Bedbugs on currants.

Today, this suborder of insects has more than 50 families and several thousand species. Bedbugs are so adapted to survive in various conditions that they are found everywhere, up to the island of Greenland and the Chukchi Peninsula. Representatives of families differ externally, in lifestyle and way of nutrition. So, the bug is divided into predators, parasites and herbivores. The latter are especially problematic for gardeners and gardeners, settling on berry bushes and depleting the plant. We will tell you about the features of these insects, about other pests, as well as about the methods and methods of dealing with them in this article.

currant bug

Berry shield bug.

The berry bug is a member of the family of shit bugs, which numbers more than 4,000 species. This insect is 8-12 mm in length, with a body that resembles a slightly oblong triangle and has a very unpleasant smell familiar to many gardeners. This is the smell of the liquid that the insect emits in case of danger. For this feature, the berry bug also received the name - stink bug. The cimicic acid secreted by the bug, which has such a repulsive odor, is absolutely harmless to humans, but can be destructive to other insects.

The bug has a gray-yellow or red-brown color. Adult insects have the ability to change color, thus disguising themselves as the environment. The body of an insect is covered with many densely growing hairs that form a whole cover.

The berry bug differs from other members of the family by the color of the sides of the calf and mustache. They are striped, yellow-brown in color. The belly of the insect is colored with the same stripe.

The habitat of the berry bug is our gardens and orchards. The bug feeds on juice extracted from the leaves and fruits of berries, fruits and even vegetables. Shield worm sucks out all the juices from the green pulp of leaves or fruits, digging into their proboscis. Brown spots often remain at the site of such punctures. Leaves and berries affected by bedbugs dry up. And the whole invasion of insects on the plant is fraught with its death.

Berry bugs overwinter in fallen leaves. In the spring, with the onset of warm days, they crawl out of their hiding places in search of food. During this period, when the sap flow of berry bushes did not begin and leaves did not appear on them, the insect does not refuse weeds either.

As soon as leaves appear on the bushes of raspberries or currants, the bush bugs actively populate them in order to lay eggs. Immediately, these formations may not be noticed, since the females lay eggs on the back of the leaves. This process lasts about 10 days, and after one and a half or two months the larvae will begin to hatch. At the very beginning, the larvae are grouped, therefore, if you inspect the bush from time to time, then it is much easier to find and destroy such “settlements”. And when the insects have time to crawl throughout the plant, then it will be more difficult to deal with them. The larvae, in appearance, are quite similar to adult insects, they have the same gray color and a body covered with fluff, which, over time, turns into a dense hair coat.

A serious threat to the plant and the harvest is represented by the shtitters only with a large accumulation of them on the berry bush. In this case, it will not be possible to do without the use of chemicals. In the fight against a small number of insects, quite gentle methods and methods are also suitable.

First of all, pests can be collected manually and, if possible, regularly inspect the bushes, promptly removing the detected shitnikov.

Some gardeners practice spraying berry bushes with a solution of infused onion peel. To prepare the infusion, about 200 grams of the dry product is poured with a bucket of boiling water and left to infuse for five days. Further, the resulting infusion is filtered and sprayed with shrubs. Such treatments are carried out at least three times, with a frequency of 5 days. In addition to onion husks, wood ash, strong tobacco and mustard can be used to prepare the infusion.

In order to prevent the emergence of berry shields on the site, you can plant a cimicifuga, which is also popularly called black cohosh, since the aroma exuded by the plant scares away these insects.

Regular weeding of weeds, as well as cleaning of fallen leaves, in which scale insects like to settle, will also help prevent the appearance of pests.

If, despite the measures taken, the number of insects increases, one cannot do without the use of chemical insecticides. Many gardeners often use pest control Karbofos or Phosphamide.

Other pests of currants and methods of their destruction.

Currants, regardless of the species, are a favorite delicacy for a huge number of harmful insects to get rid of, sometimes, perhaps only by applying various insecticides.

The biggest "lover" of these berry bushes is the currant aphid. It will not work to get rid of this pest in one go. Insect control involves repeated treatments of the shrub throughout the entire growing season of the plant.

When the first signs of aphid currant damage are detected, various infusions of celandine, wood ash, needles are used. For larger-scale lesions of the shrub, chemicals are used, for example, Karbofos, Nitrofen and Actellik.

In addition to aphids, currants, quite often, such pests as a moth and a glass pot are attacked. The larvae of these insects often hibernate next to shrubs, so the fight against them consists only in covering the soil of the trunk circle with a special material through which the larvae simply cannot penetrate to the surface.

currant bug

Fighting adult insects involves mainly mechanical methods of action. So, the branches and shoots of the shrub affected by the glass are removed, and then burned. In the spring, before the buds begin to bloom, the bushes are treated with Iskra or Aktara solutions.

The fact that a leafy gall midge has settled on the bush will be prompted by deformed leaves. This pest is fought with the same methods as with glass.

Periodically, you should also inspect the back side of the leaflet. It is there that another pest of currants often settles - a spider mite, tightening the lower part of the leaf. The parts of the plant affected by it are removed and burned, and the bush is treated with biological or chemical preparations.

