Bread ground beetle in an apartment and a house

Many farmers are familiar with the ground beetle - a pest of cereals. Quite often, housewives encounter an insect in their kitchens, discovering spoiled food supplies. The appearance of such a problem requires urgent action. How bread ground beetle enters the apartment, how to get rid of it - you will find answers to these and other questions in this article.

Description

Bread ground beetle is one of the most common representatives of the order of beetles, making up the largest family of beetles (about 50,000 species):

• adults grow up to 2.5 cm;
• have an oval-shaped convex body, painted black with a slightly pronounced metallic sheen;
• the surface of the ventral part of the beetle is brown in color.

The insect has a resinous black whisker whiskers and 5-segmented limbs. On the convex elytra, relatively deep shallow punctures are located. The beetle has strong and at the same time blunt jaws at the ends. Ground beetle in the photo is presented below.

Lifestyle & Habitat

Ground beetle leads a nocturnal lifestyle, hiding in the daytime in its shelter (under snags, stones or tree roots). If a ground beetle has settled in the house, then there she usually hides in the joints of old furniture.

In nature, the favorite habitat of ground beetle is the field of winter wheat, rye, barley, oats and even corn.

On a note!

The pest nibbles the scales of the ear, damaging the rudiments of the kernels and the already ripening grain. In the absence of crops, the beetle can even satisfy hunger.

Breeding

In the presence of favorable conditions of heat and humidity, bread ground beetles begin to mate actively, after which the females lay eggs in the soil (from 50 to 250 pieces). Arid weather reduces fertility ground beetles.

After 10-15 days, larvae appear that remain dwelling in the soil until frost. There they also hibernate, building a shelter for themselves in the form of a hole. They resume feeding on winter crops until pupation. The formation of the pupa takes about 3 weeks. One generation of beetles appears in a year.

Where do bugs come from?

There are bread ground beetle in the apartment in the following ways:

• beetle larvae can be brought into the house on shoes;
• together with products: with cereals, flour or potatoes;
• with wood for igniting a fireplace or furnace;
• unpleasant odor and the remains of animal feed in a pet's cage can attract insect attention;
• Considering that bugs always fly into the light, they enter the house through windows that are not protected by mosquito nets.

With the advent of night, the pest crawling into the house goes in search of food, which can be cereals, as well as crumbs and leftovers left on the table. With its rustling, the bug deprives of sleep and rest, often falling from the ceiling to the bed. If the attempt to get food for the insect is successful, then this is a favorable signal for reproduction. Therefore, when ground beetle appeared in the house, it is necessary to take urgent measures to combat it.

How to get rid of bugs in an apartment

Destroying a malicious pest of fields is quite simple.

1. Before you get rid of ground beetles in the apartment, first you need to find the place of its settlement. Then do a general cleaning by placing all bulk products in sealed containers.
2. To process the habitat of bread beetles, you can use vinegar or soda solution, or use insecticidal agents such as Dichlorvos, Karbofos or Fufanon.
3. When infecting cereals or flour with ground beetle, it is preferable to completely get rid of them. If this is not possible, the products should be baked in the oven for 20-30 minutes.
4. You can also fight bread bugs with the help of ultraviolet rays, warming infected products in the sun for 6 hours.
5. No worse affects pests and cold. Fatal to insects is air temperature below 15 degrees.
6. Use lures based on boric acid.
7. Plants that have a sharp aroma can also deal with an uninvited guest. These are cloves, garlic, bay leaf.

How to protect the crop on the field

The following methods will help get rid of ground beetle on sown areas:

1. Observe crop rotation rules.
2. To harvest crops in the early stages of ripening. Moreover, you should immediately remove straw from the field and plow the soil to a depth of at least 20 cm.
3. Attract natural enemies: various parasitic and predatory insects.
4. Use pickled seeds for sowing. Timely spray young cultures with insecticides.
5. Use insecticides Aktar, Eforia, Kruizer during the active feeding of larvae.