2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The rape bug is a big fan of both cultivated and wild cruciferous crops. At the same time, its larvae are distinguished by the greatest harmfulness - individuals of younger and middle ages trying to stick together actively suck juices from young shoots, and older individuals harm ripening seeds. If you do not notice these pests on the site in time and do not take appropriate measures against them, you can lose a fairly substantial part of the crop
Meet the pest
The rape bug is a harmful insect, the size of which does not exceed 7 mm. Its dark little body has a metallic blue or greenish tint, and the short head of the pest is slightly concave at the sides. The heads of rapeseed bugs can be painted in both black-blue and black-green shades, and along the outer edges of the cheekbones, they are bordered by evenly rising light ribs (brownish, yellow or red). The antennae of voracious parasites are black, and their black-blue or black-green pronotum are characterized by a metallic sheen and are equipped with two stripes on the sides and light wide stripes along the center. The elytra of a similar color are covered with yellow or light red spots, and the light abdominal rims are decorated with dark spots.
Cylindrical eggs of rapeseed bugs reach 0.6 - 0.8 mm in size and are equipped with fancy caps. Immediately after laying, they are colored yellowish, and after a while the eggs turn greenish. The larvae of this pest have an external resemblance to the larvae of the mustard bug, however, they are much smaller and covered with dark patterns. All rape bug larvae pass through five molts.
Adult bugs usually overwinter in plant litter along roadsides, in fallow lands, as well as under fallen leaves on forest edges and in forest belts. In early spring, pests come out of their torpor, get out of shelters and begin to actively suck out juices from growing cruciferous crops. And after some time, the females begin to lay eggs. In the west, they do this at the beginning of June, in the south - from the end of April, and in the north - from about the second half of May. Eggs are placed on both fodder and non-fodder vegetation, and sometimes they can even be seen on soil lumps or on plant remains. Each clutch contains a dozen eggs, arranged in two rows. Depending on the established temperature regime (as a rule, it varies within the range of twelve to twenty three degrees), the development of eggs takes from five to nineteen days. And the total fertility of females at the same time reaches sixty eggs, however, in some cases, the pests lay eighty eggs each.
In the western regions, where a single generation of pests develops throughout the year, the egg-laying process can continue until the beginning of August. True, it is most intense only in the second half of June. And in the forest-steppe at the end of July, the larvae of the first generation fled, and a little later the females begin to lay eggs again, as a result of which at the end of July or in August one can observe the appearance of individuals and the second generation.
How to fight
The main preventive measures against rapeseed bugs are strict adherence to the rules of crop rotation and the observance of the spatial isolation of various cruciferous crops. Wild cruciferous weeds must be destroyed before they bloom. And against overwintered bedbugs, with the onset of spring, the thickets of the walker, rape and other cruciferous weeds are sprayed with insecticides.
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