2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The Moroccan locust is also called the Moroccan or Moroccan filly. This polyphagous pest damages melons and various vegetables, tobacco, clover, alfalfa, millet, corn, barley, wheat, walnuts, numerous fruit trees, grapes, as well as decorative and forest crops growing in nurseries. Swarms of adult locusts are capable of migrating over considerable distances, causing tremendous harm to a wide variety of crops. Moroccan locust populations increase markedly when precipitation falls significantly below normal and temperatures exceed long-term average values
Meet the pest
The Moroccan locust is colored in fawn shades with grayish spots. Females reach a length of 28 - 38 mm, and smaller males - only 20 - 28 mm. On the front backs of these parasites, cruciform patterns are located, and the quadrangular parietal fossae in them are very wide. Wings with elytra in the Moroccan locust extend behind the hind tibia, and the hind femurs can be either with or without black bands - this depends solely on the phase of the parasites.
On the transparent wings of the Moroccan locust, there are dark spots. And the hind femora are without any spots, below with a pinkish tinge or yellowish.
Depending on the density of the populations in which the larvae develop, a solitary or gregarious phase can form. Individuals of the gregarious phase will be slightly larger than individuals of the solitary phase.
In central Russia, the revival of larvae starts in May, usually at the beginning of the month. And at the beginning of June, adults already appear. Ten to twenty days after fledging, they begin to lay eggs - this process is largely influenced by the temperature regime. Most often, females lay two or three, and sometimes four egg-pods, each of which contains an average of thirty to thirty-six eggs. Egg-pods are placed by parasites on steppe foothills characterized by liquid grass stand or on virgin steppe areas. There are especially many of them where livestock is actively grazing. Sometimes their density is especially high - this happens when there are from several hundred to several thousand egg-pods per square meter.
As a rule, larvae, developing within 25 - 35 days, have time to go through as many as five instars, respectively, the duration of each of their instars averages from five to seven days. In the case of mass reproduction, harmful larvae try to keep rather dense herds and move in the same way.
The Moroccan locust flies at a speed of about eight to ten kilometers per hour at an altitude of twenty to one hundred meters. The average flight duration of these parasites is about 50 - 75 km, and the maximum distance is 250 km.
How to fight
Periodically, all plantings should be carefully monitored for the appearance of the Moroccan Locust. The spring-summer survey is usually carried out at the places of hatching of the larvae, the control spring and autumn - on the egg-pods, and the summer - on the adults.
Attention should also be paid to improving pastures and hayfields, and trying to sow grain crops early. A good measure of control, in addition to plowing the deposits, will also be deep plowing of areas with good seam turnover, as well as subsequent harrowing. Plowing plots is a great way to make them unattractive to these voracious parasites, as they almost always choose places to lay their eggs on unplowed virgin lands.
With a sharp increase in the number of the Moroccan locust, insecticides are used in its breeding centers.
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