Description and photos of butterfly and caterpillar scoops, how to fight

The caterpillar of the scoop is a fruit pest and a threat to the future harvest, eating leaves and buds on trees and shrubs. It is so tenacious that it can survive even in the tropics and the Arctic desert. Only effective measures to combat the scoop at all stages of its development will help protect garden crops from defeat.

Description of Butterflies and Caterpillars

Scoops belong to flying insects that look like gray moths. Its caterpillars, which are so voracious and insatiable that they can deprive a tree or shrub of all green parts in a few days, bring the greatest harm to plants. They live in the soil, and find food for themselves, climbing the trunk and branches of garden crops.

In total, a large number of such butterflies are widespread in the world, the main ones: cabbage, garden, pea, gamma, winter, exclamation and gnawing.

Scoop caterpillars can reach a length of 4-5 cm. Medium development period from egg to imago 1 month. Larvae hatch after 4-10 days from eggs laid by the female. During its existence for 14-20 days, the caterpillar actively feeds and grows, surviving 5-6 age-related generations and molting 3-5 times. Then it turns into a chrysalis, which develops underground for another 14-16 days. Only then do butterfly scoops appear, whose life is not very long and lasts up to 25 days.

Interesting!

The scoops got their name for their external resemblance to the birds of the same name, which manifests itself in the form of a collar of thick hairs above the head, as well as a nocturnal lifestyle and coloring of the wings. According to these signs, they differ from other types of caterpillars and butterflies.

As can be seen in the photo, the caterpillars of the scoop have a thick hairless body and a characteristic pattern of stripes: one light longitudinal - runs along the back, dark, thinner - on the sides. Its color depends on the type: gray, green, yellow, brown, with pink or purple shades.

Harm from scoop

Larvae of the scoop butterfly are caterpillars, garden and vegetable garden pests that eat various types of plants, almost all that are found on their way. Caterpillars scoops belong to the group of polyphages.

By type of food caterpillars scoops are divided into 3 groups:

• leaf-eating - feed on the green mass of plants (young stems, leaves, buds and inflorescences), attack trees and shrubs;
• gnawing scoops - the so-called gray caterpillars, cutting the plant near the roots, live in the soil and eat garden crops;
• intra stem - live in thicker stems, gnawing them from the inside, which leads to the death of the plant.

Interesting!

To destroy a dozen plants in one night, the efforts of 3-8 caterpillars of several species of such pests will be required. Damage to the crop, which can cause scoops, is estimated to be 100%. The oldest caterpillars of 5-6 generations destroy planting as much as possible. There are also barn varieties that feed on grain in storage: ordinary and grain scoops.

Gnawing species that attack garden plants include:

• Winter scoop, whose caterpillars winter in the soil to a depth of 30 cm, and in spring they move closer to the surface and plants. Every night they creep up and devour leaves and young rosettes.They grow up to 5 cm in length, have a gray-earthy color with a greasy sheen, a light line on the back. Young gray caterpillars live in the ground in June-July and eat seedlings of beets, corn, sunflowers and other crops, in August, vegetables ripening on the beds are damaged, sown winter cereals and their seedlings can eat around in autumn.
• Exclamation scoop: its caterpillars have a dark gray color, the body length is up to 3 cm. They feed on vegetable crops: cabbage, carrots, potatoes, etc.
• Ogorodnaya - develops in 2 generations: young caterpillars about 3 cm long have a color of various green shades (from light to dark brown). They are multinivorous; they attack the planting of cabbage, beans, peppers, tomatoes, including in greenhouses. The adult generation of green and black caterpillars in the earth prefers not only leaves, but also the pulp of fruits, gnawing holes in them.
• The caterpillar of the cabbage scoop appears from eggs laid by the female in May-June and from July to September on the lower sides of the leaves of garden crops. They prefer cabbage, lettuce, beets and peas. Color of larvae: gray-green or yellow-brown, less often - black. Damaged heads of cabbage quickly deteriorate and can spread phytopathogenic infections. Folk methods of struggle on cabbage ineffective, and chemical dangerous to humans.

Among the leaf-eating species of scoop, the most common is the yellow-brown butterfly of the scoop, which has yellowish-gray wings with spots and lines framed by light fringe. Its caterpillars differ from others in yellow dots and 5 longitudinal light lines on the back. Females lay eggs on the buds and leaves of trees and shrubs from May to June, after a few days gluttonous larvae appear from them.

Track Fight

Methods of caterpillar control scoops are divided into folk and chemical.

The first include:

• Manual collection of earthen caterpillars, which is best done in the dark, armed with a flashlight. At such hours, they crawl out onto the leaves of plants, where they are easy to find, and then tossed into a bucket of soapy water for destruction.
• Around garden crops to put a fence made of plastic or cardboard up to 10 cm high, which will not allow the larvae to get to their roots.
• Sprinkle corn flour in the habitats of the caterpillars, after eating which, they will die from its negative effect on digestion.
• In greenhouses, the flight of butterflies can be controlled using pheromone and light traps.

The use of biological preparations and caterpillar control methods:

• Lepidocide is a concentrated bioinsecticide, 40-50 g are diluted in a bucket of water.
• Bitobaxicillin - a solution is prepared at the rate of 50 g of the product per 10 liters of water.
• Against young caterpillars, bacterial preparations containing Bacillus thuringiensis are effectively used. Bedbugs emerging from spores destroy eggs, sucking their contents, and then young larvae appear.
• Used for the destruction of tracks and special tools containing Podisus maculiventris and Picromerus bidens L.

On a note!

If the caterpillars continue to multiply, then the plants should be re-treated. Spraying with biological products is carried out at a temperature of more than + 18 ° C in dry weather in the absence of dew, the optimal period is from 18 to 20.00 in the evening.

Chemicals

There are methods and techniques how to deal with caterpillars scoops, which are already much bred on plants in the garden or in the garden. To do this, use chemicals containing deltamethrin: Biorin and Super Fas, which will quickly and effectively get rid of pests. However, the treatment should be carried out every 3-7 days, given the different time of appearance of larvae from eggs.

Another group is preparations of the neonicotinoid group: Aktara, Komfidor, which are designed to combat leaf-eating insects and larvae. They have a systemic long-term effect, poisoning pests through the green parts of plants and fruits.

In autumn, when digging up the soil, it is recommended to add hexochloran powder (12%), which is scattered directly on the surface, and then digged.

Track Prevention

In order to reduce damage from the appearance of scoop butterfly larvae, experts recommend using folk remedies and other prevention methods:

• regularly destroy weeds, especially flowering ones, in the aisles and along the border of the site, on which butterflies sit for food;
• in the periods of reproduction and laying of eggs, females should often loosen the soil deeply between the rows of the garden;
• during the mass summer of butterflies they set traps from containers with water, in which beer or jam is added, attracting the smell of pests;
• to spray vegetable plantings with infusion of blooming wormwood, which is prepared at the rate of 300 g of raw materials, 1 tbsp. ash and 1 tablespoon of liquid soap in 10 liters of boiling water, then cover and leave for 5-6 hours, spray immediately after cooling;
• after harvesting vegetables, it is imperative to do a deep digging in the fall to collect and destroy the pupae of the scoop;
• for prevention purposes, it is recommended that the plants be treated annually before flowering with complex preparations: Fufanon, Kinmiks, Actellik, Iskra, Inta-Vir, Kemifos, etc.

The fight against caterpillars and butterfly scoops lasts almost the entire season using various methods and tools. Only constant thorough inspection and care of horticultural crops will allow timely taking all necessary measures to destroy such pests.