2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The steppe sowing nutcracker is a polyphagous pest. You can meet him almost everywhere, except for the sandy soils of woodland. In the central forest-steppe and in the chernozem belt, it is especially harmful. Beetles often feast on plantings of succulent sugar beet, and the larvae willingly eat young seedlings and sown seeds not only of sugar beet, but also of vegetable and cereal crops. And in the fall, voracious larvae harm only potatoes, and are also actively engaged in predation, devouring pupae and larvae of flies and a number of other insects
Meet the pest
The steppe sowing nutcracker is a bug, the size of which ranges from 10 to 15 mm. This harmful bug is endowed with a wide black body with a pleasant bronze sheen, and a small dotted line can be seen on its front back. The convex head of the pest is coarsely and densely punctate. Females are usually larger than males, and their body is slightly wider, but the antennae will be slightly shorter.
The length of the brownish-yellow larvae reaches 25 mm. The posterior tips of the larvae are slightly bifurcated, and each process is equipped with a pair of denticles directed towards the middle of the grooves. The notches between the teeth are usually rounded.
The wintering of harmful bugs takes place at a depth of ten to twelve centimeters in the ground, and voracious larvae of different ages usually overwinter at a depth of five to thirty-five centimeters. The beetles are selected on the soil surface somewhere in the second half of April, at the stage of sowing sugar beets and early spring crops. The approximate dates for the appearance of adults in the forest-steppe zone is the period from 12 to 25 April, and their mass years, along with mating, are celebrated approximately from 27 April to 12 May. At the same time, the main spring food of beetles is dandelion flowers and their pollen.
The steppe sowing clickers lay eggs in the soil in small piles, each of which contains from three to five pieces. As a rule, one clutch includes from 12 to 20 eggs, and the total fertility of females is from two hundred to five hundred eggs. The eggs of these pests are oval, small and painted in a white-dirty color. In soil, they are usually difficult to distinguish, as they are covered with tiny soil particles. The embryonic development of voracious parasites takes about three weeks. First instar larvae, born in late May or June, reach a length of 2 mm. They are almost transparent and colorless. Their food is tiny invertebrates, as well as shoots of cultivated plants and weeds. Basically, the development of larvae takes 2 - 3 years, but sometimes this period extends to four years. And in September-October, the larvae, which have completed their development and have eaten enough, burrow into the soil. Pupae, on the other hand, develop only three to four weeks and have an external resemblance to adults - lateral wedge-shaped processes drawn back are clearly visible on their pronotum.
How to fight
Among the preventive measures against the steppe sowing nutcrackers, the most important agrotechnical measures occupy an important place: autumn plowing, thorough tillage and disking of the soil, its liming, elimination of weeds, as well as the application of fertilizers (especially ammonia or potash). A good solution would be to introduce crops into crop rotation that are slightly damaged by this pest. Among these crops are mustard, flax and millet.
During the budding period, it is recommended to introduce preparations made on the basis of entomopathogenic nematodes into the soil. Seedling roots, potato tubers, seed material and soil are treated with neonicotinoids, organophosphorus compounds and well-proven pyrethroids.
Among the natural enemies of the larvae of the steppe sowing nutcrackers, one can note the predatory ground beetles from the Broscus families. Nevertheless, these predators do not play a significant role in the reduction of their numbers.
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