How to deal with the invasion of bugs of soldiers?

At first glance, a bug soldier is a pretty sweet insect that is not capable of causing any harm. But, gathering in numerous clusters, these parasites are able to destroy a large crop. Today, many gardeners are looking for effective means to combat them, and if you are one of them, then we are ready to help you.

A summer cottage is a place where many spend their holidays or weekends in the summer. It is here that most of us first saw these insects. It would seem that they can do with fruit plants if they do not even come close to them. But in fact, trunks and wooden hedges are just a temporary place to live. There they multiply and wait until the crop ripens.

External characteristics

A soldier is a land bug that belongs to the red bug family. The length of his body can vary from 7 to 11 mm. This insect has a characteristic color, so it is impossible to confuse it with other species.

What do adults look like?

On the back of an adult bug of a soldier is a kind of black and red ornament.

His oral organ has the appearance of a proboscis, with which he punctures the stem of a plant and sucks out the juice from it. In a calm state, it is located horizontally and is located in the lower part of the head. With its help, the parasite can even pierce the chitinous cover of dead insects in order to get enough of the liquid remaining in them.

Soldier bug larva

Larvae emerge from eggs in early spring. At first they feed on small weeds and the juice of young shoots of alfalfa. This is due to the fact that young individuals have a weak, short proboscis that cannot pierce harder stems. The larva is distinguished by a uniform color of the back - it is red in color without black patches.

You can find larvae on birches, where they sit absolutely motionless and wait for molting. The juice of this tree is a favorite delicacy of young animals. The location of their colonies is characterized by the presence of a dense rough bark and a complete absence of leaves.

What do eggs look like?

The bugs of the soldiers multiply quite actively. They lay their eggs, as a rule, in the internal tissues of those plants that they feed on. It can be a trunk, leaves, cuttings, stems, etc. The eggs are oval, white in color and have a transparent shell.

Bedbugs propagate soldiers intensely and quickly. An adult female can lay about 30 eggs at a time, which in a week and a half turn into larvae.

The time from December to February for these insects is a period of hibernation. They choose a place for wintering in advance. It must be dry and warm. Most often, it turns out to be cracks in old fences, tree bark lagging behind the trunk, boards stacked on top of each other in a barn or on the street and various wooden structures.

In spring, large concentrations of soldiers can be found in the places or plants on which they winter. In the summer they go to open areas where they bask in the sun.

What harm can insects do?

Garden bugs are unpretentious in food. For normal life, they need enough juice of any plants. They can get food from leaves, trunks, stems and fruits. The consequences for the land are fatal.Saplings slowly dry up and die over time, and their fruits become completely unsuitable for eating.

Important! These parasites are absolutely safe for humans and can not settle in any residential premises. If you still found this insect in your apartment, then you just need to move it outside, and the bug will no longer return.

Undoubtedly, there are parasites that cause wider damage to agricultural land than bugs of soldiers, but the latter are also capable of causing a lot of trouble. This is due to their intensive reproduction and nutritional characteristics - having gathered in large colonies, they do not leave a chance for survival for young weak shoots. If the land is not enough for them to saturate, then they can switch to the corpses of their fellow tribesmen, other insects, and even vertebrates.

Attention! From the invasion of these pests, even large vineyards can be affected. Insects destroy both stems and elite fruits.

Insect control

Despite the seeming harmlessness of one individual, the accumulation of these parasites can cause serious damage to the garden or garden. Therefore, many are trying to figure out how to deal with bugs by soldiers.

Parasite detection

First you need to establish that you are dealing specifically with these insects, since various pests will require completely different methods of disposal. The following can be attributed to the characteristic signs of plant damage by soldiers:

• beetroot - shoots die quickly or begin to lag behind in development. Harvest a weakened plant will produce negligible. Leaves begin to curl and weaken;
• cultivated plants - flowers and buds fall already at the first stage of parasitism;
• umbrella plants - quickly dry up and die;
• cabbage - yellow spots appear on the leaves. Harvest partially dies.

Disposal methods

If you have noticed at least one bug of a soldier on your site, then you must immediately take measures to destroy it. The entire colony, including larvae and eggs, should certainly be bred. This also applies to cases where visible harm has not yet been manifested. Insects can simply wait for the plants to sprout, the fruits to ripen, and buds form on the flowers. In addition to the soldiers sucking out all the juice, they still lay their eggs in doomed plants. And from them, in turn, an impressive amount of young animals will appear, which will destroy everything around.
Gardeners and gardeners often begin to sound the alarm when pest colonies have already filled their land.
Considering the question of how to get rid of a bug of a soldier, it is worth paying attention to the following recommendations:

• horticultural crops can only be preserved if they are planted as far away as possible from alfalfa and legumes, on which parasites usually hibernate;
• to deprive young offspring of food, weeds and alfalfa must be mowed almost at the root;
• if you are going to cultivate any wasteland on which quinoa, shiritsa, wormwood and other weeds are currently growing, then you need to burn them;
• when planting horticultural crops, dilute their company with black cohosh. This perennial plant is able to scare soldiers off with its aroma.

If infection already takes place, then you can treat the site with Bancol. 7 mg of the product must be diluted in 10 liters of water and transferred to a sprayer.

Important! The drug has a paralytic effect and after 3 days the bug dies.

Although the bug is not a soldier, it belongs to the group of typical pests, despite this, their large concentration can cause enormous damage to the suburban area. To get rid of it, it is necessary to take measures as soon as possible, ideally - immediately after the discovery of even one individual.