Kravchik - features of the life of a dangerous pest in nurseries and gardens

In the field or in your own garden you can see a large black beetle with jaws protruding forward. This Kravchik is a bug from the family of dung beetles, but unlike related species, it does not feed on animal excrement, but on grass and shoots. Cutting off all green spaces, the insect causes great harm to crops. From it suffer vegetables, grapes, decorative flowers, strawberries.

Appearance

Kravchik-golovach belongs to a large family of lamellar beetles. Its representatives are characterized by the structure of the antennae in the form of a plate club, which can be opened with a fan. It is interesting that only in the genus Kravchik the mace is enveloping, it is not able to open. The body of the beetles is oblong, convex from above. Color is black, opaque. The length of the adult is 12-25 mm. Their head is disproportionately large in relation to the body. Pronotum wider than elytra, abdomen very small. In males, over the upper jaw there are mandibular appendages, a distinctive sexual characteristic.

Information. The beetle got its name from the Ukrainian word “Kravchik” - a tailor. The insect cuts the stems of the grass with its jaws like scissors. It is also called strigun and golovach.

Elytra shortened, wings underdeveloped, so beetles cannot fly. The front legs are adapted for digging, they have at least 6 teeth. Kravchik-golovach is a representative of the family of dung dugouts. These beetles play an important role in soil formation and are utilizers of excrement. Unlike the next of kin, golovachi are pests, they prefer to eat plants.

Interesting fact. Under the jaws of the beetle there are processes similar to tusks, which are used to intimidate the enemy and fight for the female. Usually, a conflict flares up when an outsider tries to enter a hole occupied by a couple or another bug. Having come together in a duel, two males try to capture the opponent with appendages. They raise their heads high and take a menacing pose. The fight occurs until the owner of the hole does not drive the alien away.

Lifestyle & Reproduction

The adult life of a beetle begins with the arrival of heat. They emerge from the earth in April, and begin digging holes. The calendar exit depends on the region of residence, in the southern regions Kravchik appears at the end of March. The beetle does not settle in old burrows, always digs a new one. The depth of his shelter is small - 15-20 cm. This is a secluded lair of a loner, where he eats cut shoots of grass. When the food near the house ends, the crawler moves to another section, where he digs a new mink. A typical habitat is the slopes of ravines, ditches, roadsides. During periods of mass breeding, insects move to gardens and vineyards.

Attention. If you take the golovach in his hands, he will defend himself and may pinch painfully by the finger.

Beetle eats grassy and woody vegetation. He cuts off parts of the grass or bush, and then, backing away, drags them into a hole where he eats calmly. Polyphagous insects, therefore, settling in the garden, harm many crops.

Breeding

During the breeding season, golovachi beetles arrange family burrows. These are 30-40 cm deep shelters with a complex system of branches and cells. Some couples dig a hole with a depth of 70-100 cm. Mating takes place on the surface, at the entrance to a common dwelling. Then the pair goes down, where it arranges 5-7 chambers for posterity. If an alien male appears on the doorstep, the crawler, as seen in the photo, aggressively attacks the stranger, threatening the appendages. The fight at the hole does not pursue the goal of killing the enemy, the beetle is trying to simply drive it away.

After fertilization, the female lays from 8 to 20 eggs in specially prepared cells. The eggs are large each 6-8 mm, of which a larva appears, exceeding the size of its parents - its length is 40 mm. Each cell with an egg is densely packed with plants and closed with an earthen cork. To feed the larvae, parents prepare a special mixture. They pull various plants into the hole, chew them and mix with saliva. This silo will serve as food for a new generation. The green mass under the influence of secretions of beetles turns into a nutrient substance.

Egg-laying occurs within 15-20 days. All this time, caring parents procure larva feed from morning to night. The offspring appears after 10-14 days. Harvested feed larva is enough until mid-June. By this time, it reaches its maximum development. Outwardly, the face of a crawler is similar to the larva of a khrushchka. After eating plant silage, it turns into a chrysalis. This stage will last 3 weeks, then the pupa will turn into a young beetle. He will remain wintering underground in his cocoon.

Interesting fact. Having prepared food for posterity, almost all golovachi bugs die. About 30% of insects remain, which plunge into diapause and winter in burrows. The next year they begin the next life cycle simultaneously with their offspring.

How to get rid of a pest

Human development of the steppes led to the movement of insects on agricultural fields. Golovachi golovachi harvesting fodder cause great harm to vineyards, sunflower and corn crops. Beetles pose the greatest danger during the laying of eggs, so the fight against them should begin in advance. This is an extremely viable species, not all drugs have a devastating effect on it.

Methods of struggle

Next, we will tell you how to deal with the crawler:

1. As a mechanical protection of the sites, it is recommended to dig ditches with vertical walls. At the bottom is a poisoned bait. Kravchik beetle eats it and dies. Pyrethroids are used for processing. These are the latest generation of insecticides safe for humans and warm-blooded animals. The groove is periodically inspected and dead insects collected.
2. Gardeners have come up with various ways to deal with the pest. The most affordable but tedious method is collecting insects from minks. In the early morning, when the beetles crawl out to forage, they are caught and placed in a bucket. In the fall, a deep digging is required, which will destroy the mink with wintering bugs.
3. Pouring mink water (cold and hot) does not bring the desired result. The liquid erodes the entrance, but the bugs at a depth of 60-80 cm with their tricky moves are absolutely not harmful. They rake the ground at the entrance and continue to cut plants. One of the effective ways is to blow out the house with foam. The spray is directed into the burrows and spray is pressed. It would be nice to plug the entrance so that all the polyurethane expands inside.
4. An effective method of destroying cravat golovach is considered to be pouring unrefined sunflower oil into a hole. You can use more than one oil, but an aqueous emulsion - 100 ml of oil per 1.5 liters of water. The composition is poured into a plastic bottle. A hole is made in the lid. When pressing on the container, the emulsion is poured into the hole. Sunflower oil affects the respiratory organs of beetles, from which they creep out and die.

By the middle of summer, the craziers disappear, they die or hide in holes. If you do not catch them before breeding, then the next year of insects will become 6-10 times more.