shieldweed
The main distinguishing feature of the pest is its bright green color. The length of adults is 1.5 cm.
These garden bugs live on trees in forested areas, but they can often be found in the garden or vegetable garden at the dacha. The forest green shield bug reproduces in those places where it feeds, so that the hatched larvae can immediately find food. Their favorite delicacy among garden crops are raspberry and currant bushes and herbaceous plants.
Shield berry
The habitat of parasites is gardens where there are berry bushes, and they eat not only the foliage of plants, but also the fruits, thereby completely destroying the crop. One female lays about 400 eggs.
The garden bug, the berry bug, is also called the stink bug because of the strong, unpleasant odor that it emits upon contact or if it is crushed. The hatched larvae go through five stages of development. Adults have a burgundy shell and a yellow belly. Stink berry bugs overwinter as adults and emerge in April.
Harmful turtle
This representative of the family poses the greatest danger to cereal crops, because they constitute its main diet. In the absence of usual food, the harmful turtle feasts on garden plants.
The insect got its name due to its external resemblance to a turtle. Thanks to their well-developed wings, these bugs can easily travel long distances. Turtles are characterized by high fertility (the female lays 15 eggs in one season), so it is difficult to get rid of them.
Eurydema northern
Cruciferous Shield with a variegated pattern on the body (bright spots of yellow, red or white are located on a black background). The length of an adult is 5.5-8 mm.
Externally, the pest resembles a soldier bug. Intensive growth of the population of this dangerous pest occurs with the onset of heat, so planted seedlings of various vegetable crops can be completely destroyed within just a few days. Eurydema northern feeds on leaves of cabbage, radish, radish, etc.
Pear lacemaker
This garden bug got its name because of the translucent beige cells covering its body, which resemble openwork weaving. The maximum body length of an adult insect is 3.3 mm.
The favorite habitats and feeding places of the pear laceweed are fruit trees (pears, plums, apple trees, apricots, etc.). Pests overwinter under tree bark, fallen leaves, and in hollows. They awaken with the appearance of the first leaves, and when warm weather sets in, they can fly 5 km from their wintering place.
Cucumber bug
A small (up to 3 mm) black parasite, endowed with the ability to jump well. Occupies the back side of cucumber leaves.
The cucumber bug feeds on the leaves of cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers and eggplants. The parasite feels comfortable in the shade and dampness, so it settles down on the back side of the leaf, which does not always allow gardeners to detect it in time.
This subspecies of Shield insects is one of the most dangerous enemies of cucumbers, such as whiteflies, spider mites and melon aphids.
Italian bug
A representative of the Shield family with a flattened wide body up to 11 mm long, painted bright red with black longitudinal stripes. Under the shield there are two pairs of wings, which provide the bug with the ability to fly well.
The diet of adults and larvae consists of the juice of the tissues of umbrella garden plants (dill, carrots, etc.). The parasite feeds on plant seeds and young parts (tops, bases of leaf blades).
A large amount of damage leads to the death of the plant. The Italian bug has odorous glands, like the stink bug, from which an unpleasant odor is released in case of danger.
Soldier bug
The insect belongs to the red bug family. The length of an adult is 10 mm. There is a red and black ornament on the front back and elytra. In warm, clear weather, bedbugs gather in colonies near stumps, trees, and fences to bask in the sun.
Garden soldier bugs are omnivorous pests. They feed on all types of garden plants, fruits and seeds of some fruit bushes and trees, the remains of small insects, and in some cases even resort to cannibalism.
Naked slugs
They are especially harmful in wet years. The slug's body is elongated, abundantly covered with light-watery mucus. Where the slug has crawled, a trail of dried silvery mucus remains. There are two pairs of tentacles on the slug's head. The wide lower part of the body, called the leg, is used for locomotion.
The slug damages potatoes, strawberries, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers and many other vegetable and flower crops. Slugs eat large holes in leaves, cavities in root crops, and ripe berries in strawberries.
Slugs are moisture-loving. They are active at night, and in cloudy, damp weather during the day. On hot sunny days, they hide under lumps and cracks in the soil, under boards and other objects lying on the ground, under heaps of plant debris. Slug eggs are laid in small groups under lumps and in cracks in the soil. The hatched juveniles turn into adult slugs after two months.
Several types of slugs damage vegetable crops. The eggs overwinter in the soil. Some species can also overwinter young and adult individuals.
Control measures. Manual collection and destruction of slugs from plants and from under artificially created shelters (boards, rags, piles of grass, etc. laid out on the ground).
Spreading metaldehyde granules along paths and rows (40 g per 10 m2).
Weeding and removing weeds from the garden, thinning thickened plantings. Mowing grassy vegetation in turf areas adjacent to the garden.
Using sprigs of dill to collect slugs, the smell of which attracts them: dill is spread in small piles in the evening, and in the morning the slugs caught under them are collected and destroyed.
To prevent slugs from entering the greenhouses, the ground around them is sprinkled with slaked lime.
