Use effective measures to combat leafhoppers at their summer cottage
There are a great many insects in the world that spoil agricultural crops - Colorado beetles, locusts, aphids, leafhoppers. Measures to combat leafhoppers are unprecedented, because a gluttonous army is capable of gnawing all plantations to the roots and leaving us without a crop.
Until recently, only residents of the southern regions were well acquainted with leafhoppers. But with the warming of the climate, pests have settled everywhere and amicably eating plantings in the entire central zone of Russia.
Is there a difference between cicadas and leafhoppers
Many of us have the most pleasant memories associated with the singing of cicadas - walks on warm summer nights and gatherings by the fire are invariably accompanied by cozy chirping. So are they malicious pests of gardens and orchards? We hasten to assure you: only singing cicadas chirp - large insects that live on trees and bushes in hot regions. They also cause harm, but due to their impressive size they quickly become prey for birds.
The cicadas are much smaller in body size, they do not know how to chirp, and they spend all their strength on food and reproduction. And they know a lot about it!
The difference between these two families is clearly visible in the photo:
Due to their insignificant size, enormous fertility and a quiet lifestyle, leafhoppers in their short life manage to add many problems to agriculture.
What harm do leafhoppers do
The oral apparatus of these insects is of the sucking type and is adapted to piercing tissues and sucking out juice. Pests live, feed and multiply on the underside of the leaf, so they remain unnoticed for a long time. The hatched larvae are motionless, but they grow and molt quickly. Grown-up individuals are able to jump from one branch to another. If no measures are taken to control leafhoppers, they can fill the entire garden in a short time and move on.
The salivary secretions of leafhoppers are poisonous to plants. White necrotic spots appear at the puncture site. Over time, they merge, the leaves dry and fall off.
See what a rose leaf looks like, which rose leafhoppers have "dined on":
Instead of juicy bright greenery, whitish drying spots remained. Pink fragments are the sites of development of pathogenic fungi. Roses with such leaves are not residents, they will be sick for a long time and freeze out in the very first winter.
In addition to drawing out all the juices from plants, leafhoppers spread various infections, the most dangerous of which are viral and tomato stolbur.
Viral diseases are extremely insidious - they are easily disguised as fungal or bacterial lesions, but practically do not heal. Bushes infected with mosaic or jaundice viruses are easier to uproot than cure.
Cicadas on an apple, pear or berry bushes are a sure sign of the imminent appearance of an incurable infection, after which the vegetation will have to be destroyed.
Tomato pillar is another extremely dangerous disease caused by nightshade phytoplasm. To date, there is no effective remedy for treatment, all procedures are reduced to the destruction of diseased bushes. The pathogen remains active in the soil for many years, so you will have to look for another place to plant nightshade crops.
Viral diseases and tomato stolbur can lead to crop shortages up to 70%.These are huge numbers for modern agriculture. They make one think about serious measures to combat the leafhopper, as the main carrier of pathogenic plant viruses.
Description of the most dangerous types of leafhoppers
The gluttonous family has more than 20 thousand species, but several are considered the most harmful in Russia and the post-Soviet space:
- white;
- rose-colored;
- buffalo;
- green;
- striped;
- Japanese;
- cereal;
- six-point.
Let's get to know them better.
Rose (edwardsiana Rosae)
Distributed everywhere. It hits the roses rose hip, many fruit trees. The body length of an adult is less than 5 mm, the color is greenish-yellow. During life, it molts several times, leaving an empty shell on the back of the leaves. An adult insect is mobile and quickly jumps from one tree to another.
In autumn, females lay eggs at the tops of the shoots. In mid-spring, larvae emerge from them. Within a month, they reach adult size and begin to actively reproduce. Several generations change over the season.
White (Metcalfa pruinosa Say)
Native to North America, it is now distributed across all continents. The life cycle is similar to the rose leafhopper. The size of an adult insect ranges from 2 to 7 mm. The color is white, the pest looks like it is sprinkled with flour. She is unpretentious in nutrition, does not disdain anything, but prefers grapes... In the southern regions, where the sun berry is cultivated everywhere, it has become a real scourge of vineyards.
