Bread beetle, or, as it is called, “goose”, is a pest of barley, wheat and other cereal crops. These insects belong to the lamellar family, the order of beetles. Pests are familiar to many residents of Russia and Ukraine.
Insect description
Kuzki beetles are pests, they differ in a green, almost blue shade of the legs and body. Their elytra is dark brown in color, they have longitudinal grooves. Near the scutellum there is a dark spot (in females). The size of this insect is 13-16 mm. Their eggs are spherical in shape, white, in diameter about 2 mm. The length of the larva is up to 35 mm. She is white, and her head has a yellowish-brown tint. A brown pupa appears up to 17 mm long. Beetles begin an active life in June-July. At this time, they live on ears of corn. Females begin to lay eggs in July. They lower them into the soil to a depth of 20 centimeters. At a time, the female is able to bring about 50 eggs. Beetle Kuzka all stages of development takes place in the soil. Depending on the temperature, eggs can “ripen” in a period of 2 weeks to a month. The period of development of the larvae lasts up to 23 months, during which time they survive two winters at a depth of up to 80 centimeters. By May of the second year, the larva rises higher and turns into a pupa at a depth of 15 cm. The duration of development of the pupa lasts from 10 to 20 days. At the end of May - the beginning of June a young beetle bug flies already.
Insect spread
The homeland of this bug is the European steppes. It is common in Moldova, in some areas of
Western Europe, in the
European part of Russia and in the steppe regions of Ukraine. In addition, he lives in the steppes of Turkey, Kazakhstan, the Urals, Altai, and the north of Iran. The beetle causes significant harm in the south of Russia and in the black soil regions of Ukraine. He also significantly harms in Azerbaijan and some areas of Kazakhstan.
Environmental characteristic
The bug beetle is a heat-loving creature. Young individuals begin to leave the earth only if the air is warmed up to a temperature not lower than +17 degrees. At a temperature of +20 0 C, females begin to mature eggs for laying. These insects are very active. Eat only in the daytime, especially if the weather is hot. When night falls they fall to the ground. If the weather is bad, cool, they do not rise from the soil. Therefore, only in hot and dry summers does bread breeding begin active reproduction, and this period usually falls during the time of cereal harvesting. If the summer was cold and rainy, the number of insects decreases sharply, second-year larvae can die. Moreover, during a drought, they try to delve into the soil. Adults select and eat cereal plants. They prefer spring forms of rye, barley and wheat. These insects love not only cultivated species, but also wild ones. So they choose the grain of wheat, wheat grass, timothy, bonfire and others. These grain pests mainly “occupy” the edges of grain fields. The bug beetle eats the flesh of immature crops, and ripens the mature grains from the stems.
In the first year of development, the larvae use humus and thin roots of various plants. In the next year of life, their main diet is the roots of sugar beets and cereals. Birds love to feast on both adults and their larvae. The main enemies of the kuzka are predatory ground beetles, ktyr and chipped.
Bug Damage
It causes harm not only to an adult bread bug, but also to its larvae. Each year, one individual eats about 8 grams of grain, but he simply knocks an even larger amount out of the ears. Thus, it can destroy up to 10 spikelets. Larvae do harm in another way. They feed on plant sprouts and cereal roots, which in turn leads to rare seedlings. It is believed that this species of beetles is harmful when the number is more than three pieces per square meter. km So, if the density of sowing per km 2 is about 250 spike stems, and there are more than 10 beetles, the yield loss reaches 50%. If we take the years favorable for the spread of this beetle, then along the edges of the fields on one square meter. km can count up to a hundred individuals.
Measures to protect crops from beetle
In the period of the end of spring and the beginning of summer, it is necessary to cultivate and process the aisles. Such an event leads to the mass destruction of the pupae of these beetles. Also, at the beginning of wax ripeness, it is necessary to carry out quick separate cleaning, picking up rolls. Such actions also reduce the number of damaged grains. In addition, so that the next sowing year the grass-beetle bug did not crawl out of the ground, it is necessary to carry out early post-harvest finch plowing, as well as to perform stubble cultivation. These actions lead to the death of eggs and larvae before they deepen into the lower layers of the soil.
If the number of beetles exceeds the threshold of harmfulness (more than 3 pieces per 1 sq. M.), It is necessary to organize spraying of the crop with insecticides on wheat, CE (l / ha) with sumiton - 0.8 - 1 or decis extra - 0.05. In this case, the last spraying should be carried out no later than 20 days before harvesting.