Penny drooling - an insect belonging to the order of the winged family Cercopidae. Adults have an elongated body of yellowish-gray-brown color. They are small in size, about 8 mm. Their front wings with a blurry spotted pattern fold roof-top along the body. The hind legs are adapted for jumping.
All representatives of this family, including slobbery pennies, including, have a proboscis, inside of which there are sharp long flexible setae. The proboscis is a kind of lips, and the bristles are an analogue of the jaws. The movement of the bristles in the proboscis is free, but they do not bend. Therefore, insects easily pierce the skin of plants and suck out the juice, eating this way. They cannot bite or bite.
In summer, on the grass you can find white lumps that look like foam or drool. If you push such a lump, then inside you can see a small creature of a greenish color. This is a penny larva slobbery, and the foam is her house, which she built with her own feet. Having stuck a proboscis in a blade of grass, she sucked the juice, then released it, adding a little air, and quickly and quickly worked with her legs, whipped this liquid, and a foamy hat turned out. It rests on the grass due to the fact that the larva has added some viscous substance to the foam. Perhaps this cap is not a very reliable defense against enemies, but it does not allow the larva to dry in the sun, and also reduces the effect of chemicals if spraying is carried out.
Adult slobbering pennies no longer need such protection. The photo shows her well. The cover of the body is no longer as tender as that of a larva, and it may well hide in the grass in the grass. And in danger, quickly flees or pretends to be dead.
The larvae feed on the shoots and the underside of the leaves, as a result of which the leaves are wrinkled, deformed, and the ovaries do not develop. Drooling pennies prefer to settle on strawberries, strawberries, real lavender, grapes, early cabbage, carrots, etc. With a high number of pests, the yield of these crops decreases, so you have to fight it.
The larval stage lasts from 30 to 50 days. Appeared slobbery pennies flies to various plants, eating until the fall. The female lays eggs in groups (about 40 in total) in cuts of shoots in moist shaded places. In spring, with the growth of plants, insects are born. Only one generation develops per year.
Preventive measures are the best protection against pests such as slobbery pennies. To do this, in the autumn it is necessary to remove plant debris. Planting should not be thickened, so as not to create the increased humidity, so necessary for pennies.
If the pest is small, then the plantings can be treated with infusion of garlic, tobacco dust or laundry soap. With a large number of insects, you will have to use the appropriate insecticide. During flowering, you can use BI-58, and after harvesting - karbofos.
And in conclusion, an interesting fact. Adult slobbery pennies are able to jump 0.8 meters high. If we make the proportion “size - jump height”, a person would jump 200 meters high. Impressive, isn't it?