Fighting aphids in the yard. How aphids appear on plants Life cycle of aphids
Here larisa_revina writes: this season we have a terrible invasion of aphids in incredible quantities, now removing tops in the beds and weeds in uncultivated areas, I found that the whole earth (in places of their large accumulation) is strewn with white bloom. This is probably an infection ... How to cultivate the land in the beds and the territory of the future flower garden, which is planned for digging in the winter?
The aphid hibernates in the phase of a fertilized egg. Eggs are oval, shiny, black, up to 0.5 mm long. They are easy to spot on the bark of the shoots. Given that aphids multiply exponentially. Each female gives rise to about 100 individuals, and after 10-15 days each new one herself gives another 100 individuals, and so on from early spring to late autumn. Thus, each overwintered female aphid produces up to 17,000 pests per season.
To begin with, we will clearly define where the aphid winters, or rather its eggs, from which in the spring, as soon as steady heat sets in, young individuals will hatch and begin to feed on plant sap.
1. Aphids lay their eggs on the branches of trees and shrubs in the zone of leaf buds. In severe winters, they may partially die, but even a small number of surviving eggs will give rise to a whole colony of pests.
2. Most of the eggs go for wintering on basal shoots and spinning tops.
3. Garden ants carry aphid eggs into their anthills, where they hide from the cold and enemies. And in the spring, it is they who spread the aphids in order to milk them for their livelihood.
Natural enemies of aphids are larvae and ladybugs themselves, lacewings, hoverflies, earwigs, flies and wasps. By the way, the fact that enemies worked on the plantations of aphids can be seen from the dirty-white coating on the leaves or the ground, which is the remains of the corpses of the pest. Now is the time to provide them with a good wintering by placing houses and pots with large chips.
Inspect the shoots of currants, plums, cherry plums and other plants affected by aphids in the summer. Cut off all twisted branches and burn. The rest of the branches are carefully cleaned of oviposition. Be sure to whitewash the stems and bases of the skeletal branches of trees with lime milk.
Methodically cut out all root shoots and tops, be sure to burn them or send them to a landfill.
Destroy anthills, before frosts open them with a stick and fill them with water, and in early spring start fighting garden ants, preventing them from spreading aphid eggs through the trees.
Review your garden plan. Please note that aphids actively reproduce on plants such as kosmeya, poppy, mallow, nasturtium, linden, viburnum. Try to plant them as far away from crops that are most affected by aphids. It must always be borne in mind that there are species of aphids that feed on some plants and multiply on others. You can reduce the number of aphids in the garden only on the condition that you have few plants that are "houses" for the rapid reproduction of this pest.
Therefore, destroy all the weeds in the garden to the maximum, plant crops such as sunflower, Jerusalem artichoke, chamomile, chrysanthemums, most plants from the family of yasnotkovye (labiales) to a minimum. As far as possible from currants, plant lettuce and chicory, spice-flavoring herbs from the mint family. Watch for the appearance of aphids on water lilies, egg capsules and other aquatic plants, destroy them in a timely manner, because it is on these plants that the plum aphid breeds.
As you can see, the earth does not need to be cultivated in order to destroy aphid egg-laying. But there is a lot of work. And even more of it will be in spring and summer, when it will be necessary to regularly spray plants from aphids, knock them down with a stream of cold water from the shoots of trees and shrubs.
The family of grass aphids (Aphidinea), to which systematics includes about 4 thousand widespread insect species, of which almost a thousand lives in Europe, is usually included in the order of Hemiptera. One of the meanings of these insects in biogeocenosis is an example of mutually beneficial relationships between different animal species, for example, the union of aphids and ants (you can learn about the symbiosis of ants and aphids).
People have long known the craving of ants for sweets. Aphids are also aware of this weakness: these insects are able to produce the so-called "honeydew" - sweet, nutritious secretions with a viscous consistency that are attractive to ants and some other insects.
But why are they called "cash cows"? The thing is that the process of extracting aphids by ants resembles milking cows. A worker ant, wishing to get the “milk” of an aphid, massages its abdomen with its antennae. In response, she sprays out a portion of delicious moisture, rapidly eaten by ants. The amount of moisture released by aphids per day reaches several tens of milligrams..
Ants are one of the few insects who, in turn, show concern for their "wards". They are able to carry aphids from one plant to another, guard aphid clusters, care for their eggs, and even build temporary shelters for them from grass material to protect aphids from bad weather and predatory insects.
If the predator nevertheless attacks the defenseless "herd" of aphids, the ants seek to repel the attack or save the insects by hiding them in secluded places. Sometimes ants settle aphids in anthills. trying to create the most comfortable conditions for their existence.
The average life expectancy of various species of aphids ranges from a couple of days to several weeks. In cool climates, aphids can live longer - up to 2 months.
