Garden bugs - pests or not: harmless predators and dangerous vegetarians from the insect world

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Gardeners on the plots meet many different insects, some of them are beneficial, while others are harmful. Often on crops there are garden bugs - pests of plants and trees, representatives of the order of Hemiptera, the family of stink bugs. They are familiar to many, by the specific smell that beetles leave behind on plants and berries.

How to determine the presence of bedbugs on the site

Regularly examining the plants on the site, you can notice punctures on the leaves, around which yellow spots form. There may be insects on the plants, they need to be compared with the description of garden bugs, and if there is a similarity, then urgent action must be taken. It is important to provide plants with proper care:

  • weeding;
  • timely feeding;
  • watering;
  • preventive treatments.

In this way, the resistance of plants to pest damage can be increased. If this is not done, the bugs will settle on crops, suck out the juice, which will lead to a decrease in yield and even to the death of the plant.

Bed bugs in the garden.

What garden bugs look like: a description of the most common types

Bed bugs, inhabitants of gardens and kitchen gardens, have a body shaped like a shield. Representatives of this family are externally similar, but differ in size and body color. On their shells there may be dots, stripes, spots. Bed bugs can be with or without wings. Some bugs fly well, while others are very difficult to fly from one plant to another.

Forest green shield
The green forest bug feeds on the juice of cereal plants, leaves, attacks cultivated plants and berry bushes. The body size of this bug is 11-16 mm. The body is bright green in color, in the middle of summer it becomes with a red tint, and in autumn the insect becomes completely brown. The bug flies well and moves quickly from plant to plant. During the season, 3-4 generations of green shield bugs may appear.
Eurydema northern
Cruciferous bug or northern euryderma, a pest that lives on cabbage, radish, radish, daikon. Its body is 8-10 mm long, painted in red-black color. In appearance, the cruciferous bug is similar to the soldier bug. He has wings on his body. Females are very prolific, they can make up to 4 clutches of eggs per season. With a massive invasion, they can destroy the crop.
berry shield
The body of the berry bug is 8-10 mm long, crimson or burgundy in color with green spots. It is found on raspberry bushes, currants, gooseberries, and other berry crops. It feeds on the juice of leaves and berries. Due to lack of nutrition, it can affect other crops in the garden.
cucumber bug
The bug that harms cucumbers is black, up to 3 mm long. The cucumber bug hides on the inside of the leaf. He quickly jumps from leaf to leaf, and is often confused with a flea. He prefers to live in warm, humid places. Most often, it harms greenhouse crops. In addition to cucumbers, it affects peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes.
pear lace maker
The shield is a pear lace maker of small sizes, up to 3,3 mm. It has a brown body with membranous wings that look like lace. It affects pears, apple trees and other fruit trees. During the season, 1-2 generations of insects appear.
Harmful turtle
The bug is a harmful turtle that harms cereal crops, especially wheat. Its body is covered with a shell similar to a tortoise shell and reaches a length of 10-13 mm. Damage to the stems and spikelets of wheat affects the development of grain, since saliva contains substances that affect the elasticity of gluten. Flour from grain damaged by a bug of poor quality.
Bed bug
Blindflies differ from their relatives in that they have a soft shell. Bedbugs of this species are small and medium in size, but not more than 10 mm. The body is grey. They got their name, poorly developed vision. This is especially noticeable on flower buds. Horseflies feed on herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees.
ringed predator
The bug preys on various insects. Its body is black with a red rim in black stripes, 12-13 mm long. It turns out that hunting at night, having caught the victim, he pierces her body with his proboscis, injects poisonous saliva, under the influence of which the insides of the insect turn into liquid. The bug sucks it out, only a chitinous cover remains from the insect. 

What do harmful garden bugs eat?

Garden bugs feed on juice from leaves, stems, grains, seeds and fruits. Especially they cause great harm to plants during growth and fruit set. Sometimes, a few hours is enough for a family of bugs to destroy most of the foliage on a plant.

