2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Stem flea beetle is a pest of cereal crops. Most often, it damages spring wheat with barley, and winter wheat with oats suffers from its attacks a little less often. These parasites will not refuse to feast on young beetroot shoots. There are two types of stem bread flea beetles - large and small. In general, their lifestyle is almost identical. Only one generation of these pests manages to develop per year, however, this is quite enough to cause serious damage to the crop
Meet the pest
Stem bread beetle is a bug up to 2.3 mm in size. Its convex oblong-ovoid body is dark bronze colored with a slight greenish tint. On the pronotum and heads of pests, small dots can be seen, the size of which is equal to the size of the spaces between them.
The larvae of stalk bread beetles, growing in length up to 3 - 5 mm, have a cylindrical shape and are characterized by a pale white or light gray color with sparse bristles and brownish specks. Their legs are painted in a dirty brown color, and the last segments of the abdomen are equipped with small chitinized denticles. And pupae of stem bread flea beetles spend almost all their time in cocoons.
Beetles overwinter on forest edges, in forest belts and in fields under the remnants of vegetation. With the onset of the first warm spring days, the awakened parasites begin to feed, gradually moving first to winter crops, and then to spring crops. Usually, the flight of bugs can be observed already at a temperature of eight to nine degrees. Often, the place of their dislocation is weeds from the families of swan and haze. And when tiny beetroot shoots appear, gluttonous parasites pay attention to them too. The bugs fly in the fields usually in April-May, and in June its intensity decreases markedly.
Large stem bread fleas lay eggs in the delicate tissues of basal cereal leaves, and small ones - in the soil located near the stairs. The eggs of these parasites are yellow and spindle-shaped, and their size reaches about 0.6 mm. The reborn larvae immediately bite into the stems and begin to feed on their tissues. The nature of the damage of these parasites is similar to the damage caused by Swedish flies and provokes wilting of the central leaves.
The harmful larvae develop for about two to three weeks. Then they gnaw holes in the stems and move from the plants to the soil, where they pupate. And the stems damaged by the larvae most often die. The revival of young beetles of a new generation depends on hydrothermal conditions and most often occurs in July-August. Last year's bugs have already died by this time. The young generation initially settles on spring crops, and a little later goes to wintering places.
Especially massively stem bread fleas reproduce in dry years in the Far East and Siberia. Delays in hatching, lodging of stalks, as well as the white-headed beetle are the main results of the harmful activity of these unceremonious parasites.
How to fight
The main preventive measures in the fight against stalk flea beetles are weed control and sowing grain crops at the optimal time. It is also recommended to include row crops in the crop rotation. And compliance with the optimal density of grain crops helps to reduce their damage by these pests. Deep autumn plowing along with stubble plowing will also be good helpers in the difficult task of getting rid of gluttonous parasites.
If the number of stem grain flea beetles on the site is especially large, they start spraying with insecticides. Sometimes (in large crowds) these unceremonious scoundrels are caught with the help of glue panels. Such a measure will be most expedient during the period of milk ripeness of the crops grown.
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