Medvedka is a pest insect. It belongs to the family of the same name. Another name for the bear is earthen crayfish. This pest has a rather thick body covered with hairs. It is brown above, dark yellow below. The forelimbs of this insect are very shortened and are intended for digging the earth. So, the guest of our article today is the common bear!
Insect has wings. They are large and thin, folded like a fan. Elytra - shortened. With the help of them, males chirp. The belly of the bear ends with two antennae, like a two-tail.
Habitat
Medvedka is an insect (photo 1, 2, 3), common throughout Europe. It is not only in the Far North. The natural habitats of this pest are moist, loose and organically rich soils (wet meadows, lowlands, peat vegetation, etc.). They have a little more difficulty in clay soils and on chernozems.
Beware of the pest
At the beginning of the article, we said that the bear is a pest. The way it is. The fact is that one of her favorite places is gardens and orchards. There, the insect causes tremendous harm, damaging the root system of various cultivated plants! Gardeners grab their heads.
Medvedka vulgaris prefers to eat 50 species of various cultivated and wild plants. It causes especially severe damage to potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets, corn and seedlings in greenhouses. In addition, the pest destroys grapes and fruit crops. As a result, young plants and their seedlings die.
Medvedka activity
In Russia, the common bear begins its vigorous activity in the spring (in May). They are accidentally brought into gardens with manure or with a clod of earth. These insects dig numerous and superficial passages. During the day, pests hide in the earthen kingdom, and in the evening they come to the surface. Sometimes they fly into the light like moths. Male bears begin to chirp in the dark. In general, nothing good can be expected from these pests. They need to be fought. It's not easy to do this, but it's possible. They can be poisoned with any insecticides, however, you will also destroy cultivated plants. The safest way to deal with bears is to catch them yourself. More on that later.
How to catch a bear?
Let's note right away that this is a laborious but effective process. In addition, the bear isvoracious and large insect, which means that their population in the garden is not so large. This will deter them through trapping. So what should you do?
- To catch a bear, we need a flat cutter and a chopper. It is necessary to make sections of the soil where the activity of the insect is visible. This will allow us to see its underground passage. Outwardly, it is a tunnel 1.5 cm in diameter.
- Did you find a move? Pour vegetable oil into it. We wait. After some time, the common bear will appear on the surface of the earth. You are waiting for her with a chopper. Of course, it is not necessary to kill the insect by dismembering it in half, you can simply collect the bear in a bottle and then set it on fire. Some people take the insect with them, turning it into a pet!