Such a pest as a bear is unique in its own way. Firstly, this is a creature capable of moving in all available ways: from underground to air; and even in entering this pest is very dexterous and fast.
Secondly, an insect can eat almost any food of plant origin; although giving preference to tuber crops, the bear, in their absence, perfectly adapts to the diet that its habitat provides.
No plant is immune from this pest. And finally, thirdly, it has excellent adaptability and high survivability. In addition, the insect is very cautious and shy.
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Medvedka: description and harm
Bears are large burrowing insects that form a separate family. They are 5-9 cm long and live in burrows dug by them. The appearance of the pest is very characteristic; it is difficult to confuse it with any other insect.
Medvedka
Fighting Medvedka on the site is primarily a strategic fight. Leading a secretive lifestyle, the insect always finds options for how to survive in the conditions of certain countermeasures, therefore, in order to defeat this pest, it is not enough just one way to exterminate it, it is necessary to use several.
The front limbs of the insect are seriously modified and adapted for digging the earth. The chest armor is thick and very strong. In case of danger, the head of the insect is completely retracted under it.
The abdomen is long, about 2-3 times larger than the cephalothorax, however, it is practically not protected by a chitinous layer. The body color of the bear is almost always the same - it is dark brown on top, light brown or olive below.
Medvedka guarding her masonry
The insect is a pest of many crops. All tuberous, root, berry and fruit crops fall into the list of the bear's diet. If there are no root crops, the pest moves to rhizomes and bulbs.
In especially serious cases, it even damages the root system of not only fruit trees, but also non-fruit trees.
Medvedka larva
A sign of the appearance of a bear on the site are its moves, holes and a loud evening chirp, reminiscent of the sounds made by crickets. Which, however, is not surprising, the Medvedkov and Real crickets families are very close relatives.
Medvedka moves after rainfall
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Pest control
The standard tactic of using traps from which it is impossible to get out works great with a bear. Usually, either cans or plastic bottles with a narrow neck are used for these purposes.
Consider the design of traps in more detail:
simple trap
How to get rid of a bear
Medvedka uses her own, ready-made system of moves to move around the site. Therefore, if you bury a glass jar flush with "floor" insect burrows, you get a simple but very effective trap. Usually, a little water is poured into its bottom.
Traps using attracting odors
A more effective tool that does not even require the search for insect moves. A container with beer or a solution of honey in water is buried up to the neck into the ground. Insects attracted by the smell get inside and cannot get out.
The simplest trap in the form of a bath with beer
There are a huge number of options for making such traps. At the same time, jars and bottles can be buried in the ground at an angle, special disguised recesses can be made, traps can be placed directly near the exit of the bear holes, etc. Fantasies of gardeners in these matters can be very diverse.
manure traps
In fact, the most effective means of destroying both the bear and their offspring. At the beginning of autumn, several holes are dug on the site, in which manure is placed. From above the pits are sprinkled with a layer of straw.
Medvedki in the dunghill
Bears prefer to spend the winter and lay their eggs in dunghills, so at the end of the season, almost all of them will gather in these pits, where they will lay their eggs. Pest larvae will also gather there.
With the onset of cold weather and the appearance of the first serious negative temperatures (already at -5 ° C), the gardener will only have to remove the layer of straw and slightly stir up the manure. Medvedki, their larvae and eggs will be almost completely destroyed by frost.
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Application of chemistry
Sealing the holes of the bear with cotton wool
The chemical industry produces a fairly large number of drugs used to destroy the bear.
Almost all of them are broad-spectrum insecticides that can also destroy the following species:
- larvae of May beetles and bronze beetles
- larvae and adults of the wireworm
- black garden ants (breeding aphids and worm)
Description of drugs and features of their use is given in the table:
A drug | Active substance | How to apply |
|---|---|---|
| Medvetoks | Spectracid 25E | It is a red granular powder. Harmless to plants and many other types of earth animals, in particular, earthworms. It is placed between rows in long furrows up to 5 cm deep. The validity period is about 15 days. The action begins a few hours after the introduction. |
Anti bear | Imidacloprid | Large and small white granules. Consumption - no more than 20 g per 1 weave. It is placed on the surface between the beds during planting. |
Medvecid | Imidacloprid | Small purple granules. They are located in furrows with a depth of no more than 3 cm between the rows. The distance between the granules is 50-100 cm. The consumption is 10 g per 1 sq. m. |
Rembek | Imidacloprid and chlorpyrifos | Represents a failing strong-smelling bait. Consumption - no more than 25 g per 1 weave. Baits are laid out in holes and around them. |
Boverin | Spores of Beauveria bassiana | A suspension is made from the substance, which is applied to the plants and around the holes of the bear. The spores of the fungus, getting on the skin of an insect, begin to germinate inside its body, which leads to death within a few days. Re-treatment is carried out after 1-2 weeks. |
Phenaksin-plus | Phosphothion | It is a strongly smelling white-yellow granules. Their laying is carried out at the stage of sowing seeds. Re-treatment - 3 weeks after sowing (the duration of the drug); in this case, the pellets are simply placed near the stems. |
Any of the listed drugs (except Boverin) can be used in a mixture with an edible bait - oatmeal, buckwheat or barley porridge. Sunflower oil is also added to the bait. The resulting mixture in the evening is laid out near the burrows of the bear in the amount of 10-15 g per burrow.
