The horticulturist(Phyllopertha horticola) is a beetle that damages leaves and flowers, causing the greatest damage to fruit plants and roses. The grubs, i.e. the larvae of this beetle, are also harmful and damage plant roots. In gardens, they cause the most damage to strawberries. See how to recognize this enemy of garden plants and learn about ways to ecological andchemical control of the gardeners of wreckage
GARDENER DESTROYER - adult beetle, damaged leaves and larvae in the ground
Damage gardener - what does it look like, what damage it causes
The namehorticulturetells a lot about this common pest, which can cause great damage to the foliage of garden plants. Adult horticulture beetles appear en masse at the end of May and forage until July. They are similar to the May beetle, but much smaller - their bodies are 10-12 mm long. The wings are chestnut-brown (the first pair of wings), and the head and the fore-back are green-blue with a metallic sheen. The whole body of the beetle is covered with hairs.
Decay gardenersdamage the leaves and flowers of many species of fruit plants, both trees and shrubs and ornamental plants. In the orchard, the horticulture plant very often appears on apple trees, raspberries, currants and blueberries. Among ornamental plants, roses often fall victim to it, especially those forming hedges. I also saw beetles gardeners, among others.in on birches.The gardener niszczylistkabites mainly into the center of the leaf blade, as a result of which characteristic holes appear in the leaves.
Female beetles lay oval, yellowish eggs in the soil. At the end of July and in August,larvae of the horticulturist , called grubs, hatch from them. They are curled into a horseshoe and are creamy white in color with a brown head, growing up to 20 mm in length. The grubs feed mainly on the roots of grasses and weeds. In garden crops, they cause great damage to strawberry beds. Damaged plants grow poorly and even die.
In autumn, grubs move to deeper layers of the earth, where they spend the winter. In the spring of the following year, they resume activity, continue foraging and increase in size. In May, beetles pupate and fly out. The fact that grubs hibernate in the soil is very important for us because of the methodsof combating the gardeners with Dreadlocks
Degraded gardener - ecological control
On plots and in home gardensthe larvae of the gardeners of the wreckercan be fought primarily by digging up the soil or loosening it with a hoe. On larger surfaces, it is worth using a rotary tiller. It is best to move the soil on a warm, sunny day. Then the larvae thrown up to the ground quickly die (dry up), and some of them will be eaten by birds.
If our crops were damaged during the growing season bydestroyer horticulture , it is worth it as an aftercrop sow buckwheat containing tannins harmful to the grubs. At the same time, buckwheat will also reduce the occurrence of grubs in the soil. When the buckwheat grows, dig it with soil as a green fertilizer.
Another way toecological control of the larvae of the horticulturistis to use biological preparations: Larvanem, Nemasys F or Enton. They contain nematode species that are harmless to plants and deadly to grubs. These preparations are best used in April-May or August-September.They are mixed with water at a temperature of 15-20 ° C and, after pouring into a watering can, carefully spread under the plants.
Preparations with nematodes, however, are very expensive and intended rather for professional users. In amateur garden cropsa better way is to water plants attacked by gardeners' larvaeone of the preparations:
- Tansy ProBio Garden (natural tansy manure)
- P-Drakol (a biological preparation containing microorganisms unfavorable to beetle larvae)
- NeemAzal (an ecological plant protection product based on substances derived from citrus fruits).
NeemAzal can also be sprayed against adultbeetles gnawing leaves. Thanks to this, this one preparation allows you to fight both adult beetles gnawing the leaves of plants, as well as their larvae feeding in the ground on the roots.
Adultbeetles gardeners Niszczylistkican also be caught in traps containing a luring substance. Biotrap's Unitrap Y / Y / B traps for catching beetles are suitable for this. They are hung up in early May. However, it is important to know that the effectiveness of this method is low. Traps are used rather as a form of signaling the presence of a pest in orchards, as well as determining the implementation of chemical spraying, which must be done during the period of mass flight of the pest. Therefore, in gardens, the best way is to use the natural, ecological NeemAzal preparation, which we spray when beetles are present on the plants.
Dredger gardener - chemical control, spraying
When deciding onchemical control of destructible gardeners , we must remember that these treatments are very harmful to the environment and beneficial organisms.In particular, spraying must not be performed during the flight of bees. Deltam and Mospilan 20 SP can be used forspraying plants against adult beetles . Spraying is performed during the period of mass flight of beetles, which usually falls in June. For this reason, none of these sprays can be performed on strawberries, as their fruits are already ripening.