How to recognize bedbugs on your property
The choice of settlement sites for garden bugs is determined by the availability of familiar food in sufficient quantities. Considering that the vast majority of pests feed on garden plants, garden plots and summer cottages planted with different crops are optimal places for them.
The main task of owners of suburban areas is the timely detection of parasites in order to prevent their further spread. A systematic and careful inspection of the plantings will help to cope with this task.
The danger threatening the future harvest is indicated by the appearance of larvae or adults on the back of the leaves, small holes and brown spots on them. To choose the right method of pest control, you need to know what a particular subspecies looks like.
How are plants harmed? Why do they die?
When they bite, herbivorous pests inject saliva into the plant tissue. At the same time, they receive juice with the properties and nutrients they need. But this feeding method harms the plants: the cells begin to die, and first external signs appear (brown, yellow, white or black spots). Their size increases as toxic substances spread through the tissues.
If there are many lesions on the leaf, it will soon fall off. This negatively affects the development of plantings. First, their growth is inhibited, then the above-ground part of the plants is deformed. Internal changes in tissue structure negatively affect yield. With multiple punctures, plants die at the initial stage of development - in the seedling phase.
Alexey, 34 years old, Rostov-on-Don
I once went on a business trip for a week and asked my neighbor to look after the plants. At one point, insects destroyed a small bed of garden crops. The next year, history repeated itself, but already in the spring, apparently, the insects left offspring on the site. I immediately knew what it was when I saw it - garden bugs.
Multiplying pests cause significant damage to the crop
How plants die from bugs
All varieties of garden bugs obtain food using proboscis, with which they pierce plant tissue and inject special enzymes into it that change the viscosity of the juice. In its transformed form, the plant juice is ready for consumption. Over time, damaged foliage withers and dies. With large-scale lesions, the plant dies.
By devouring green mass during the growing season, harmful insects are capable of destroying any cultivated plantings in the early stages of their development. By attacking garden plants, parasites not only destroy foliage, but also prevent the formation of ovaries, which can lead to complete loss of the crop.
Habitat
Flower bugs are widespread in Russia, in the countries of Europe and Central Asia, as well as throughout the world. They live in grasses, shrubs, trees, and forest floors. Some species use bark beetle tunnels. Predators can often be found in grain warehouses and other places where their potential prey lives. They overwinter under fallen leaves, in tree bark, and in animal burrows.
What does it eat?
Anthocorids are predators . Their diet includes small insects - thrips, mites, small caterpillars, beetle larvae, aphids and others. They destroy a lot of pests, for which they are considered beneficial types of bedbugs. Predators also do not refuse nectar, which replenishes their body with carbohydrates.
For example, Antokoris oakgrass feeds on the nectar of female willow inflorescences from early spring, as well as the wintering stages of small herbivorous insects. In summer, the predator extracts nectar from flowering grasses, feeds on the secretions of aphids, and continues to destroy insect larvae and eggs. Antokoris is very voracious and, according to research, is capable of destroying up to 95% of wintering eggs of fruit mites.
During the attack, the predatory bug pierces the body of the victim with its proboscis and injects digestive juices into it. After the insides of the insect are digested, the bug sucks them out using the same proboscis. Tiny predators feed once every 5-10 days, larvae more often - every 3 days. If necessary, they can go without food for much longer and even go into suspended animation. During dry and hot periods, bedbugs feed more often, realizing an increased need for water.
Chemicals
It is worth fighting the invasion of parasites with the help of special pesticides only in advanced cases, when the problem has acquired a large scale. It should be remembered that the use of such drugs can harm beneficial insects, birds, and animals, so you should resort to their help in emergency situations.
Such chemicals contain insecticidal components of the pyrethroid and organophosphorus groups. According to the type of action on pests, they are divided into systemic, contact and intestinal.
How to deal with bedbugs
Almost all garden bugs pose a threat to fruit and berry crops. Therefore, plants must be periodically inspected to identify signs of the presence of these pests in plantings and plantings. If traces of the vital activity of parasites have been identified, then it is necessary to immediately begin to combat them. Otherwise, you can lose most of the harvest, if not all.
You can fight garden bugs both with chemicals and by performing certain agricultural measures.
Chemicals
The parasites listed above are well affected by pesticides containing insecticidal components. The most commonly used solutions are pyrethroid and organophosphorus types. These agents are divided into intestinal, systemic and contact types of exposure.
The drug "Aktara" is very popular among gardeners. It has a selective effect: it destroys only dangerous types of insects. It is safe for beneficial bugs. The following products have also proven themselves to be effective: Vantex, Cyperon, Kung Fu, Regent and Bassoon.
Spraying with these drugs is carried out only in emergency cases. Plant leaves should be treated on both sides. Otherwise, there is a chance that some of the bedbugs will survive the spraying.
Agrotechnical measures
If parasites are found in the garden, you need to not only quickly spray the plantings, but also begin to carry out special agrotechnical measures. For example, you can prevent the spread of harmful insects by timely cleaning of fallen leaves. Many parasites spend the winter in it.
