Who is a bread bug turtle: photo and description of a dangerous grain lover

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The turtle beetle is a dangerous pest of winter and spring wheat. It harms other cereal crops, and can even harm raspberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. To save the crop, choose the most effective pest control measures.

Bedbug harmful turtle: description and features of the species

Insect bug harmful turtle belongs to the order Hemiptera, genus Turtles, family Shields, type Arthropods. It is a dangerous pest of cereals such as wheat, barley, oats, rye and corn. It sucks the juice from the stem of the plant and the ear dries out.

Appearance
The body is covered with a hard chitinous shell, dark brown with black dots and dashes, completely covering the abdomen and wings. On the head are five-segmented mustaches, mouthparts of piercing-sucking type. The zygomatic plates do not close in front of the clypeus. The body is convex-oval, 1-1,2 cm long, 0,6-0,9 cm wide, with three pairs of three-segmented legs.
Cycle and development
The life cycle of the bug is associated with the period of development of cereal crops. In the spring, after the emergence of wheat seedlings, pests settle in the fields. After fertilization, the females lay their eggs on plants. Within 3-4 months, while the culture is growing, the bugs are on the field. In autumn, after harvesting, they fly away to their wintering grounds.   
What feeds on
The pest feeds on plant sap. The main source is the planting of winter or spring wheat, but he does not refuse from rye, barley, oats, millet, corn. Sucks juice from garden crops: cucumbers and tomatoes. It also feeds on the juice from the stems of various cereal grasses. 

Features of reproduction

For the appearance of offspring, a male and a female are needed. After fertilization, the females lay eggs. At one time, she is able to lay 14 eggs on the leaf plate of the plant, which are arranged in two rows. They are round, green in color, up to 1,1 cm in diameter.
Under favorable conditions, after 6-10 days, larvae appear from the eggs. As the egg develops, it changes color and pattern. At the beginning it is green, but before the appearance of the larvae it becomes pink. The larva looks like an adult, but without wings. After passing 5 ages, it turns into an imago.
The larva that emerged from the egg is pink, 1.5 mm long, passing into the next growth phase, its body length increases and the color becomes darker. In the last phase, the insect develops wings. The development cycle of the larva lasts 35-40 days. At the adult stage, the harmful bug survives the winter.

Morphologically related species

Two species are close to the harmful turtle bug: the Australian and Moorish bugs, but they have some differences.

The Australian bug has a pointed head on top. There is a high crest on the shield. The body is 1,1-1,3 cm long. It harms cereal crops. It is rarely found on the territory of Russia, but in places where they trade, the crop suffers greatly. 
Moorish turtle bug has an elongated body, 8-11 mm long and a triangular head. Damages cereal crops. Accidentally falling into flour, when grinding grain, it gives it a yellow color and an unpleasant taste. Bread made from such flour can harm people's health.

Where does the harmful turtle live: geographical distribution and habitat

The pest lives in areas where wheat and other cereals are grown. In Russia it is found:

  • in the Central Black Earth region;
  • in the North Caucasus;
  • in Krasnodar;
  • Stavropol Territory;
  • Volga region, in the Urals;
  • in Western Siberia.

Insects fly away from the fields in search of wintering, sometimes they fly up to 50 km in search of a suitable place. They hibernate in forest belts, gardens, forests in dry, loose litter of fallen leaves. Having accumulated a supply of nutrients over the season, the bugs hide in dry leaves and stay there until spring. As soon as the air warms up to +12 degrees in spring, they leave their shelters and look for a source of food.

The bug is a harmful turtle.

What harm can a bug do a harmful turtle

Bed bugs do a lot of damage to plants. Equally, both adults and larvae throughout the entire time when the culture grows, suck the juice out of it and this leads to:

  • to the death of the central leaf on the shoots;
  • spine deformities;
  • to the inferiority of grain;
  • to whitening of the ear and its further drying;
  • damage to grains of wheat and other cereals.

What plants are affected by the pest

The pest destroys the harvest of winter and spring wheat, oats, barley, millet, and corn. In the garden, during its invasion, young plants of tomatoes and cucumbers may suffer.

The pest pierces the stem of a young plant with a proboscis, sucks out the juice. In the saliva of the bug there is an enzyme that, when it enters the plant with juice, causes the breakdown of carbohydrates. This plant dries up.
It pierces the wheat stalks before the beginning of the ear filling and sucks out the juice, which leads to the underdevelopment of the grains, and under the influence of saliva, the gluten in the grains loses its qualities, which affects the quality of the dough.
Harmful turtle and garden plants. After pining the bug with the juice of tomatoes and cucumbers, their productivity decreases. You can also meet the bug in the raspberry bushes, but it does not cause severe damage to the bushes.

Signs of bedbug damage

The presence of pests can be determined by damage to plants. It is important to pay attention to such shortcomings:

  • rapid wilting of seedlings;
  • damage and whitening of spikelets;
  • discoloration of the grain, cracks and damage are visible on the grains.

Strong plants that grow quickly and have a high content of juice in the stems are especially affected by the attack of parasites.

Measures to combat the bug with a harmful turtle

To effectively combat the tortoise bug, various methods are used, each of them has its pros and cons and is used in a particular situation. Sometimes two methods are used at the same time. Having tried to apply any of the available methods, pest control often ends with the use of chemicals.

Agrotechnical events

Agrotechnical measures reduce the possibility of pests. You can take the following steps:

  • choose varieties for planting resistant to pest attack;
  • timely apply fertilizers containing potassium and phosphorus;
  • destroy weeds around fields where wheat grows;
  • harvest in a timely manner.

It is not difficult to follow such rules, but they are the key to preserving the crop.

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Chemical control measures

Treatment with chemicals is carried out for the first time, after the arrival of overwintered individuals on the field, and the second time - after the appearance of the larvae, during their growth. When the first signs of damage to crops by a bug-turtle appear, you should immediately take up the fight against them. With a massive invasion of pests, insecticides are used to treat plants.

For processing, Aktara, Karate-Zeon or Fastcom are used. Processing is carried out in accordance with the instructions. It should be noted that the bug has the ability to develop immunity to pesticides. Therefore, for processing it is better not to use the same tool twice in a row.

Folk methods

Available means will help repel pests from plants. But they use such methods when their number is small.

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.

Biological Method: Natural Enemies

In nature, a harmful turtle has natural enemies, these are riders, spiders, beetles, ants, birds. One of the most dangerous enemies of the bug is the tahina fly. She lays eggs on his body, the larvae emerging from the eggs make their way inside the pest, and he weakens and becomes unable to reproduce. The telenomus on the eggs of bedbugs makes its clutches and its larvae eat the inside of the eggs.

Bed bugs suffer from ground beetles and rove beetles that penetrate into wintering places, forest ants attack pests.

Natural enemies of bedbugs.

Bed bug traps

These types of traps are used to kill bedbugs.

Pheromone traps are placed along the edges of the fields, the bugs flock to the light and their own smell. But such traps cannot be placed in the center of the field, otherwise the pests will flock to the smell and harm the crops.
Light traps consist of a box, the inside of which is covered with white paper and a light bulb is lit. Under the trap there is a bath with soapy water, where pests that have come into the world fall.

preventive measures

Timely preventive measures will help protect the crop from turtle beetles. A few simple rules to follow:

  • sow seeds at the appropriate depth;
  • carefully select seeds for planting;
  • apply mineral fertilizers to enrich the soil, especially ammonium nitrate and melt;
  • do not delay harvesting and subsequent processing of the field;
  • sow crops in fields located near forest plantations.
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