Collembola: what kind of beast is this?

Diving deep into the Internet and learning more and more about this animal on various sites, I began to be tormented by vague doubts about what actually causes collembol: harm or benefit. It seems to be the direction of an article on the fight against this clearly harmful insect, but the Internet has increasingly given out pages about how useful this arthropod is for nature.

However, all this will be written in the article, and before starting your immersion in the material, admire the greatly enlarged photo of the collembola.

Collembol biology

Let's start with the terminology. Differently called collembolas fools or stingbacks. They relate to insects of the maxillofacial class. They count more than eight thousand studied species, and they appeared on Earth, it is terrible to say, already in the Devonian period, and this was about 420 million years ago.

They can’t boast large sizes, their usual length is from one to five millimeters, although among them there are dwarfs with a tenth of a millimeter in length, and giants that grow to seventeen.

Outfit can be externally divided into two pronounced groups:

• The group of elongated collembolas is distinguished by an elongated, sometimes worm-like, arthropod body. Such shaggy worms, in a word.
• Group of spherical bellied collembolas. On top resemble small turtles.

Interesting! Having written these lines and re-read them, I felt in the role of the respected Nikolai Nikolaevich Drozdov, whom I wish you many long years of life!

The color of the colembole is diverse, it is easier not to name a color than to list everything. In addition to plain colors, there are species with stripes or dots on the body.

Food

In many ways, the benefit or harm of a creature depends on what they feed on. If a mosquito drinks blood, it is clear that it is a harmful insect, but what about collembola?

This is where the first inconsistencies with the declared pest essence begin. The fact is that the basis of the ration of the tails is mostly dead organics. Biologists list such food objects inherent in fools:

• mushrooms;
• lichens;
• dead organics.

Only some types of collembol are capable of digesting the living organic tissue of higher plants.

On a note! Colleagues do not bite people and animals!

Lifestyle

As for the vital territory of collembol, we can say that you can meet this insect almost everywhere. Some species even adapted to glide over the water surface. But most of the tails live on dead wood of fallen trees or hemp, in forest litter, under the mulch in the garden. The main thing is that there is increased humidity, dryness, these insects tolerate very poorly.

It is especially good to watch the kolembolas on a clear sunny day, when they crawl to the surface and like a herd of cows graze on their territory.

At the bottom of the abdomen, the nails have the so-called jumping fork.This organ is calmly attached to the abdomen, but during danger it straightens up like a spring, and the insect takes off, as if thrown up by a catapult, to a height of five to ten centimeters.

Another organ, the abdominal tube, allows you to land the nails. It is located closer to the animal’s head, and so after jumping, when landing, the collembole emits a little sticky substance from this tube and sticks to the surface.

Benefit and harm

The time has come to make arguments for and against collembolas. There is something in us people that makes us pounce and kill even the most harmless creatures just because we don’t like our appearance, or accidentally crossed our path. All of the above applies to the nails - these are completely harmless creatures.

However, there is a problem, and it must be solved, so first we describe the negative side of this insect.

Harm

It is not the threat to be bitten or the danger to our edibles that makes us fight against collembola. No, this is ordinary disgust, which some people can panic.

Of course, it’s unpleasant if you find a herd of collembol in your apartment. Instead of just collecting them and throwing them into the street, we will begin to fight them.

The most favorite places in our house for nails, of course, are damp rooms: corners of the kitchen under the sink, corners under the plumbing in the bathroom. Particular accumulations are observed in places of leaks. There, under constant droplets of water, a mold forms - the favorite food of fools.

The appearance of collembolas in a radiant clean bathroom is perceived by people as something terrible, and the hand itself reaches for the bottle with "Dichlorvos" or other similar means.

The second case of sabotage can be observed on indoor plants. Here, the nails can crawl through the soil in a pot, and especially the sassy individuals even try to bite the leaves. Of course, here it is necessary to take measures to destroy.

Benefit

Before you begin to struggle with collembola, even as part of a separate article, we will talk about how these amazing creatures still benefit. Here we can observe two sides of the usefulness of the insect.

Firstly, eating tons of dead organics, collembolans turn it into the very substance that all gardeners and gardeners adore - into humus. The feces of these insects are almost ready food for microorganisms, and the products of subsequent decay are already absorbed by our plants. Therefore, the more various small creatures in your garden, we mean not only collembol, The faster dead organics will earn to increase soil fertility.

The second benefit of collembolas is their use as feed for aquarium fish, reptiles or amphibians. Special sites for lovers of exotic fish even describe the methods of breeding nails, as they say, "for livestock feed." They advise them to feed them with potato peelings.

Fight

Yes, we will not touch the collembol in the garden, but we do not have an aquarium, many readers will say. But so that such an abomination crawled across the bathroom, we will not allow it. Therefore, the further part of the article will be devoted to the most sacred - the struggle for the cause of the right, about how to get rid of collembol!

However, there are two sides to the coin: prevention and destruction. The first serves to prevent the invasion of the enemy, the second is used if the enemy does not surrender.

Prevention

All preventive measures to prevent the appearance of collembola will be aimed at observing the rules on hygiene and dryness of premises, so as not to create a breeding ground for insects. The second aspect of prevention is accuracy and care in choosing the soil for planting indoor plants or vegetable seedlings.

If mold and other mushrooms are not produced in the bathroom or in the kitchen, then the collembolans simply will not start, because they will have nothing to eat.And keeping the premises dry, constantly ventilating and ventilating them, you basically exclude the appearance of microorganisms that are nutritious for springtail. Watch also the amount of water when watering plants, excessive soil moisture will create good conditions for insects to exist.

Destruction

Well, here we get to the most bloodthirsty part of our story. Now we will teach you how to destroy the nails, these cutest insects, by all kinds of folk and chemical means.

1. A small amount of insects can simply be washed off with soapy water or sprayed with plants.
2. Sprinkle the ground with wood ash.
3. Treat the sites of congestion with chemical insecticides. The composition of the preparations should include such active substances as bifentrin, carbaryl or diazinon.
4. Create an insect barrier outside the house. Treat window and door frames, especially any small gaps, with substances that contain bifentrin, carbaryl, chlorpyrifos, deltamethrin, diazinon fluvalinate, malathion, permethrin or pyrethrin.
5. Stop abundantly watering indoor flowers. Let them stand a little dry.

Advice! Do not bring your apartments to such an extent that insects will host it. Preventing disaster is much easier than fighting it.

At the end of the article we give a short video about the fight against kolembolami: