2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The Japanese wax false shield is a very dangerous enemy that can damage not only citrus crops, but also many other shrub, berry and fruit trees. These gluttonous parasites will not refuse to feast on figs, pomegranates, quince, apricots, apple trees and even medlar. This type of pseudo-scale insects equally actively populates shoots, trunks, and leaves. And if you do not start an operational struggle with them, you can lose a rather impressive part of the harvest
Meet the pest
Japanese wax false shield is covered with a characteristic waxy shell and gives only one generation during each season. The size of convex oval females reaches about 3, 5 - 4 mm, on average, it can vary from 1, 8 to 4, 2 mm. Fertilized individuals always hibernate, and with the onset of spring (most often closer to the end of May or early June) they begin to lay eggs painted in reddish-brownish tones. All eggs of the female are placed under their own bodies - during the laying period, they acquire a characteristic convex shape. And the total number of eggs laid by each individual can reach two or two and a half thousand pieces. Approximately in mid-June, miniature vagrant larvae begin to emerge from the laid eggs (as a rule, it takes about twenty-six days to develop eggs at a temperature of twenty-five to twenty-eight degrees).
The harmful larvae of the Japanese wax false scutes are colored in reddish tones and move very freely and easily. Distantly, they resemble miniature reddish stars equipped with white rays. In the shortest possible time, the larvae manage to populate both tree shoots and leaves, actively sucking tender juices from them and switching to a sedentary lifestyle. And when all individuals reach the second age, the females begin to differ from the males - the shields of the males are somewhat reminiscent of fancy little white flowers. As for the females, they are all endowed with seven-segmented antennae and three pairs of legs. By the way, the larvae of the females molt three times, and the larvae of the males, at the end of two molts, are transformed first into a pronymph, then into a deutonymph, and then into an imago. As a rule, males become adults after seventy to seventy-five days, and females only after ninety-ninety-five.
Adult males, endowed with wings, fly out of their shelters in September and die literally a couple of days after fertilization. And the fertilized females go to winter.
China and Japan are considered to be the birthplace of Japanese wax false shields. Currently, these gluttonous parasites are considered quarantine pests. In our latitudes, they can most often be found in the Krasnodar Territory or in Georgia. The pests infest the lower parts of annual or biennial shoots especially strongly.
How to fight
Insecticides against the Japanese wax false shield are best used in June - at this time the mass appearance of larvae starts. Even small doses of chemicals can easily kill these harmful parasites.
This type of false shield also has natural enemies - these are various entomophages. Barrel-shaped chylocorus living in gardens on trees attacked by scabbards are especially active in destroying pests. Sometimes they are also found on poplar. And barrel-shaped chylocorus hibernate under dried leaves and trees. In addition, the release of Scutellista, another entomophage, always ready to feast on pests, or rather their eggs, will also serve well in the fight against Japanese wax false shields. For fifteen to twenty false shields, it is quite enough to release one single female.
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