How plants die from bedbugs

In the spring, on young plants, the bugs suck the juice from the leaves and they dry up. During flowering, they pierce the stems on which inflorescences form and the flowers dry up, there will be no more fruits on such crops, the ovaries will not be able to form.
If shield insects damage berries and fruits, then they can no longer be eaten, because of the unpleasant smell that they leave behind. Cruciferous plants also suffer: leaves on cabbage dry out, tops on radish, radish. 
Garden bugs harm all plants growing on the site: vegetables, cereals, umbrella, cruciferous species. Berry bushes, trees and even ornamental plants are affected. Some species feed only on plants, but there are also omnivores. 

Useful types of predatory bugs

In nature, there are useful predatory bugs that are beneficial in gardens and orchards by destroying pests, their eggs and larvae. Such insects are specially grown to eat parasites. Thus, plants are protected from pest attack by stink bugs and the use of chemical means of protection is minimized.

Perillus bicentennial
The bicentennial perillus bug belongs to the family of shield insects. Its body is covered with a black shell with red, yellow, white spots. Adults are 8-12 mm long. A small black head with antennae and a proboscis that looks like a sharp beak. The bug can withstand air temperatures from +6 to +50 degrees. Perillus feeds only on Colorado potato beetles. Lays eggs on potato leaves. They are black and lined up. 
Picromerus
A predatory bug that destroys many pests: caterpillars, butterflies, scoops, the Colorado potato beetle and many others. The proboscis of a bug with notches, piercing the body of the victim, holds it tightly, so that there is no way to get free. Pycromerus lives in wildlife. In laboratory conditions, this type of bug is specially bred and planted in areas for pest control.

Are garden bugs dangerous to humans?

Garden bugs feed on plant sap. A person is not attacked and his blood is not drunk. They can get into the room, after he leaves the room, voluntarily or with someone's help, an unpleasant smell may remain. It rarely happens that garden bugs settle in indoor plants and harm them.

Do garden bugs bite?

Garden bugs cannot bite through human skin. They are dangerous because they harm the plants that a person grows for his own food. The unpleasant smell that remains after bedbugs on vegetables and berries makes them unsuitable for food. In some people, this smell causes individual intolerance.

The ringed predator bug can bite through the skin, its bite is compared with a wasp sting. But the consequences of such a bite pass quickly. The bite of a ringed predator is dangerous for people prone to allergies.

Famous soldiers or common red bugs: benefits and harms

The bug-soldier, Cossack or red bug, all these names belong to one very common type of bugs. The red bug is found everywhere, in nature there are wingless and winged individuals. Early in spring, in March, appears after winter on stumps, stones, roadsides. The soldier feeds on plant sap and pollen from flowers, seeds, and fruits. Also, its menu includes other insects, snails, worms.

There are cases of attacks on their relatives.

The Good: the bug is not a pest of garden crops. Even with a large number of this species, there is no data on the mass death of plants in their habitats. But scientists use soldiers for laboratory research in biochemistry, endocrinology and insect behavior. By the number of bedbugs in a particular area, they speak about the quality of the environment. The benefit is that it destroys other garden pests.
Harm: there will be harm to a person only if, during mass reproduction, the soldiers get into the room. Traces of them can remain on carpets, furniture, clothes. Some people may experience allergic reactions to particles of the chitinous cover of the bug.
Soldiers are bedbugs!?
Can not be! It doesn't matter at all

Methods of dealing with bedbugs in the garden

There are many proven methods for dealing with garden bugs. The method is chosen depending on the number of insects. With a small number of bedbugs, folk remedies or biological methods can be used. They do not harm plants and crops. But with a large number of insects on plants, they resort to chemical treatment.

Biological agents

Biological preparations Boverin and Bitoxibacillin are used by many gardeners to destroy pest bugs.

Bitoxibacillin is a drug whose main component is a waste product of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. This bacterium lives in the upper layers of the soil and on its surface, produces spores containing a protein dangerous for bedbugs, which, when it enters their body, begins to decay and destroys the digestive system. The pest cannot eat and dies. For humans, this drug is not dangerous.
Boverin is a bioinsecticide that acts only on harmful insects. The spores of the fungus, which is part of the drug, enter through the chitinous cover of the insect into its body, grow there, gradually killing the host. The spores of the fungus that have come to the surface of the dead pest are introduced into the contacting individuals and in this way a large number of pests are infected.

Chemicals

Chemical preparations used in the code have already been treated by other means, but there were no results or with a massive invasion of bedbugs. Insecticides for pest control according to the mode of action are divided into contact, intestinal, systemic.

