On planet Earth, various species of animals and plants live and breed. Thanks to coexistence, they do not die, uniting into complex food chains. What insects eat their cousins? What animals eat insects? Read about this and much more in the article.
General information
In nature, there are a huge number of insects, about one and a half million per inhabitant of the planet. Scientists have calculated that on an area of one hectare of insects live much more than people on earth. This is impressive. Insects can be found everywhere. They are teeming with forests and glades, seas and ponds, land and bare rocks. Their home is hot deserts and permafrost. They settle in the dwellings of man. Insects are able to fly at high altitude, reaching one thousand two hundred meters. The total mass of all insects is about two billion tons. This is ten times the mass of all other animals that generally exist on earth.
Red ants
What insects eat insects? These are the Red Ants. Their poison in terms of exposure is comparable to fire. From here insects got their name. They are also called Fiery. A person stung by this ant feels nauseous, dizzy, he appears vomiting, redness, swelling and blisters on the skin. Some have anaphylactic shock. There have been cases of death. Bites of Red ants have a negative effect on animals. Under the influence of poison, they begin to change their behavior.
What insects eat insects? These are Fire Ants - aggressive predators. Thanks to their efforts, many pests of gardens, fields and kitchen gardens are always under control. First of all, the locust, which refers to the herd of insects. Agricultural land suffers from various types of locusts. But the most voracious is considered desert, therefore it is the most dangerous for plants.
Rider
When asked about which insects eat insects, we can confidently answer that this is a useful parasite - a rider. The insect got its name because it lays eggs in the body of the victim. Riders have a great flair. They very quickly run along the trunks of dried up trees in search of larvae of barbel beetles and goldfish. Having found a suitable place, the rider punctures the bark of the tree with an ovipositor, which in these insects reaches a huge size, exceeding the body size by seven and a half times, a whole device for drilling.
After this, the insect begins to gradually screw its thin sting into the cortex. This continues until the ovipositor sticks into the larva. Riders destroy a total of ninety percent of various pests. Leaf-eaters and mining flies, sawflies and whites, scoops and cabbage caterpillars, hawthorns and weevils, leafworms and moths become victims of insects.
What are insects?
The names of some of them are horrifying. There are very dangerous insects for humans and animals. For example, the giant Japanese hornet. Its size is larger than a finger, and the poison has a corrosive effect. The hornet bullets them into its victim, trying to get into the eyes. The smell of pheromones contained in the poison flies a whole cloud of his relatives. From one kind of such a picture you can faint. It is impossible to run away from insects, they fly much faster. From the bite of Japanese hornets, up to forty people die each year, and in unbearable torment.
The hornet flies in search of creatures with soft flesh. If a hive comes in the way, it sprays poison on it. Reinforcements from dozens of beetles arrive at the smell. Together they attack the hive. Bees do not have the slightest opportunity to escape: the hornets float huge jaws. They tear the toilers to pieces.
Bullet ant
What insects eat insects? One of them is a bullet ant. It should be feared due to a strong bite resembling a wound. Hence the name of the insect. This ant is small, only two and a half centimeters in length. He arranges his house on trees. Before the attack, he screams piercingly, and then falls from a height on his victim. The pain of his bite is reminiscent of walking on burning coals with a nail in the heel.
The native population of some countries today uses the insect for ritual activities, for example, initiation into adulthood. The birthday man is put on a cloak of leaves, which is teeming with ants woven into the sleeves. When he sticks his hands in them, he receives numerous bites, from which his hands become stiff and twisted. The body shakes for several days with uncontrollable spasms. The purpose of the ritual is to hold out for at least ten minutes.
Wood pests
Insects lay eggs in the cracks of the bark. The appeared larvae feed on wood, gradually invading and destroying it. Some live in it for ten years. Pupae emerge from the larvae, and then the beetles themselves. Their purpose is to lay eggs.
- What kind of insect does a tree eat? There are many pests of wood , we list some of them as a lumberjack purple flat. This insect develops in any wood: dry and wet. The adult reaches thirteen millimeters in length, and the larva reaches twenty. The elytra of the beetle is painted in dark blue or purple with a metallic sheen. It affects felled but not peeled wood.
- Spruce sapwood. It is easy to distinguish by long mustache and yellow-brown color of the body, whose length reaches eleven millimeters. This beetle makes moves up to five millimeters deep. It develops in freshly cut conifers. In the human home appears along with building material.
- Pine brown barbel. It differs in black and brown body color with a length of twenty-four millimeters. It has a great resemblance to a house lumberjack. Long, oval-shaped passages clogs with sawdust. Distributed in coniferous wood.
Pests of cabbage
The succulent large leaves of this vegetable are preferred by many parasites. Which insect eats cabbage? It can be aphids, cabbage moths or caterpillars of a whitish butterfly. Perhaps fleas are wound up in the ground or the plant is affected by a cabbage scoop.
Pests feel great and breed successfully in the period of prolonged heavy rains, when the earth does not dry out for a long time. This weather most often occurs in June and early July. With harmful lovers of cabbage need to fight.
Plant pests
What kind of insects do plants eat, it's hard to answer without hesitation. After all, plant foods in the diet of almost all animals, including insects. There are many of them, it is impossible to list all. Here is some of them:
- Colorado potato beetle is a malicious pest that prefers to harm tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and other nightshade crops. It is easy to recognize. The body has a circular oval convex shape with black longitudinal stripes. Beetles winter in the ground and with the onset of autumn actively attack young seedlings.
- Cruciferous flea is very dangerous for vegetables from the family with the same name, which includes cabbage, katran, radish, lettuce, rutabaga. The insect does not mind eating horseradish, leaf mustard. This small bug with a body length of only three millimeters is able to tolerate frosts, hiding under uncleaned plants from the beds. With the onset of spring, a flea comes to life. It enters the soil with seedlings. Larva lays in a couple of days. Developing, they begin to harm the roots. Adults gnaw leaves, leaving ulcers on them. They quickly wither and begin to die. The flea multiplies intensively in warm, dry weather.