2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Stemworm is most often found in the steppe zone of Russia, damaging a huge number of cereals there - sorghum, millet, corn, rye, barley and oats with wheat. Often this pest can be seen in southern and central Europe. Plants affected by the caterpillars of stem moths are easy to distinguish from healthy ones - they are given out by the swollen bases of the leaves and numerous holes made in them. The harmfulness of gluttonous caterpillars is quite large, since they easily move from one plant to another. If you do not start a timely fight with them, the damage from their activities can be colossal
Meet the pest
The Stemworm is a noxious butterfly with a length of 25 to 38 mm. Its whitish-yellow front wings in the middle are decorated with light longitudinal stripes, as well as kidney-shaped and round spots in the form of light dots. And the hind wings of pests are even lighter in color. The thorax of the stem moths is weakly convex and is characterized by the absence of combs, while the abdomen and antennae are rather short.
The size of light yellow eggs of stem scoops is on average 0.5-0.6 mm. The body of caterpillars, reaching a length of 30 mm, is equipped with four longitudinal stripes, as well as a dark stripe along the rear edge and four specks along the front. Their brownish spiracles are decorated with black rims, and a light stripe runs along the yellow prothoracic scutellum. The body of adult caterpillars has a grayish-green color with yellowish-greenish hind segments, and their heads are shiny brown.
The length of the black-brown pupae is approximately 15 mm. Formed caterpillars hibernate inside dense egg shells. The revival of caterpillars usually occurs in April and early May, however, sometimes they can revive even at the end of March, if the average daily air temperature reaches six to eight degrees. The gluttonous caterpillars of stem moths, gnawing numerous holes at the bases of the stems of cereal plants and piercing longitudinal passages, begin to feed inside these stems. As a result, the crops grown quickly turn yellow, and the upper parts of the stems begin to dry out slowly. Often, the larvae damage the spikelets that are forming. The average lifespan of voracious caterpillars is approximately fifty days. When cereals begin to enter the milk ripeness phase, the larvae pupate at a depth of five to ten centimeters in the soil. They stay in the pupal stage for about 24 days, and the emergence of butterflies starts in June and July.
Eggs are laid by female stem moths in one or two rows near the bases of the leaves, as well as on the lower parts of the stalks of cereal crops. Ovipositions can also be seen on wild grasses, stubble and carrion ladders. As a rule, one clutch contains on average eight to one hundred thirty eggs, and the total fertility of females reaches from one to three and a half hundred eggs. Only one generation of stem moths manages to develop per year.
How to fight
Deep fall plowing, stubble plowing and weed control should be the main preventive measures applied against stem moths. Grain weeds - wild oats, wheatgrass and others - should be destroyed especially carefully. Stubble burning is also widely practiced in order to eliminate eggs laid by females. It is strongly not recommended to sow cereals on their stubble predecessors - alternate crops in crop rotation should be competently. It is useful to introduce into crop rotation and beets with potatoes. Early sowing of crops is also considered an equally effective preventive measure.
Insecticides, as well as various viral and bacterial preparations, are used if several stalkworm caterpillars are found on each square meter of planting.
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