1
Aktellik
9.7
/
10
Details
2
Carbophos
9.5
/
10
Details
3
Chemifos
9.3
/
10
Details
4
Vantex
9
/
10
Details
Aktellik
1
The universal drug Antellik refers to contact-intestinal insecticides.
Expert rating:
9.7
/
10

It acts on the nervous system of the pest, inhibiting the work of all organs. In the open ground, it remains effective for up to 10 days. Processing is carried out at an air temperature of +15 to +20 degrees.

pros
  • fast result;
  • efficiency;
  • affordable price.
Cons
  • toxicity;
  • pungent smell;
  • high drug consumption.
Carbophos
2
Broad spectrum insecticide.
Expert rating:
9.5
/
10

Suppresses the nervous system, which leads to the death of all organs. Affects pests at all stages of development, including eggs.

pros
  • high performance;
  • universality;
  • high temperature resistance;
  • affordable price.
Cons
  • Strong smell;
  • toxicity.
Chemifos
3
Kemifos is a universal pest control product.
Expert rating:
9.3
/
10

Penetrates through the respiratory tract and kills all pests within a few hours. Retains its activity up to 10 days. acts on adults, larvae and eggs.

pros
  • universality;
  • efficiency;
  • low toxicity;
  • affordable price.
Cons
  • has a strong smell;
  • can not be used during flowering and fruit set;
  • requires strict adherence to the dosage.
Vantex
4
Vantex is a new generation insecticide that has low toxicity if dosage rules are observed.
Expert rating:
9
/
10

Retains its effect even after rain. Frequent use of the drug can be addictive in insects.

pros
  • low toxicity;
  • the range of action of the drug is from +8 to +35 degrees.
Cons
  • dangerous for bees and other pollinating insects;
  • processing is carried out in the morning or evening hours.

Folk ways

Folk methods are not difficult to use, but treatments with such means should be carried out often, every 3-7 days. To combat bedbugs, use an infusion of onion peel, dry mustard, laundry soap. These means process leaves on plants from two sides.

GarlicGarlic powder is diluted in water. Take 1 teaspoons per 4 liter, mix and process the plant.
Infusion of onion peel200 grams of onion peel is poured with 1 liter of boiling water, insisted for a day, filtered. The finished infusion is brought to 10 liters by adding the right amount of water and the plants are treated leaf by leaf.
Mustard powder100 grams of dry mustard powder is diluted in 1 liter of hot water, another 9 liters of water are added to the mixture and the plantings are sprayed.
Decoctions of herbsA decoction of wormwood, cloves, red pepper is used for the invasion of the bug.
Black cohoshA black cohosh plant is planted around the perimeter of the field, it repels the pest from the plants.

Agrotechnical measures

Timely planting, soil care: weeding, watering and fertilizing make plants resistant to the invasion of bedbugs and other pests. Bedbugs settle on weeds, and then move to other crops on the site. Therefore, they must be removed from the beds in a timely manner.

Drive the BUGS in the neck! Otherwise they will destroy both the garden and the vegetable garden!

Prevention of the appearance of bedbugs on the site

Preventive measures help protect plants from bed bug infestations. Bedbugs feed on weeds in the spring, and after germination, they switch to garden crops. Following these simple rules from spring to autumn will give a good result. It is necessary:

  1. Prepare the site before planting crops: scatter tobacco dust, dry mustard or hot pepper. They will scare away or destroy pests.
  2. Observe the timing of planting plants, this will enable them to get stronger by the time the offspring of bedbugs appear.
  3. Top dressing, weeding and loosening the soil will increase the resistance of plants.
  4. Throughout the season, clean the beds from dry leaves, grass.
  5. Plant plants around the beds that repel bedbugs.

How to take garden bugs for alcoholism

Some try to cure alcoholism with garden bugs. To apply the method or not, the decision is voluntary. The mechanism of action of the tincture on bedbugs is to cause a gag reflex in a drinking person and, in the future, an aversion to vodka.

For tincture, 5-10 live bugs are taken, placed in a bottle of vodka and insisted for 7-10 days. The drinker is replaced with pure alcohol for tincture. Begin treatment with one glass.

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