2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Beet miner is an inhabitant of the forest-steppe and steppe beet growing zones. In crops heavily damaged by it, the growth of new leaves completely stops. And instead of the central bunches, loose black lumps, consisting of leaves fastened with a cobweb, are often formed. Damage to mother beets is considered to be especially dangerous, since such root crops for winter storage in piles will be practically unsuitable. In most cases, caterpillars also attack flower-bearing shoots, grinding through them numerous winding passages, as a result of which the shoots bend and dry out. And the tiny additional shoots formed on them give inferior and small enough seeds
Meet the pest
The beetroot miner is a rather interesting butterfly with a wingspan of 12 to 14 mm. Its pointed and narrow front wings are painted in brownish-gray tones with fancy yellow patterns. Also on the front wings, you can see small black spots. And the light gray hind wings are framed by a luxurious fringe formed by rather long cilia.
The oval eggs of these pests reach the size of 0, 4 - 0, 5 mm and are painted white with a slight nacreous sheen. Grayish-green caterpillars, growing in length up to 11 - 12 mm, are endowed with brownish heads. And on the anal and chest plates they have small brownish specks. Upon reaching the last instars, five intermittent longitudinal reddish stripes appear on the body of the larvae. The size of light brown pupae ranges from 5.5 to 6.5 mm. Pupae are located in spider cocoons covered with earthen lumps, and on the tips of their abdomens, upon close examination, you can see four hook-shaped bristles.
Both pupae in cocoons and caterpillars of different ages overwinter. Most often, their wintering takes place in the upper soil layer in the remains of plants. And caterpillars located right in the tops often die in the winter. Only those individuals that have settled in the heads of root crops or have settled for the winter in piles and in the fields survive.
Butterflies emerge from overwintered pupae simultaneously with the emergence of sugar beet seedlings. Caterpillars of the last, fifth instar pupate about the same period. By the way, butterflies do not feel the need for additional nutrition, however, in case of hot weather, they can suck out dew drops. They are most active in the morning and evening hours, as well as at night. Their average life span is twelve to eighteen days. During this time, the females have time to lay a couple of eggs on the lower sides of the leaves. Often, the eggs laid by them can be observed on the aerial parts of root crops, soil lumps and plant debris. The total fertility of females reaches hundreds or one and a half hundred eggs.
After five to eight days, caterpillars appear, which first scrape off the parenchyma of the leaves, and some time later they braid the central leaves with a cobweb and eat out the grooves on the petioles and through holes along the middle leaf veins. And on adult beets, they are concentrated inside the leaf cuttings or under the twisted edges of the leaves, as well as in the moves they made inside the beet heads.
How to fight
To prevent the development of the third and fourth generations of beet miner moths, it is necessary to constantly eliminate the growing seed carrion.
As for the pre-sowing treatment of seeds with various systemic insecticides, it will be advisable only if the number of harmful parasites is especially high. Sometimes beet crops have to be treated with insecticides. The drug called "Decis Profi" has proven itself very well.
Having harvested the beet crop, the area should be freed from all plant residues and deep fall plowing should be carried out. And before laying the collected root crops in the piles, it is necessary to carry out their most careful rejection.
About fifty different parasites and predators contribute to the reduction of the population of beet miner moths, and caterpillars are often infected by parasites representing the Eulophid family.
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