Bed bugs on black and red currants (currant bug) - benefits or harms, how to fight in the garden and vegetable garden

Reader Question:

Anna

I found a dark beetle with a flat back and striped antennae on my plot. I managed to take it off the leaf, and took it to my neighbor in a rag to show her. She is an experienced gardener, immediately said that I have bed bugs on currants. This is a special kind of pest, affects bushes, feeds on the juice of berries. It is necessary to fight with the help of onion husks, otherwise the insects will destroy the bushes. All this I listened to, I did, but a few days later the situation repeated: again a bedbug, again on the same currants.
Вижу, что это совсем другой жук, не тот, о котором говорила соседка, раз средство не помогает уничтожить его. Теперь нуждаюсь в совете: кто поедает мои растения, как называется, чем вреден. Но самое главное, о чем хочу спросить: как бороться с такими вредителями. Предложите максимально безопасные способы, но и от более эффективных не откажусь, это на случай, если не справлюсь с ситуацией. Заранее благодарю вас. Анна.

The author of the portal answers the question:

What a currant bedbug looks like. Close-up photos

Features of the structure

Insects can fly, but in most cases they choose places to live near enough food.

Pests in this way quickly destroy plants, fruits.

Habitat

Bed bugs prefer to settle in gardens, fields, sparse forests, and meadows. The choice of habitat is determined by the food habits of the insects. They fly to areas where free access to food is expected. Such individuals are found everywhere in Europe, Asia. Соответственно, в нашей стране достаточно много этих вредителей.

Reproduction and life cycle

The pests are active at warming.

They crawl out of shelters in April. They go to overwinter in October, but much also depends on environmental conditions.

 Bed bugs on red currants appear as soon as the berries ripen, but before that they feed on other plants and weeds. These insects belong to individuals with an incomplete cycle of development (transformation). They go through the stages of formation:

• Egg;
• larva, develops over a longer period as it molts several times, with individuals of the latter ages being called nymphs;
• imago are sexually mature insects.

Harm or benefit

After the pest makes a piercing of the tissues, the plant begins to die. The structure of leaves, trunk, fruits is gradually destroyed. Insects contribute to changes in the shape of the green part of the plantings, berries. At first, spots appear, with multiple punctures the fruits quickly dry out.

It becomes impossible to eat them.

In addition, the appearance of odor contributes to the deterioration of the quality of the crop. The secret released by currant bugs also makes it impossible to consume berries. They smell unpleasant and the taste is greatly impaired.

Black and red currants

Insects prefer these types of plants. First of all, they destroy black, red currants. However, if there is not enough food, the bugs will move to white currants, rowanberries, and gooseberries.

They are unpretentious, they also eat other berries, as well as herbaceous plants.

How to fight insects

Consider the least toxic means, safe methods, because together with bed bugs the plants are also treated. To save the harvest and minimize the penetration of harmful substances on the shrubs, first resort to simple manipulations:

• When the last crop is harvested, the site should be recultivated, first collect all fallen leaves and weeds, this will deny pests the opportunity to stay here for the winter;
• in the spring, the procedure is repeated: remove old leaves brought by the wind into the garden, dig up the soil;
• plant plants that will create unacceptable conditions for insects, most often it is clopogon, but wormwood also helps, because it is characterized by a strong smell;
• as bushes develop and currant fruits ripen, it is recommended to collect bed bugs by hand, some of the pests can be destroyed, but because the chitinous shells of bed bugs are tough, you should not try to crush them, you should burn insects, as they can fly and may return when they go in search of new food sources.

In addition, folk remedies are also used. They can help get rid of adults and larvae, but not eggs. The following species are used funds:

1. Mustard powder. It is mixed with water. The recommended ratio is 1:10. Do not abuse such a solution, as it acts aggressively - it provokes the appearance of burns not only in bed bugs, but also in plants.
2. Onion husks. Fill a bucket half full with it, pour water up to the top. Then wait for the remedy to infuse. This requires 5 days. Use the solution not in pure form, but with water.

Chemical Warfare

Insecticides is considered as the main measure if there are already a lot of insects.

Not all of them have an ovicidal effect (kill the eggs of bed bugs), so you need to spray the prepared solution twice.

For the purpose of getting rid of currant bugs, consider drugs:

In most cases these are concentrated liquids. The manufacturer gives recommendations on how to prepare a working solution. It can be used for preventive treatment of the area in autumn, until the temperature drops to +10°C, and in early spring after a steady warming.

Biological means to get rid of parasites

If signs of the presence of bed bugs on currants have already appeared, how to fight them - consider conditionally safe biopreparations. They contain natural components that contribute to the destruction of insects:

• Aktrofit is a drug based on natural neurotoxins (avermectins that are produced by soil fungi);
• Boverin - contains spores of fungi, as a result of their life activity release toxins that have a devastating effect on bed bugs;
• Bitoxybacillin is a common remedy based on bacteria, which are dangerous only in relation to insects, such a drug can be used at any phase of pest development.

Video: Currant bedbug - how it looks, how it is dangerous for humans and agriculture

Vegetable gardeners' reviews

Expert tips

Anna

Entomologist, researcher. Work experience of 16 years.

- I recommend choosing preparations with prolonged action, because they help to kill the larvae that emerge from the eggs, the young will immediately receive a dose of poison;
- In between insecticide spraying procedures, you can irrigate bushes with mustard powder (make a solution based on it) or other folk remedy;
- No matter how effective the preparations are, they will not have the desired effect without agronomic measures, because more and more individuals will appear.

Conclusion

 Berry bedbug - a representative of the shieldwort family. It prefers to live close to its food source: currant bushes, raspberries, gooseberries, etc. But this is not its only favorite food. As a result, the pest poses a serious threat to crops. He brings no benefit to humans. To destroy it, the peculiarities of its vital activity are studied and the means of control are selected:

1. This species has wings, sensitive antennae, three pairs of limbs, and the outer covers change color throughout life. This is how insects adapt to new environmental conditions.
2. Pests destroy plants of different species: perennials, annuals, fruit trees, as well as fruits themselves. They insert their proboscis to get a portion of food, at the same time a substance that destroys the structure of plantation tissues penetrates it.
3. Different methods are used for eradication: chemicalThe pest control methods include mechanical, biological, agrotechnical and even folk methods. If the infestation of a small area is weak, it is enough to collect insects by hand, but if the plantation is large and there are many pests, chemicals are used.