2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
In addition to peas, the spotted pea moth is not averse to feasting on rank and vetch. Gnawing numerous cavities in the seeds, these voracious parasites noticeably reduce their seed quality. At the same time, the yield and market value of peas are also significantly reduced. By the way, in the non-chernozem zone, peas are damaged by spotted pea moths to a much greater extent, therefore, in these areas, especially close attention should be paid to the fight against these parasites
Meet the pest
The spotted pea moth is a harmful butterfly with a wingspan of 16 to 18 mm. The front wings of these pests are rather narrow and equipped with a brownish fringe. The root parts of the wings are characterized by an olive-brownish color, and their outer halves are painted in brownish tones. On the outer parts of the forewings, one can notice about a dozen rather distinct whitish streaks. The hind wings of the spotted pea moths are distinguished by a grayish-brown color. And orange-brownish caterpillars grow in length up to 11-13 mm and are endowed with brownish heads.
Overwintering of caterpillars that have finished feeding takes place in silky dense cocoons in the upper soil layer. Approximately at the end of April or at the beginning of May, they pupate, and after one and a half to two weeks, rather cute butterflies appear. The emergence of butterflies is greatly influenced by the temperature of the soil, and the start of their mass summer almost always falls on the stage of pea flowering. It should be noted that the years of these parasites are somewhat stretched in time.
Eggs are laid by females almost always one by one, less often - two or three at a time. As a rule, pests place them on the leaves from the upper sides. The total fecundity of females of the spotted pea moth reaches two hundred eggs. Six to eight days after laying the eggs, the revival of voracious caterpillars begins. The duration of their development is directly dependent on temperature and can range from twelve to forty days. Each caterpillar goes through five instars and four molts.
Caterpillars of the first two centuries (and sometimes three) immediately begin to feed on the leaves or quickly bite into the stems, and a little later they move into beans, mining the walls of the valves in them. During its life, each caterpillar damages two or three achenes. By the way, these gluttonous parasites usually do not migrate from bean to bean. On the other hand, they often damage the seeds, in which numerous cavities are gnawed by pests. In a similar way, caterpillars feed for about a month, after which the saturated parasites migrate into the soil, forming silky cocoons in it, in which they will stay until spring. Only one generation of spotted pea moths develops per year.
How to fight
The optimal sowing time for leguminous crops and their timely harvesting with threshing are the main preventive measures against spotted pea moths. Early sowing peas are damaged by these pests to a much lesser extent. Mixed crops, in which peas are interspersed with cereals, would also be a good solution. And as soon as the crop of leguminous crops is harvested, it is necessary to carry out deep autumn plowing, ideally using plows with skimmers.
A good effect can be achieved by releasing saving trichograms at the beginning of mass egg-laying by pests.
Pheromone traps can also be used against spotted pea moths. If there are up to forty butterflies in one such trap per night, then before the caterpillar revival begins, it is advisable to start spraying with insecticides. A good effect can be achieved with the use of biological pesticides, such as "Toxobacterin" or "Boverin".
Recommended:
Dieffenbachia Spotted
Dieffenbachia spotted is one of the plants of the family called Aroids, in Latin the name of this plant is as follows: Dieffenbachia maculata. As for the name of the family itself, in Latin it will be like this: Araceae. Features of care and cultivation of dieffenbachia spotted It should be noted that two light modes are suitable for this plant:
Drimiopsis Spotted
Drimiopsis spotted is one of the plants in the family called liliaceae. In Latin, the name of this plant sounds like this: Drimiopsis maculata. It is noteworthy that only two species are grown in indoor conditions: one of which is spotted drymiopsis, and the second is drymiopsis pickaxe.
We Fight The Pea Moth
The pea moth with great pleasure relishes not only on peas, but also on lentils. And although only one single generation of this parasite develops in Russia per year, it can cause considerable damage. Only timely measures and all kinds of preventive measures will help to cope with such a scourge
Malignant Wheat Thrips
Wheat thrips damages mainly winter and spring wheat, but on occasion it will not refuse to eat rye. Its habitat is the West Siberian, Ural, Volga, North Caucasian, Central Black Earth and Central regions. As for the Ural and Central regions, wheat thrips are distributed there mainly in the southern regions. The result of the damage inflicted by these pests is a decrease in the quality of grain and its mass, and the total loss of yield
Five-spotted Weevil - Pea Lover
The five-spotted weevil is almost ubiquitous and damages peas with lentils and a number of other crops. Often sunflower seedlings and clover with vetch also suffer from its attacks. The five-spotted weevil is especially common in Kazakhstan and Siberia, as well as in the European part of Russia and in the south of the CIS. In some sources, this parasite is also called a spotted weevil. It damages growing crops quite strongly: the stems with cotyledons damaged by it lead to the drying out of the races
