The elephant beetle. Description, photo

Beetle-elephant (weevil) is a miniature (from 1 to 3 mm) insect, the distinctive feature of which is a long head extended into the tube, ending with a thin proboscis. These individuals, most of which are characterized by bright and motley color, have wings and are able to fly well.

Inhabited everywhere (in fields, marshes, forests and gardens), almost all varieties of elephants cause great harm to agriculture, causing the loss of yields up to 40%. What do elephant beetles eat? The answer is simple: they are omnivorous! Insects and their larvae do not disdain any parts of plants, eating everything: flower buds and leaves, seeds, fruits, petioles, bark, stems, wood.

Beetle-elephant: description

Each type of weevil is characterized by a specific name, characterizing its habitat and "taste preferences", respectively. This pear, drupe and apple cvetode, striped pea and raspberry-weevil weevil, hairy leaf elephant, nut fruit (it is characterized by the longest proboscis, which mercilessly spoils nuts). All of them are united by a long proboscis and extreme gluttony.

Features of harmful insects

Wintering beetles right on the beds, covered with fallen leaves. In spring they rise to their "working" places and begin their wrecking activity, feeding on young leaves and kidneys. In addition, females, most of whom are exemplary parents, begin to lay eggs, preparing for them a place in buds of plants. At the end of the proboscis of an adult there are small sharp jaws, with which it gnaws in the plant (any part of it) a deep and narrow mink, places one egg there and carefully closes the hole. In addition, the elephant beetle also cuts the bud, thus causing its non-opening, which creates optimal conditions for the normal development of the larva - the main threat to plants and trees. Its development occurs in the fruit, which subsequently rot and falls to the ground, helping in this way to escape into the soil and turn into a pupa, from which in late summer will be a full-fledged elephant beetle. Conveniently located on the trees, he eagerly begins to gnaw the leaves and fruits.

The beetle-elephant beetle feels free on the beds, using buds of raspberries and strawberries for laying eggs. The false caterpillars appearing out of them eat flowers from the inside, thus causing their death.

Methods for combating weevil

How to protect the crop from such an ubiquitous insect? How to deal with a beetle? The elephant, apparently, is not afraid of anything, judging by the ruthlessness of destroying everything around him. The most effective means is spraying, which is required to be carried out in the spring and summer periods. And in this procedure it is important not so much to choose the drug as the correctness of the timing of its use. The first spraying is recommended to be carried out 5 days before the beginning of flowering of berry buds. The second time the plants should be processed in the middle of summer. This will cause the destruction of a new generation of beetles before they leave for the winter. As the spraying drugs, the most effective are "Carbofox", "Atellix" and "Metaphos". As a preventive measure, the use of biological control of insects, in particular such as "Nemabakt", "Entonem-F", is recommended.

Popular methods of struggle

Chemical treatments, which far from every gardener likes, can be replaced by sufficiently effective folk methods, one of which is the mechanical destruction of elephants. For this evening, under each plant bush, lay the litter, which early in the morning is required to shake the bugs that have not yet woken up. Then all this wealth should be gently burned. In parallel, every evening you need to collect the fallen fruit and get rid of them, especially rotten ones.

Plants should be sprinkled with mustard. For its preparation in 3 liters of water, you should dilute 100 grams of powder. As an analogue, you can also use herbal tinctures tansy, bitter bell pepper and wormwood - effective means to discourage bugs.

Effective ash in its pure form, scattered around the bushes in a thick layer in early spring. Also, some gardeners recommend trying to process the plants with a sticky solution from the laundry soap, connected with three kilograms of ash. The shortage of folk remedies is a short effect - until the first rain, washing away all previous efforts. Therefore, such folk procedures should be carried out regularly.

The subtleties of the struggle with the elephant beetle

It is useful to take into account that a beetle with a long proboscis (elephant) in a mass cluster is observed on plants ready to lay eggs, that is, in the phase of bud formation. It is this period that is the most optimal for fighting the weevil. First of all, it is required to spray pears, because their flowering comes earlier than the rest of the trees. Next, you should treat apples, raspberries and strawberries.