Insect structure
Some insects have membranous transparent wings.. Aphids may or may not have two pairs of wings. The offspring of the former can quickly spread over a large area. Wingless individuals are able to densely populate individual plants with their offspring, reproducing with the help of parthenogenesis.
Despite the long legs, aphids crawl slowly. Some species are able to move forward by jumping with the help of their front legs. On the head and abdomen of insects, there may be excretory ducts of glands that secrete a white mass similar to wax. It prevents contamination of the body with waste products and wetting by raindrops.
What does it look like?
The body of an aphid is shaped like a drop of water or an egg.. Its length does not exceed 2-3 millimeters (in some species - up to 7 mm.).
The head is shaped like a trapezoid. On its front part there are jointed sensitive antennae and complex compound eyes. Aphids have excellent eyesight, surpassing even that of bees, and an underdeveloped ability to distinguish colors (for example, distinguish red shades from blue).
Peculiarities
What is their significance in nature? Contrary to popular beliefs about them, aphids do not play a purely negative role as a pest: they not only harm plants, but also regulate the process of photosynthesis in them, sucking out excess sugar along with juices. In addition, the sweet discharge of aphids, when it enters the ground, fertilizes it, saturating it with nitrogen.
Man has come up with many ways to deal with aphids, since it appeared, from the introduction of natural enemies of aphids to the use of pesticides. An effective aphid killer is ordinary acetic acid..
For baiting insects, a solution of vinegar is usually used in proportions of 1-2 tbsp. l. acids per 10 liters of water. In the finished solution, you can add laundry soap or dishwashing detergent. A solution with such a concentration will not be able to harm plants.
Small plants can be sprayed with a spray bottle, carefully spraying each leaf from the top and bottom. Large and branched bushes or trees should be watered abundantly with a watering can. In order to completely and permanently destroy aphids, usually only a few systematic applications of the solution are enough.
You can learn about folk methods of dealing with aphids, and we talked about assistants in the fight against aphids.
How does it reproduce?
How does the aphid appear and how does the process of transformation from a larva to an insect take place? The high fecundity of aphids is a key reason for the difficulty of their eradication and the high damage they cause to crops. The fertility of one female aphid reaches hundreds of thousands of new individuals per month. Some species give birth to live offspring, carrying eggs in their bodies.
The reproduction process proceeds with incomplete transformation - bypassing the pupal stage. This type goes through three stages of development. In autumn, females lay their eggs on the leaves and stems of plants. With the onset of spring, larvae emerge from the eggs. After molting, the larvae begin asexual reproduction - parthenogenesis, let's take a closer look at what it is.
During parthenogenesis, development occurs in a special way: the offspring of aphids mature from unfertilized eggs nurtured by adult females. During this period, exclusively females are born that do not have wings. This method of reproduction is necessary to regulate the ratio of adult males and females.
With the approach of autumn, males begin to appear and reproduction becomes bisexual. This method is less productive, but it has no alternative for places with severe winters, since the live larvae of most aphid species do not tolerate cold.
After summer finally comes into its own, females with wings begin to be born. Winged aphids migrate en masse to neighboring plants. Thus, over the summer, dozens of generations of female aphids, both winged and wingless, arise.
In autumn, winged male aphids begin to appear, which fertilize the females, which lay eggs again. The rate of such reproduction is low, but it is the offspring that has two parents that can survive the winter and start a new cycle.
After birth, the aphid pierces the stem or leaf of the plant with a proboscis. Then it sucks the juice out of it, and its excess is excreted through two tubules located in the back of the lower abdomen, in the form of sweet droplets.
Aphids, of course, are among the ten most common, tenacious and annoying pests. These small insects feed on plant sap and are able to infect almost any part of them: leaves, stems, buds, flowers, roots. Aphids are especially fond of young plants, in which, as a rule, tender shoots and the underside of leaves are affected. Visually, the defeat of aphids is easy to notice - in addition to the pests themselves, there is a curvature and weakness of the shoots, twisting downwards of the edges of the leaf blade, spots of black mold.At aphids oval soft body, but the head has antennae-antennae, a pair of ovipositors at the end of the abdomen. Some individuals have underdeveloped wings, other instances wingless. laying eggs aphid produces in the autumn, the further cycle of development will continue after wintering, in the spring. Offspring aphids becomes sexually mature already 7-8 weeks after birth.
It sucks juice from plants, piercing tissues with a hollow proboscis or the tip of the ovipositor. It feeds almost continuously and is able to absorb a fairly large amount of plant juice. Allocations aphids are a sticky sweetish liquid, fall . This is the one " honeydew", which is adored black ants– they protect aphid colonies. Parts of the plant become sticky, over time, spots develop on them black mold. Aphid colonies can move from plant to plant, carrying with their saliva viral diseases.