It is also useful to plow the area. You can plant black cohosh and black cohosh. These plants emit an odor that many parasites cannot tolerate.
Garden bugs are mostly dangerous pests. Therefore, when they are identified, it is necessary to immediately take action to protect the garden and crops.
Traditional methods for garden bugs
- Infusion of onion peels. It is necessary to prepare a solution of 10 liters of water and 250 g of husk. After it has been infused for 5 days, it is filtered. Plants are sprayed once every 4 days.
- Laundry soap solution. Prepare a solution of 10 liters of water and 300 g of soap. Treatment is carried out every week.
- Mustard solution. Dissolve 100 g of mustard powder in 10 liters of water. Repeat spraying every 3 days.
How to find bedbugs in a house or apartment
Garden bugs cannot exist in residential areas, because... deprived of their usual habitat and food opportunities. If an insect somehow ended up in the house, it will not be difficult to detect it, even if it is a specimen without bright coloring.
These parasites, finding themselves in conditions that are uncomfortable for them, try to immediately find a way out of the enclosed space. In addition, most varieties of bedbugs smell unpleasant (in case of danger, they secrete a secretion with a characteristic odor from special glands), which will indicate their presence in the room.
Harmless bedbugs
This type of insect does not harm humans, animals or crops. In exceptional cases (during hunger), they can bite a person, but their bite does not pose any threat. This group of bedbugs includes:
- Soldier bug (red-black bugs that feed on the sap of fruit trees, liquid from leaves, without causing the plant to dry out);
- Alder brood bug (a light brown insect with black speckles that lays eggs only on alder trees);
- Water bugs (Belostoma, Gladysh, Water strider - feed on the larvae of aquatic inhabitants, small fish, and invertebrates).
If bedbugs appeared in kindergarten
The appearance of garden bugs on the territory of children's institutions is a common situation. The reason for this is the presence of conditions for their normal existence. Harmful insects can be attracted by flowering ornamental plants and thick lawn grass, fruit trees and berry bushes growing in the kindergarten yard.
Just like for adults, bedbugs do not pose a threat to the health of children. The only exception is considered to be allergy sufferers, whose body may react negatively to the secretion secreted by parasites with an unpleasant odor.
Another problem is that any small child is curious and often puts anything that interests him into his mouth. Considering the bright colors of many harmful creatures of the Scutellidae family, there is a high risk that he will want to taste a beautiful bug, and this is a direct path to food poisoning.
Thus, if a population of garden mites is found near a kindergarten playground, urgent measures must be taken to eliminate them.
How to prevent the appearance in the garden or vegetable garden
In order for garden bugs to avoid the area, you need to plant black cohosh or black cohosh on the territory. These unique plants have a specific smell that is intolerable to bedbugs.
You can also carry out the following set of preventive measures:
- In the fall, carefully dig up the soil, removing weeds.
- In early spring, re-plow the soil to remove the larvae.
- Wood ash can be used to repel pests. It is diluted in water and laundry soap is added. The treated plant becomes inedible for the bug.
- Also in the spring, tobacco dust, hot pepper, and mustard are scattered around the area.
By following preventive measures, as well as knowing the principles of combating harmful garden bugs, you don’t have to worry about the safety of the crops on your site. It is also important to distinguish harmless representatives of the species in order to be able to effectively use insect predators for the benefit of your plantings.
Do garden bugs stink when crushed?
All varieties of bugs of the stink bug family have special glands that secrete a secretion with a specific odor, the intensity of which differs in different types of insects.
With the help of this bodily function, they scare away enemies and signal about approaching danger, attract partners for mating, find fellow tribesmen and navigate in space.
The unpleasant aroma is especially intensified when the bedbug is physically damaged, when the odorous secretion is squeezed out of the glands in which it is formed and stored.
Is the bug harmful or beneficial?
There are about 40 thousand species of bedbugs around the globe. Insects differ in color, body shape and lifestyle, but they all smell disgusting. Bedbugs that live in forests or gardens have glands in the lower part of their body that produce a secretion with an extremely unpleasant odor. It attracts individuals of the opposite sex and repels natural enemies.
Summer residents, owners of greenhouse farms, and workers at agricultural enterprises most often encounter stink bugs or stink bugs.
Shield insects can be divided into 3 categories:
- Herbivores (phytophages). They feed on leaves, young shoots, fruits of agricultural crops and other plants.
- Predatory. They eat harmful insects regardless of the stage of development (eggs, larvae, nymphs, adults). But in conditions of insufficient food, they can consume pollen and plant sap.
- Harmless. They prefer plant seeds and the remains of invertebrate animals. They do not pose a threat to agricultural land as long as the population size remains within normal limits. A striking example of harmless species is black and red soldier bugs.
All shield insects have a piercing-sucking mouthparts adapted for piercing a food source and sucking out liquid.