The appearance of a bud mite on a currant can even lead to the death of a shrub. This insect attacks the buds, thereby preventing the development of foliage, as a result of which the plant dies. In this case, prevention is especially important. In the spring, as soon as flowers begin to appear on the currants, the bush is sprayed with “Ethersulfonate»Or a solution of colloidal sulfur.

In the fight against the scabbard already known to us, various insecticides will be effective, such as Fitoverm, Arrivo or "Aktelik».

Another pest of currants - berry sawfly, "prefers" the seeds of ripe berries. Such fruits are no longer suitable for consumption. To prevent the appearance of this pest, in the fall, the soil of the trunk circle is loosened and mulched, thereby preventing the penetration of insect larvae to the surface of the earth.

As a universal drug in the fight against most of these pests, gardeners note “Aktofit". This remedy is also good because it has a biological origin, it is not toxic to animals. In addition, the use of "Aktofit" does not lead to a violation of the biological balance of the soil or a change in its chemical composition.

As a rule, the introduction of the drug is carried out by spraying the plants and a bottle of this agent is enough for summer residents for one season.

Experts note that the drugs used for pest control must be of systemic action, that is, capable of infecting several types of insect pests, as well as suggesting various methods of processing plants in the fight against them. In addition, the frequency of the treatments carried out is also important. In most cases, getting rid of the pests in one go will most likely fail. For example, currant bushes are recommended to be processed at least twice. The first time before the buds begin to bloom, the second - at the beginning of the flowering of the shrub.

Also, it should be remembered that the prevention of the appearance of pests on currants, first of all, is the correct and timely care of shrubs. Chemical insecticides must be used with extreme caution.

All about garden bugs.

These garden and horticultural pests have several characteristic external signs by which they are easy to recognize.

The first and most obvious sign is the triangular shield covering the bug's body. The bug also has two pairs of wings and is armed with a proboscis, with which they pierce the leaves and fruits. Later, brown spots appear at the site of such punctures, which increase in size over time. The leaves of cucumbers and cabbage, affected by the bug, are deformed and dry out.

Bed bugs mainly feed on plant sap. However, predators are also found among these pests.

The greatest damage to crops is caused by scale insects. They are followed by a pear bug, which is able to destroy a quarter of the plantings of young pears.

For herbivorous species, a specific smell of a substance secreted by secret glands is also characteristic. This ability serves as a kind of protection for the insect. Indeed, even arachnids disdain such foul-smelling food. By the way, in bedbugs - predators, such a feature is absent, so as not to frighten off a potential victim with a smell.

Garden bugs do not pose a danger to humans, since with their proboscis they are not able to pierce the skin, unlike, for example, “bed bugs” that have other physiological characteristics.

There are quite a few varieties of garden bugs. At the same time, only some of them are most often found in vegetable gardens and orchards.

An old friend of many summer residents, the green garden bug is distinguished by a special love for raspberries, which, after his attacks, acquire an extremely repulsive smell and completely lose their taste.

The cruciferous bug, which is also called northern euryderma, prefers to feast on the juice of cabbage leaves and other plants of this family, causing considerable damage to the crop.

Invasions of the pear bug can destroy the plantings of fruit trees.

Plants belonging to the nightshade family are often attacked by the cucumber bug. This insect, despite its very small size - no more than 3 mm in length, can significantly harm garden crops.

The soldier bug or red bug, so called for its bright red color, is dangerous only in the case of large, massive clusters of it.

And, of course, almost everywhere, you can meet the already familiar berry bug bug, which reduces the yield of berry bushes.

The damage caused by any one species may not be so noticeable, but in general, these pests annually significantly reduce the yield of fruit and berry crops. By increasing the area of ​​agricultural land, a person himself contributes to the expansion of the food base for these insects, thereby creating favorable conditions for their reproduction.

Therefore, measures to combat garden bugs will be effective if taken in time.

The fight against these pests involves both the use of chemicals and the use of agrotechnical methods.

When applying chemical insecticides, it is important to remember about processing not only the upper, but also the lower side of the leaves, where insects can be found much more often. According to gardeners, of the drugs used, the results are most noticeable after application Actars, Phosphamide, Chlorophos, as well as Karbofos.

Agrotechnical methods include timely plowing of plots, weeding of weeds, on which insects often lay eggs, as well as planting black cohosh plants, the most famous of which is cimicifuga.

However, if it was not possible to cope with insects on your own and despite the measures taken, the number of pests is growing, it is advisable to consider the possibility of contacting specialized organizations that have the equipment and means necessary for large-scale treatments.

It should be noted that not all members of this family are only troublesome. Those insects that are predators, on the contrary, contribute to the preservation of the crop, since they feed on pests that destroy plants. For example, at one time, European farmers deliberately populated fields with bedbugs - predators, which, in turn, destroyed the Colorado potato beetle - one of the most dangerous and voracious pests.

A deadly threat to the larvae of scoops and sawflies is the picromerus bug. Its "diet", by the way, includes 250 different species of insects, including those exceeding the size of the picromerus itself. In the biological laboratories of some agricultural plants, picromerus is bred deliberately, with the aim of further settling the insect on agricultural land.

