How to treat sorrel from a green bug that leaves holes in the leaves?

A small cute emerald green beetle, otherwise called a sorrel leaf beetle or firefly, is actually a vicious garden pest. Every gardener should be able to treat sorrel from green bugs in time and effectively, so as not to be left without a crop, as this pest destroys other cultivated plants.

Sorrel leaf beetle

This beetle is a representative of a large family of leaf beetles. Extremely widespread. The length of an adult mature individual reaches 4-6 mm. The color of the beetle is very attractive - deep green, with a blue metallic sheen.

The first sign of the appearance of a beetle on sorrel is that the leaves of the plant begin to resemble a sieve, and the number of holes increases in proportion to the increase in the insect population.

Beetles hibernate right in the garden - in the ground. With the arrival of heat, they come to the surface and begin to intensively feed on young greens. Late May and early June are the mating and breeding season. The clutches look like small clusters of 40-50 orange eggs. Within a few days, faces hatch from them. It is they who do the greatest harm to the culture. If the beetles eat holes in the foliage, then the larvae, which have a spindle-shaped, dirty yellow body, eat the greens completely, leaving only a hard base.

The grown larvae leave the sorrel bushes about 8-10 days after emergence and burrow into the soil. Pupation and development underground takes about a week. After that, a new generation of beetles comes to the surface, which will continue to destroy the sorrel plantings. During the spring-summer period, 2-3 generations of pests are replaced in central Russia, and even more in the southern regions.

In September-October (depending on climatic conditions) the last generation is hatched. Before the onset of cold weather, the larvae go into the ground before spring. The beetles themselves quickly die, but their larvae hibernate in loose soil, under a layer of plant debris.

You can see green bugs not only on sorrel, pests feed on any varieties of this culture, as well as the foliage of bird knotweed, rhubarb, Reinutria and other plants.

Chemicals

Sorrel is a culture that is eaten from spring to late autumn, so it is not customary to treat it with insecticides. However, pesticides are a very effective remedy for pests, and they should not be neglected if the fight against the beetle is delayed and brings few results.

The main rule is to withstand the waiting period specified in the instructions. For some products this is a few days, for others it is about 3 weeks.

Experienced gardeners recommend treating sorrel from holes with insecticides in the fall, when the threat of frost is close. Sorrel is no longer used for food, and the last generation of beetle larvae is going for the winter. In this case, you can greatly reduce the population of the pest on the site, or even completely destroy it.

You can influence the sorrel beetle by the following methods:

1. Homemade product: 50 g of liquid soap and 15 g of anabasine sulfate are dissolved in 10 liters of water. Then you should densely spray all the cultures loved by the beetle in the fall, you can twice, and not eat them until spring.
2. Treat with chemical insecticides against any insects that suck juices from plants (Aktara, Decis, Iskra, Fufanon and others).

Processing in autumn is the safest, but you can spray sorrel at any time, the main thing is to wait for the due date.

Traditional methods

Wrestling with folk remedies is most popular among gardeners and, with regular use, gives good results.

1. If the gardener knows that sorrel leaf beetles live on the site, then the first precaution can be taken in early spring. Sorrel seedlings are protected from the beetle invasion by covering material. The method will only temporarily save from parasites, but the gardener will receive an early harvest of sorrel.
2. Manual collection of pests. You can remove both beetles and their eggs and larvae from plants, although they are very small and this work is painstaking. For convenience, you can put pests in a jar with a strong solution of salt or soap, and then dispose of.
3. Rinse with water jet. Beetles and grown larvae in the bulk will survive and climb back onto the sorrel, but some of the clutches and newly hatched larvae will die.
4. The gardener should make sure that other edible plants for the beetle (rhubarb, mustard crops, etc.) are not neighbors in the garden with sorrel.
5. Every 2-3 years, it is recommended to update the sorrel plantings, placing them in a new place each time.
6. If there are too many pests, but you do not want to poison with chemistry, then you can mow the plantings, remove weeds and plant debris from the garden and around it, and then carefully sprinkle this area with dry wood ash or tobacco dust. Soon, young healthy leaves will begin to grow from the root.
7. The beetle prefers conditions with high humidity, so repeated processing of plants in dry weather with sifted wood ash or tobacco dust will be a good measure.
8. Infusion of tobacco. 500 g of crushed leaves are added to 10 liters of water, infused for several hours, diluted in half with water. It is recommended to process the plants repeatedly - every 3-5 days.
9. Infusion of garlic. 500 g of crushed heads are mixed with 3 liters of water, infused in a dark place for 5 days, filtered, diluted with water (100 g of infusion per 10 liters, you can add 50 g of liquid soap) - and spray the plants.

If the gardener noticed that someone is eating sorrel plantings, leaving holes on the leaves, then measures must be taken immediately. A cute little bug is able to settle in the garden for a long time, exterminating cultivated plants. Timely measures taken will help save the sorrel crop.