The role of useful insects in protecting the garden
One of the biological methods of natural plant protection in the garden involves the use of useful insects as natural enemies of pests, their study and assistance in settling in the garden and life in it.
Ladybird is a well-known useful insect in the garden. It refers to round beetles and, depending on the species, it is 4-9 cm long. Seven-dotted ladybug is most common. His name received the beetle for 7 black dots on the red elytra. But also there are beetles with yellow elytra and black dots or dark beetles with light spots or without them at all. Also, the number of spots or the pattern of the wings can be varied. In total, we have about 70 kinds of ladybirds, among which about 50 species feed on deciduous aphids, and the rest - with shellfish and spider mites. Ladybirds along with other deciduous deciduous aphids are the most important helpers in the garden.
Adult ladybird specimens hibernate in the open, for example under foliage or dry grass. In the spring, ladybugs lay 10-20 eggs vertically in groups on branches or on the inside of leaves near aphid colonies. Larvae from the eggs pass 4
stages. They are usually painted in a dark gray color with a yellow or red pattern. At the end of the stage of the larvae, ladybugs begin to pupate and acquire, as a rule, yellow color. After leaving the pupa, the beetle needs 2-3 more days to acquire the final color. Particularly important is that both the larvae and the beetles themselves belong to the species of predatory insects, the aphids feed on.
The seven-point ladybug, known to us, destroys up to 150 aphids a day, and smaller species - up to 60. As a result of larvae, insects devour a total of up to 800 aphids. Thus, the female beetle destroys in its life about 4 thousand adult aphids.
Settlement in the garden.
When using ladybug as a plant protection, you should consider the cycles of its development!
For wintering, provide the insect with shelter( foliage, stones, bark, etc.).
Gallium. Different species of the gall midges are more known to amateur gardeners as harmful insects( larvae of a number of species develop in plant tissues causing gall formation) than those that help in controlling pests. The length of the body of gall midges varies from 1 to 5 mm. To the known pests in the garden belongs, for example, pear gall midges. Useful gall midges eat at the stage of aphid larvae. The most important species is the Aphidoletes aphidimyza. The female( about 2-3 mm in size) postpones for one life span, equal to 1 week, 50-60 eggs near the colony of aphids. On 4-7 days, orange-red larvae hatch. The latter bite the aphids by the legs and inject a paralyzing liquid. The bitten aphid dies and is used by the larva to feed. After 2 weeks the fully formed larva falls to the ground and turns on the ground into a cocoon. After 3 weeks, a second brood hatches, whose larvae in the cocoon hibernate on the ground and hatch in the spring, being already adults.
Settlement in the garden.
No special conditions are required, except to completely exclude the use of chemicals in the garden.
larvae beetles eat eggs of vegetable flies, small insects and their larvae, worms, slugs. These beetles can rarely be seen during the day in the garden, they hide in shelters. The length of the ground beet is up to 4 cm, it is very mobile. Many species can not fly and are therefore active at night. The beetles color is very different: there are known large black and absolutely yellow shimmering species. Adult insects spend the winter in the garden in secluded sheltered corners, for example under a house or a woodpile. Large ground beetles lay 40-60 eggs separately in shallow holes in the ground. From eggs in a few days hatch larvae. After a couple of weeks, the larvae burrow into the soil, where after a few days( or after wintering) they pupate. After a pupa period lasting approximately 2-3 weeks, adult( developed) ground beetles hatch from them. Along with beetles, which live mainly on the earth, there are also tree and flying species. They feed on small insects and worms and therefore live in rotting organic substances, for example in compost.
Settlement in the garden.
The beetles should be provided with shelter( foliage, sawdust and shavings, small piles of stones), they live on the open ground, sometimes hiding in earth cracks.
Pesticides are the most terrible enemy of ground beetles!
shingles are of great importance in horticulture, as their larvae feed on aphids. Larvae develop in different conditions - in soil, slurry or plants. Visually the murmur is similar to a wasp, the length of an adult is 8-15 mm. The peculiarity of bubbling, reflected in their name, is that they can hover in place as they fly, producing a sound remotely resembling a murmur of water. Laying eggs occurs in the colonies of aphids. Eggs 1 mm in size, oblong, white in color. The larvae hatched from eggs do not have legs and move like snails. They are painted white or yellow and look like larvae of flies.
To hunt for aphids, purlets use their hook-shaped jaws, which hold the prey firmly, sucking it out. Development of the larva to the pupal stage lasts 2 weeks. During this time, the larva eats up to 700 aphids. Larvae of murmur are active mainly at night and go out to hunt not earlier than twilight. The pupa of the pupa survives in a shell in the form of a droplet, located near the colony of aphids on leaves or on the ground. Some species breed several generations, the majority - up to 5 per year. In some species, females winter in the same way as larvae or pupae. They themselves feed on flower and honey dew, as well as the secretions of aphids.
Settlement in the garden.
The most suitable loopholes areas with flowering plants, but only not well-groomed lawns. Especially love the murmur of plants, blooming yellow flowers.
You can leave small wooden boxes filled with dry grass or shavings for hibernating.