The subsequent destruction of the predators themselves was not required, since they do not tolerate wintering well.

Read more about the currant scabbard.

The appearance of this pest on the currant is fraught with a slowdown in the growth and development of the shrub, drying out of the foliage, loss of yield and the death of the entire plant.

The dimensions of the scabbard are very small, so it is sometimes difficult to detect the pest in time. The length of the scale does not exceed 4 mm, and it usually settles on the underside of the leaflet or in the place where the leaf meets the handle. If you find small specks on the currants, take a closer look at them, because this is how the scabbard is "masked".

The likelihood of damage to plantings of currants with a shield is quite high. The insect is easily carried by the wind, carried by animals. Infection can occur from poor-quality planting material or soil substrate.

This pest feeds on plant sap, interfering with the process of their life, the insect draws out nutrients, depriving the shrub of the strength necessary for growth and development. This parasite is quite dangerous; in a couple of years, the scale insect is capable of destroying large-scale plantings of currants.

An important preventive measure to prevent the reproduction of the pest is the hilling of the plant. Shrubs should be hilled in the fall, making small earthen embankments. In the spring, after the snow melts, the land must be removed.

If a scabbard is found, the bushes must be immediately isolated. For these purposes, you can use plastic wrap. Shrubs growing in the neighborhood must be very carefully examined and the same measures should be taken if insects are detected.

When treating the bushes with various solutions, it should be remembered that it will be difficult to remove adult insects in this way, since their body is reliably protected by a rather dense shell. Therefore, you will most likely have to manually remove them from the bush. With the help of a sponge and a thick soapy solution, you need to process each leaf and shoot of an infected plant. This occupation is very laborious, but necessary. In this case, you should not rush, otherwise those insects that you did not remove will soon multiply and populate neighboring bushes, increasing the affected area.

If this nevertheless happened in order to save the shrubs, chemical insecticides will have to be used. The most effective against the scale insects are neonicotinoids, a small class of organic compounds that, upon contact with insects, cause paralysis and death. These insecticides include Mospilan, Colorado, Aktara, Tanrek.

The treatment is carried out by spraying with a working solution prepared in accordance with the instructions for use of these drugs. To destroy the pest, more than one treatment will be required, since, in addition to adults, insect larvae or eggs are usually found on the bush. Only after repeated treatments can you count on the preservation of the shrub.

In addition to the above insecticides, hormonal and organophosphorus preparations can be used in the fight against the shield, including: Piriproxifen, Spark, Kemifos etc.

The number of treatments must also be at least three, with a frequency of no more than one week.

When applying chemical insecticides, it is important to remember about safety measures. People suffering from allergic diseases or bronchial asthma, such drugs should not be used at all. You also need to remember that the substances that make up insecticides can be harmful to bees.

In this case, you can use folk remedies for pest control. Next, we will consider the most effective of them.

Folk remedies

According to the experience of gardeners, garlic infusion does a good job with the scabbard. To prepare this remedy, a medium-sized head of garlic is peeled and minced. The garlic mass is poured with a glass of water and infused for two days at room temperature. Next, the infusion is filtered and sprayed with the resulting agent, the bushes affected by the pest.

To prepare a tobacco infusion, which can also be sprayed on infected currant bushes, use makhorka or strong tobacco. About 100 grams of dry product is poured with one liter of water and left in a warm place for a day. After the specified time, the infusion is filtered, the volume is brought to one liter and used for spraying plants.

In addition to infusions, decoctions are also used for processing bushes. To prepare pepper broth, take 50 grams of fresh hot pepper, grind it and cook over low heat with the addition of 500 ml of water for about five minutes. The cooked mass is left to cool for a day, after which it is filtered. The solution turns out to be quite concentrated and, in order not to burn the plants, it must be additionally diluted. So, 10 ml of the concentrate is diluted in one liter of water. Additionally, you can add laundry soap to the working solution, after which you can start processing the bushes.

Soap solution can also be used as an independent product by adding vegetable oil to it. To do this, one part of the soap is mixed with three parts of oil and the branches of the bushes are wiped with the resulting product. After some time, the remnants of the product are washed off with warm water.

It should be noted that all of the above means should be used, if possible, immediately after their preparation in the morning or evening hours. Shrubs are sprayed at least two, three times at weekly intervals.

It should be noted that the effect of treatment with such agents can be expected only in the case of small damage to the bush by a pest.If, after the treatments carried out, insects continue to attack the bush, you should begin to combat them with the help of chemicals.

The process of destroying scale insects on currants is quite laborious and time-consuming. However, the sooner you detect signs of infection and start taking action, the sooner you will be able to get rid of the pest. In the future, in order to prevent the reappearance of insects, it is necessary to constantly take preventive measures. So, the scale insect is less likely to settle on shrubs that are provided with proper and timely care, including regular weeding, pruning, feeding and watering.

If these recommendations are followed and followed, you can be sure that this pest will not appear on berry bushes, and in response to the care and attention of the plants, they will thank you with rich harvests.