Strigun beetle is a very dangerous pest of country lands, a kind of product of agrotechnical and environmental illiteracy of gardeners.
Previously, such an insect lived on waste land and in wild tracts, the active development of which summer residents became an exorbitant joy for the beetle, which brought high-calorie and tasty food in the form of cultivated plants.
Strigun Beetle: Description
The appearance of such an insect is not very pleasant; with a length of 2-2.5 cm, it has a large head with large strong jaws, which it moves menacingly when you tap it on the back or hold it in your hands. Similar to a May bug, as big and black (but not able to fly), the shear beetle appears in the gardens quite early (in April) and begins barbaric activity, mowing its jaws all in a row. The most massive invasion is observed from mid-April to mid-June. The insect conducts especially active activity at night, rarely appearing outside the home during the daytime. Habitat - holes that the strigun beetle likes to dig in ravines, on steppe slopes, fields and uncultivated areas with dense soil.
Shearing beetle: a disaster in many suburban areas
An undesired resident of a summer cottage, popularly referred to as “Kravchik”, “Virgin Soil”, “Golovan”, can instantly negate all the applied works of gardeners.
For example, the inhabitants of four minks located on one square meter are able to completely destroy greens from 10 square meters of the garden!
String Beetle Lifestyle
How to deal with a string beetle whose claws are like a sharp knife? A young vine of grapes, strawberries (cultivated delicate plants) - that loves to cut such a bug. Moreover, he is absolutely not afraid of height; the beetle is able to climb meter-long plants, eat them and throw down cut shoots down. He throws the plants damaged by him to the ground, then forms a silo cube from them, which is impregnated with the salivary glands, which prevents rotting of the prepared material. Harvested "prefabricated" shearing beetle drags into a hole for future offspring, showing excessive care for him.
One female beetle is able to lay 8 to 20 eggs, thus replenishing the ranks of
garden pests at times
. Larvae appear 10-12 days after masonry - white, with a large head, thick and long (up to 40 mm). The nutrition of future beetles consists precisely of those reserves that adult individuals dragged into their burrows. The growing larva sheds 3 times, after which it turns into a chrysalis, from which a full-length shear beetle appears in a couple of weeks, methods of dealing with which are a sore topic for summer residents. In his cell, he hibernates and comes to the surface of the earth only in the spring, where he intensively begins to prepare food for his future offspring.
Features of the String Beetle
In addition to the impact of a person who wants to get rid of such ringworm pests, shear beetles are affected by natural factors: on their larvae, the larvae of fly-bugs, skin-eaters and toddlers parasitize. On the beetles themselves, ticks parasitize, adult specimens are food for rolls and rooks.
The fight against the sting beetle is a rather complicated process, in which you should know the weaknesses of this insect. And they are! The beetle does not know how to fly due to the wings fused in the process of evolution. The use of chemicals to exterminate the beetle will bring little benefit, because the depth of its burrow is 60-70 centimeters.
Country tricks in the fight against beetle
How to deal with a sting beetle? A groove with a depth of 20-30 centimeters should be dug along the perimeter of the site, its outer wall should be made flat: this will not allow the insect to leave the territory occupied by the summer resident. At the bottom of the groove, as a bait, you can put so beloved greens, previously treated with peritroid preparations. In parallel with this method of fighting, the beetle-stringer should be collected manually and loosen the soil, thus filling up the entrances to its own holes. In this case, the effect will be noticeable after 2-3 years.
Strigun beetle: methods of struggle
Gardeners who suffered from the harm caused by the bug found another, quite effective method of dealing with it. To do this, you need to pour a water-oil emulsion into the holes, which is prepared by mixing 100-200 grams of home-smelling sunflower oil in a two-liter plastic bottle filled with water. The latter must be screwed on with a lid, a hole should be made in it and the contents injected into the mink of the beetle. The action of such a solution for insects is fatal, since it affects their respiratory system; bugs are forced to leave their lair and crawl out; in any case, they die. Such a lifeless sacrifice to the taste of ants, which instantly creep into dead beetles and eat them.
And yet, if a string beetle is wound up on the site, how to deal with it? As one of the options, some summer residents in early spring instead of the above remedies pour boiling water into their holes. Perhaps this method has helped someone, since it has existed for so long. In the same way, a solution of soapy water is used, which must be poured into holes in the morning and evening hours. Alternatively, instead of sunflower oil and soap solution, you can use the cheapest building foam, which you need to blow into the holes of the insect pest. Of course, not the most useful way, but maybe someone will decide to try it.