At my own dacha, I don’t want to use it to combat aphids chemical. These connections are extremely toxic and harm not only aphids, but also other insects, birds, settle in the soil and become dangerous to plants and people. Therefore, consider other methods destruction aphids in the allotment.
Aphid fears plants with insecticidal properties - This Dolmatian chamomile, onion, garlic, calendula, wormwood. It is very good to plant these plants next to fruit bushes or other plantings which it is desirable to protect from aphids.
Question about attracting birds to the site to kill aphids can be considered controversial: birds that feed aphids themselves and feed their chicks with it, of course, can significantly reduce the amount aphids, however they are applied, pecking at fruits and berries.
Among insects natural enemies aphids are ladybugs (both adult insects and their larvae feed on aphids), riders, ground beetles, lacewings, some types of wasps, predatory bugs, surf flies. To attract them, fragrant plants are planted on the site ( parsley, dill, carrot and others), as well as green manure plants (buckwheat, mustard, clover, alfalfa).
To prepare soap solution 300 g of laundry soap is dissolved in ten liters of water, the ground around the plant is covered with a film and the plant is sprayed with the resulting solution. The solution is suitable for use within a week, if it was not possible to destroy all the aphids in one spraying, the procedure should be repeated.
Gives a good result pollination of plants crushed and sieved . This procedure is carried out early in the morning, while the dew has not yet dried up, and in the evening, after preliminary spraying of the plants.
Used to combat aphids and a solution of celandine : 5-6 young fresh plants are finely chopped, 3 tablespoons of laundry soap shavings are added, and all this is insisted in a bucket of warm water for up to 5 hours. The resulting infusion is filtered and young shoots and tops of plant branches are dipped into it..
Infusion of hot pepper to kill aphids prepare as follows: 8-10 pods of red cayenne pepper are crushed together with seeds, add 50 g, pour one liter of boiled warm water and leave to infuse for a day. Ready filtered solution is used for spraying plants - in addition to aphids, it is effective against beetle larvae, slugs, caterpillars, codling moths, garden bugs and thrips.
To prepare the infusion of garlic 5-6 cloves are passed through a press, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and half a liter of warm water are added, shaken well and insisted in a dark place for three days. 2-3 tablespoons of strained infusion of garlic and 1 tablespoon of liquid soap are diluted in 1 liter of water, the plants are sprayed with the resulting solution.
Infusion of potato tops for spraying plants done like this: take 2 kg of chopped tops in a bucket of warm water, insist 3-4 hours and filter.
Can cook infusion for spraying and from the tops of tomatoes : half a kilo of chopped green tops is poured with a bucket of boiling water and kept on the smallest fire for 30 minutes, allowed to cool and filtered. Before spraying, a glass of the resulting infusion is diluted with 1 liter of water..
Removing aphids on the site is a long process that requires patience and great effort on your part.. It is unlikely that this problem will be solved in one fell swoop; repeated processing will be required. But in this way it is applied minimal damage to nature, and the gifts of your beds and garden will not be contaminated with dangerous "chemistry».
Success in hard work and excellent harvest!
Now let's see what aphids look like. This is a small insect whose body length is several millimeters. Depending on the species, the body will be painted in a certain color. On personal plots, green, white, red and black aphids are most often found. An insect can be winged or wingless. Winged individuals quickly spread over the territory and contribute to the change of the host plant, wingless individuals mainly reproduce.
On a note! Based on what the aphid eats, it is easy to imagine what damage it can cause to agricultural land!
reproduction
Now it is worth considering how aphids reproduce. In autumn, females lay eggs on plants and they calmly survive the winter on them. In the spring, larvae appear from the eggs, which immediately begin to actively feed on the juices of their "master". After passing the molting stage, young individuals without fertilization give birth to wingless females.
On a note! As a result of parthenogenetic reproduction in just a month, only a female is able to become the ancestor of three generations, in which there will be several hundred thousand insects!
Closer to autumn, the production of winged males begins. They return to their "master", on which the females again lay their eggs.
Aphids belong to insects with incomplete transformation, that is, they do not have a pupal stage. Some species reproduce without laying eggs - live birth. Live larvae are formed parthenogenetically, and their embryonic period exceeds the life span of aphids, so the females are born already pregnant.
The most common types
As mentioned above, there are about 4 thousand species of aphids. It is not possible to consider all of them, so we will pay attention to those that are most common.
What is the danger?
The harm from aphids can be very large-scale, especially if you do not notice this pest in time and do not start fighting it.
And who eats aphids? The most notable natural enemies include:
- ladybug larvae;
- lacewing larvae;
- larvae;
- crickets;
- cicadas;
- ground beetles;
- earwigs;
- rider.
And so that these insects can help you in the fight against aphids, it is enough to attract them to your site by planting certain varieties of plants around its perimeter.
And finally, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with some interesting facts about aphids:
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