In addition, acetylene is used to combat the bear, which is poison for the insect. To do this, 5 g of calcium carbide are placed in each hole and all holes are sealed with cotton wool or soft cloth, falling asleep on top of the earth.
When a substance reacts with water (in the form of rain or water for glaze), it decomposes into acetylene, which fills the holes and passages of the bear. The gas quickly kills the insect.
You can also use kerosene against the bear. However, this is associated with some problems: due to the relatively high toxicity of the drug, it is not recommended to use it in large quantities. You can fill with kerosene no more than 1-2 holes on the site; up to 50 ml of substance is spent on each hole.
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Folk method of struggle
Medvedka, like all insects, is able to distinguish smells well. There are smells, both pleasant for the insect, and not pleasant. The list of the latter is quite extensive - these are both the smells of certain substances and the smells of certain plants.
Therefore, to avoid the appearance of an uninvited insect, it is recommended to use the following methods:
In the aisles, as well as along the perimeter of the site, you can plant "unpleasant" for Medvedka plants:
- calendula
- marigold
- chrysanthemums
To protect the crops potatoes from an insect, it is necessary, after flowering, to decompose branches of coniferous plants into the aisles:
Mulchrovanie needles in the aisles
Make stakes up to 40 cm long from freshly cut aspen or alder branches (at least 30 mm thick). They must be buried at a distance of at least 25 cm at a distance of no more than 1.5 m from each other. At the same time, the bark should remain on the stakes. As the stakes dry, they should be renewed.
Medvedka moves are recommended to be filled with a solution of onion peel
When planting plants, it is recommended to add a peeled clove of garlic under each plant.
Instead of garlic, you can put a small fish under each plant (of course, not salty)
Greenhouses should be fenced along the perimeter with furrows 5-10 cm deep, into which naphthalene or sand moistened with kerosene should be poured
For root cropsbeet, carrot, parsley etc.) it is recommended to perform the first watering with a solution of iodine in water (10 drops of iodine are dissolved in 5 liters of water)
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Biological methods
Medvedka has many natural enemies. First of all, these are birds. The greatest damage to the population is caused by rooks, crows, starlings and even ordinary chickens.
Hoopoe that caught a bear
The latter are recommended to be released into the garden from time to time. Naturally, this should be done at a time when the chickens themselves cannot harm the crops; for example, before the start of periods of active growth of young plants, fruiting, harvesting, etc. Chickens are able to perfectly find bears and their larvae and destroy them.
In addition, hedgehogs, lizards, shrews, moles and ants. It is very simple to attract, for example, a hedgehog to the site - it is enough to put a saucer of milk in the garden every evening.
With birds, everything is also relatively simple - birdhouses or nest boxes on the site will significantly improve the situation with any harmful insects, including bears.
There is also a highly specialized enemy of the bear - the wasp Larra anathema. This type of wasp lays eggs exclusively in the bear, where they develop. After maturation of the larva, it leaves the carrier, which soon dies.
Wasp Larra anathema, a natural enemy of the bear
This insect does not pose any harm to humans, plants and other inhabitants of the garden, therefore, having met this wasp, you do not need to destroy it. The wasp is quite widespread in the south of the European part of Russia, in the Krasnodar Territory, as well as in Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia.
If the issue of countering bears is very acute, you can also try to use wasps to fight them. Legumes are used to attract wasps.The best thing "larru” attracts a plant called "partridge peas".
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A typical insect light trap used to control mole cricket
To protect the site from the appearance of unwanted guests in the form of a bear, a number of measures should be taken. Most of them are in the nature of general recommendations that are carried out when counteracting various pests.
These measures include:
Planting scare plants described earlier on the site
Digging areas along the perimeter with furrows with naphthalene or Medvetsid special equipment
Systematic inspection of all types of soils and top dressings imported to the site (manure, humus, black soil, sand, etc.) in order to search for bears, their eggs and larvae. Approximately one third of the cases of pest penetration into the plots is carried out with imported soil material.
Regular weeding and loosening of the soil. Weed removal
The use of specialized light traps during the flight of the bear (mid-end of May), which are hung over containers (you can use a regular basin) with a water-kerosene composition. Insects, flying into the light, stumble upon a trap and fall into the basin, where a layer of kerosene above the water envelops their bodies, causing suffocation and death.
Since the bear lives exclusively in acidic soils, it is recommended to carry out annual deoxidation of the site by adding dolomite flour or lime to the soil.
At the same time, it must be said right away that some methods of preventing the appearance of pests are not applicable to the bear. For example, burying metal nets around the perimeter of the site, which is very effective against moles, will not have any effect on the bear.
Firstly, the bears are somewhat smaller than the moles, and, secondly, unlike the moles, they can move both on the ground and in the air.
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Medvedka is one of the most dangerous garden pests, however, the set of tools to counteract it is quite extensive. Each of them has varying degrees of effectiveness and can be used depending on the circumstances.
For more successful insect control, it is recommended to regularly carry out preventive measures and constantly monitor the condition of the site.
Thematic video:
The most effective way to deal with a bear in the garden
TOP-5 Ways to deal with Medvedka in the garden, garden plot: effective remedies and preventive measures | (Photo & Video)
Medvedka pots. They physically do not allow the bear to the root, but because they have a lot of holes - they give freedom to the roots.Found them on YouTube and Instagram.