Females lay up to 90 eggs in cracks in the bark; larvae emerge in late spring. Insects abundantly secrete sweet honeydew, which attracts ants and pathogenic fungi. Control measures for white leafhoppers do not differ from other species and will be described in detail below.
Buffalo (Stictocephala bubalus F.)
It got its name from the vertical shield at the front of the head, similar to a buffalo forehead. The body is emerald in color, the wings are translucent. Lays eggs in the bark of young wood, sawing through it with the ovipositor. The larvae are gray-green, with spines along the longitudinal line of the body. Each female lays up to 500 eggs per year.
The defeat of trees and grape bushes with a buffalo leafhopper can be determined by brown ring constrictions, unusual for healthy plants.
It has been known in Russia since the 50s of the last century. Initially, she ate the juices of wild trees - ash, willow, poplar. Then she tasted and fell in love with young fruit trees with delicate bark and juicy shoots. Damages almost all garden and ornamental trees in the southern regions.
Green (Cicadella viridis)
Adults have a reddish body and turquoise wings with a white border. Distributed in warm and temperate climates. Loves damp places. Occurs in swampy places, in low-lying flooded meadows.
The green leafhopper feeds on juicy weeds, legumes, grapes. It affects apple, pear, cherry, plum, peach, mulberry. Transfers pathogenic bacteria that are deadly to grapes.
Striped (psammotettix striatus l.)
The color is gray-brown, with indistinct stripes. Lays 50-200 eggs in the stems of winter cereals. The larvae hatch in spring, feed on the seedlings of cereals. Damages oats, rye, rice, millet, vegetables.
The striped leafhopper is a carrier of many viral diseases that cause mosaic and dwarf wheat.
Japanese (Ricania japonica Melichar)
Unlike the rest, the Japanese leafhopper is more like a moth with spread wings. Homeland - South China and Japan. The color is beige-brown, stripes. Body length up to 1 cm. One of the most malicious pests of eucalyptus, cherry plum, tea bush, laurel, peach, ivy, grapes and apple trees.
Six-point (Macrosteles laevis)
Along with the striped six-spotted leafhopper, it infects cereals. The color is greenish-yellow, there are 6 black dots on the head. When laying eggs, the female damages the stem, weakening the plants.Transfers viral diseases. During the season, 2–3 generations of insects are replaced.
Control measures for leafhoppers and prevention of their appearance
Most pests, with the exception of cereal leafhoppers, lay their eggs for the winter in the bark of trees or on the tops of the shoots. Early spring spraying the garden with urea with copper sulfate will help to destroy them. A strong solution of urea literally burns out the wintering eggs of pests without harming the wood. Copper sulfate prevents the development of fungal diseases arising from damage to the bark by insects.
Treatment of the garden with urea with copper sulfate is done before bud break. If time is lost, you will have to use other measures to combat leafhoppers.
Grain pests are destroyed by early peeling of the soil, followed by plowing 2-3 weeks later. Chemical methods are used only on wide-row plantings and severe insect infestation.
During the growing season, the same means as for aphids are used to get rid of plantings from parasites.
Before flowering and after harvesting in case of strong colonization, treatments with the preparations "Biotlin", "Tanrek", "Fufanon" will help.
Before harvesting products, preference should be given to more gentle natural-based products - Fitoverma or gum turpentine solution. For cooking, take 50 g of solid soap and 1.5-2 liters of turpentine (turpentine oil) on a bucket of water. The mixture is shaken and sprayed on the bushes, trying to get on the underside of the leaves.
With this treatment, delicate young leaves may suffer, but they will certainly grow back, and a tree or bush will be saved from an eternally hungry pest.
For preventive measures against leafhoppers, standard agricultural techniques are suitable:
- timely destruction of weeds;
- sufficiently sparse landings;
- compliance with crop rotation;
- good plant care and limitation of nitrogen fertilization;
- late autumn plowing with a seam turnover;
- purchase of seedlings only in proven nurseries.
These measures will help to seriously limit the population or completely cope with leafhoppers and get a rich and healthy harvest.