2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The sunflower moth lives on the territory of Russia literally everywhere. And the zone of the highest harmfulness of this annoying scoundrel covers the south of the forest-steppe and the steppe. As the name of the uninvited guest might suggest, it harms the sunflower most of all, eating up ripening achenes and contaminating sunflower baskets with the excrement of harmful caterpillars, as well as braiding them with cobwebs. Damage to sunflower heads by this pest often contributes to their further damage by dry rot. The sunflower moth is also capable of harming asters, safflower, chamomile, chrysanthemum and a number of other Compositae crops, so you should always be on your guard with it
Meet the pest
The sunflower moth is a butterfly with wingspan ranging from 22 to 26 mm. Its yellowish-gray front wings are equipped with three to five black spots in the middle, and several dots can be seen on their outer edges. The hind wings of the voracious wretch are translucent and painted in clear gray tones.
The size of the oblong milk-white eggs of sunflower moths is 0.8 mm. Yellowish-greenish caterpillars grow in length up to 15 - 18 mm. Their scutes and heads are dark brown, and brownish-black stripes can be seen on their body. The brownish pupae are 9 to 13 mm long.
The years of harmful butterflies starts with the beginning of flowering of sunflower and is observed from June to August. Females lay eggs in sunflower anthers and baskets. At the same time, they can lay not only one egg at a time, but also 2 - 5 pieces, and the total fertility of females reaches from one hundred twenty to three hundred and twenty eggs. Embryonic development usually lasts three to seven days. Initially, caterpillars feed on flower petals and pollen, and already upon reaching the third age, they begin to gnaw the shells of the achenes, eating ripening seeds. However, they do not stop there either - harmful parasites often also eat the tissues of the baskets. They can also grind winding passages in the bottoms of the baskets and gnaw the leaves of the wrappers.
Caterpillars live from thirteen to twenty days. Their pupation takes place in the soil, in white and very dense oblong cocoons. Pupae develop on average about seventeen days. Most often, a single generation of sunflower moths develops throughout the year. In the south, there are also two generations per year, only the second is optional.
In addition to the Russian territory, the habitat of sunflower moths also covers the western part of Asia and Europe. Crop losses as a result of its harmful activity range from twenty to sixty percent. When rainy weather is established, sunflower baskets attacked by pests often rot.
How to fight
In order to protect against sunflower moths, it is recommended to grow shell varieties of sunflower - the caterpillars practically do not damage them, since the protective layer of the seed coats is a rather serious obstacle for them. Pests are simply unable to gnaw through this hard carbonaceous layer inside the membranes of the achenes. As a rule, it begins to form on the third day after flowering. And its formation ends approximately on the eighth day, just at the time of the beginning of gnawing into the achenes of caterpillars of the third instar.
After harvesting the sunflower, it is necessary to carry out deep autumn plowing of the areas - it will help to eliminate some of the parasites that have gone for the winter.
The pest population is also influenced by natural bioregulators in the form of a number of parasitic insect species from the orders Diptera and Hymenoptera, as well as in the form of a fungus called Metarrhizum anisopliae.
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