Golden-eyed , along with ladybirds, is the enemy of aphids. In our gardens, most often there is a green color with yellow eyes. The beetle received its name precisely for these eyes. The adult has a wingspan of up to 3 cm. The green oblong insects wear transparent veined wings in the shape of a house, folding them on the lower part of the long trunk.
The female lays about 20 eggs of a greenish color separately or a group on the bark or leaves. The larvae hatched from eggs develop depending on the weather conditions for 2-3 weeks. Their length is only 7 mm, the jaws are long, sickle-shaped, curved and pointed. Larvae feed on small insects, especially aphids. Individual individuals are capable of destroying up to 500 aphids during development.
After 18 days, the larvae hide in a secure place, wrap themselves and turn into a white round cocoon. After the exit of the golden-eyed one, the next generation begins from the cocoon. A total of 2 generations can appear in a year. Adult individuals eat, as a rule, honey-dew and pollen, on occasion not bent on small insects. Adults hibernate in the nooks, so sometimes it can be found in living quarters. During the wintering period, the insect can acquire yellow or brown color, but in the spring it becomes green again.
The lion's lion
Along with the golden-eyed common we also have about 42 species of decayed lions, which, like lace-eyed, belong to the real net-winged lions. One of the most famous species has a wingspan( brown specific shape) of about 3 cm. Adult individuals and larvae feed on aphids and contribute to biological balance in the control of this pest.
Settlement in the garden.
Prefers rich in flowering plants.
Green eyes need shelter for the winter in the form of small wooden houses stuffed with straw.
The use of lace-eyes for purposeful biological protection of plants in greenhouses and on protected ground has been tested and yielded good results. To do this, for each square meter of the surface, place 20 eggs of lace-eyed eagle, which can be purchased in special biological laboratories.:
riders develop as parasites on different hosts, which can be many insects, except spiders. For gardeners, riders are of great importance, since they destroy caterpillars of butterflies, larvae of flies and aphids. External view of the riders are reminiscent of wasps and in most cases have a dark or mottled color. Their magnitude is not the same and ranges from less than 1 mm to more than 10 mm. As an example, mention should be made of two different types of rider of particular importance. The first species parasitizes the butterfly-cabbage caterpillars on the caterpillars, the second one on the aphids. The eggs are laid on the insect, its larva, caterpillar or in their bodies with the help of a special stinger, which lightly pierces the victim's body. The larva of the corresponding species of the rider hatches from the egg and sucks the "master".
Riders may hibernate as a larva, pupa or adult. For one time the female lays about 30 eggs in the caterpillar of the cabbage. In total, it can postpone up to 200 eggs. After hatching the larvae in the caterpillar, the shell of her body cracks, releasing the larvae, which later turn into pupae.
Species parasitizing on aphids lay eggs in the body of aphids. The larva emerging from the egg sucks the aphids from the inside, thus feeding, and pupates in a cocoon from a thin web. After pupation, the rider exits the cocoon through a small hole in the aphid shell. From each female, about 200 aphids suffer. The development of an insect from the egg to the pupal stage lasts about 10 days, so that within a year several generations may appear. Aphids, affected by riders, have a characteristic copper color and a cylindrical trunk.
Settlement in the garden.
It is necessary to organize wintering "apartments" in high grass or in roots under a bush, etc.,
A rider likes to settle in umbellate plants( dill, coriander, lyubovok, caraway, fennel, etc.).
Earworm, , belonging to the order of the skin of the spines, is well known to gardeners and truck farmers. The length of the trunk is 3.5-5 mm, the front wings are firm, the hind wings are membranous. There are also wingless forms. Impress her claws located in the back of the trunk. The earwig is hunting mostly at dusk and at night, and in the daytime it hides in dark narrow slits.
When exterminating harmful insects, for example, gergan-grapes, the earwig can damage delicate young dahlia plants;
In spring and autumn, the female lays in the mink, which she herself pulls up to 100 eggs, guards them and takes care of her offspring - first about eggs, and then about the larvae. Wintering winters in shelters - in the bark of trees, cracks in buildings, in the soil, flower pots, filled with small shavings or some other material, for example moss.
Settlement in the garden.
Flower pots filled with wood shavings, moss or hay can be used as shelters. Such pots are exposed between vegetable crops or hung on trees, For the winter pots should be cleaned, and in the spring filled again.
Digging of tree trunks helps normal insect life. Often also earwigs seek shelter in the winter just under the trees, in its fallen leaves.
The predatory bug belongs to the weevil class. Its different species have certain sources of nutrition. For some, it is the juice of a plant, for others - insects. For the horticulturist, first of all, the latter are of interest, among which, among other things, destroy aphids. These include soft-bodied and false bugs, among which some species feed mainly on spider mites.
Flower bugs are small predatory insects 3-4 mm in length. For 1 time, the female lays up to 8 eggs, mostly at the edges of the leaves. For a year, bugs are taken out by 2 generations, and in a region with a warm climate even 3 - Hibernation by carnivorous bugs older adults. Larger species of flowering bugs also feed on gall midge larvae.
Settlement in the garden.
No special requirements and recommendations, except for the exclusion of the use of chemical plant protection products.