Every year, home gardeners are faced with numerous pests. Some of them occur periodically, but such insects can cause significant damage to the crop. Not every owner knows what a dangerous parasite the click beetle looks like, but everyone knows its larva.
Adult insects do almost no harm to plants, but their females are fertile, laying a large number of eggs, each of which replenishes the wireworm population in the garden.
What a clicker beetle looks like
An adult reaches a length 1.75 mm... Its body is thickened, oblong. Rigid plates are located above the wings, most often punctate grooves are distinguishable on them. The surface of the plates gives off a metallic sheen.
The color of the beetles is different, it is determined by the subspecies of the insect itself. Some are uniformly black or brown. There are beetles in which on the front of the back and elytral plates we can distinguish a pattern consisting of multi-colored spots, stripes or patterns.
There are tropical species, the color of which is the brightest - orange, red, yellow, blue, green.
In some places on the body of the clicker, there are hairs and scales. The head, which occupies a third of the entire body, is slightly retracted into the front of the back. It has two small round eyes, whiskers, which are divided into eleven segments each. The wings are well developed. There are six long legs, all walkable. The paws end in claws.
The main feature of the beetle is the process formed by the middle and front parts of the chest. It is a kind jumping mechanismallowing the beetle to roll over when necessary.
As soon as the insect turns over with its back to the surface, it bends the anterior thoracic part, rests on the pronotum. This position brings the process to full readiness. The insect bends sharply in the opposite direction, the process abuts against the elytra, throwing the body up. Having risen into the air, the insect performs a somersault, landing on its legs.
The Nutcracker performs a jump with a height exceeding the parameters of his own body two dozen times... Insect tricks are not fun. Quite often, the beetle fights for its own life in this way. And in a dense substrate it is much easier for him to move this way.
Beetle at the larval or worm stage has the appearance of a caterpillar... The long body is divided into thirteen segments, its shape is cylindrical. On an almost naked body, villi can sometimes be seen, the head capsule is the most dense and darkest.
The head is quadrangular, slightly narrowed in front. It has a mustache consisting of three segments. There are strong mandibles in front, consisting of the upper and lower jaws.
Each larva has six legs, equally developed. The body can be painted in light yellow, meet and dark brown copies.
What plants are affected by the pest
Most often the pest lives in the fields with root crops, but its reproduction occurs in any area with vegetation. The favorite places of the parasite are:
- nightshade;
- cereals;
- cabbage;
- aster.
Ways to deal with a beetle in the garden
Defeating the clicker is difficult. It is necessary to get rid of not only adult insects, but also their larvae, which can turn into full-fledged parasites.
The method is chosen based on the number of insects and the wishes of the gardener himself.
The use of special drugs
Way the most reliable, is used often. Chemicals have a high level of effectiveness, are easy to use, and give good results.
It is necessary to apply them in strict accordance with the instructionsso as not to infect the fruits and not poison yourself:
- Prestige - 10 ml of the drug is diluted in a bucket of water. The tool should be used to shed the beds intended for planting potatoes and other vegetables. Having planted flowers, they must be watered from a watering can. The chemical completely dissolves in the soil in fifty days, does not pose a health hazard;
- Aktara - used for planting work, processing the upper layers of the soil. Four grams of a chemical is diluted with ten liters of water. The mixture is poured into the wells prepared for potatoes. The diluted amount is enough for one hundred squares of area;
- Taboo - recommended for processing potato tubers, used only for planting. An economical tool, for one and a half liters of water, 10 ml of the drug is needed.
Using folk methods
Recommended alternate landing potatoes and buckwheat, peas and beans, since the beetle will not eat these plants.
With the help of slaked lime, eggshells, chalk, wood ash and mineral fertilizers, it is necessary reduce acidity in the soil.
When planting potatoes, dig near each tuber a handful of onion husks... In the same way you can use mustard powder.
One of the old methods of worm control is bait... At the end of spring, it is necessary to prepare several pits, laying in them last year's grass flooded with water. We cover the holes with plywood, and in a few days they will be full of pests. The grass must be burned, and everything must be repeated again.
The same method can be used to combat the beetle and its larvae in the autumn, using manure instead of weeds.
Preventive methods for the appearance of wireworm on plants
It is necessary to destroy weeds in a timely manner, observe the rules of crop rotation, and dig up the land in the beds twice a year. Potato patches are recommended thin out legumes.
One individual can cause the appearance of a whole colony of pests.
Remember that attention must be paid not only to potatoes, but also to other vegetable crops, to use complex methods in the fight. This is the only way to protect your crop and completely destroy the nutcracker on the site. Sometimes this takes several years.