2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The pea moth with great pleasure relishes not only on peas, but also on lentils. And although only one single generation of this parasite develops in Russia per year, it can cause considerable damage. Only timely measures and all kinds of preventive measures will help to cope with such a scourge
Meet the pest
The butterflies of the noxious pea moth have a wingspan of approximately 11-16 mm. Their front wings are dark gray, and the hind wings are brownish with a slight shade of grayish at the edges. The size of the oval flattened eggs of the pest is 0.7 - 0.8 mm; at first, the eggs are transparent, and after some time they acquire a milky white color. The length of the caterpillars is from 12 to 13 mm, the caterpillars themselves are light - greenish-white, with a pronounced yellow head. And the size of the brownish pupae located in oval cocoons is approximately 6 - 8 mm.
Caterpillars that have completed their development go to winter in the soil, to a depth of three to five centimeters. They hibernate in silky rather dense cocoons to which soil particles are glued. With the approach of April, pests pupate in these same cocoons. And the caterpillars that hibernated deep in very dense soil layers, leaving old cocoons, move to the upper layers and already there weave new cocoons for themselves, in which they will pupate. Depending on the temperature conditions, the development of harmful pupae takes from 11 to 18 days on average.
Butterflies on peas will appear with the onset of the budding phase, and they fly out en masse directly during the flowering period. In leaving females, the ovaries are underdeveloped, and they lay eggs only after 5 - 13 days of additional nutrition. Eggs are almost always placed one at a time, less often - two or four, mainly on the undersides of stipules and leaves, on flower cups, and sometimes on petioles, pedicels and stalks. Eggs are laid by females in several stages; the total fertility of pests is about 240 eggs, and the duration of laying is 10 - 12 days. The pest for embryonic development is given about five days if the air temperature is 29 degrees, and at temperatures around 15 degrees it can even take up to 24 days.
Resurgent caterpillars in the valves of young beans (often at their upper seams) gnaw through numerous holes through which they then penetrate. First, they mine the walls of the beans, and then eat away the contents of the cotyledons. One caterpillar can easily eat up to four grains. Each individual is capable of developing only in one bean (at 15 degrees - up to 40 days, and at a temperature of 23 degrees - from 14 to 17 days). As soon as the grains ripen, harmful caterpillars complete their feeding, gnaw new holes near the beaks in the pods' valves, crawl out and go to the ground to form wintering cocoons.
How to fight
Fall plowing is a good preventive measure to prevent attacks of the voracious pea moth. A plow with skimmers is well suited for this purpose. It is equally important to observe the sowing time, as well as to harvest leguminous crops and thresh them on time. You can alternate planting peas with cereals.
With the start of oviposition or during the mass summer of the pest, a trichogram can be released. If the threshold of harmfulness is significantly exceeded, insecticides are used before the revival of the caterpillars. It is not difficult to determine when the threshold is exceeded using pheromone traps. The threshold of harmfulness is exceeded if up to forty individuals of the parasite are in one trap during the night during the flowering of crops. By themselves, pheromone traps are also a pretty good means of control. They are usually hung from the beginning of June to the beginning of August.
It is very effective against the pea moth and tobacco infusion: a kilogram of tobacco waste or tobacco itself is poured with ten liters of water, and then this mixture is boiled for a couple of hours in a tightly sealed container over a low flame. Then, for three days, the composition should be insisted and filtered. Two liters of the resulting composition are diluted with eight liters of water and, adding laundry soap (in the amount of 40 g), are sent to save the peas.
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