Medvedka begins to show activity at the end of May, when the mating season begins. At this time, female insects leave their underground shelters and crawl out to the surface of the earth to meet with the male.

After mating, the female prepares a nest at a depth of 10-15 cm and lays her eggs there. One of the two passages leading to the nest goes to the surface of the earth. After rain or watering, the bear clears the course from clogged earth, leaving heaps of loose soil on the surface, which clearly show the location of insect nests.

Adult bears hibernate together with larvae in compost or in the ground at a depth of more than 2 meters.

One bear is capable of completely destroying up to 15 plants per night. Voracious larvae of the bear do no less harm than adults. The photo shows what a warlike look this pest has. To understand who you have to deal with, read the description of the insect. After reading the article and watching the video, you will learn how to deal with it in different ways.

Medvedka: description

Medvedka is an insect belonging to the order of Orthoptera. There are about 100 species. It is a widespread pest of farmland and horticultural crops. Habitat: everywhere.

An adult grows up to 5-8 cm. It has an external resemblance to a large grasshopper and a large shrimp. It has tentacles, antennae, and paired limbs adapted for digging. She can swim, crawl, make underground passages and fly. Insect flight height: from 50 cm to 5 m.

An adult Medvedka reaches 5-8 cm in length.

The insect is active at night. For the winter, it hides in compost heaps or hides deep underground - up to 2 m. Before cold weather, it lives under the top layer of soil - at a maximum depth of 10-15 cm. For normal development and life, it needs moist loose soil. It is very prolific if cereals are present in the diet. At favorable conditions the life cycle of the bear reaches 5 years, including the stages of development of the larva. The larva goes through 4 stages of development from the egg to the formation of an individual that is capable of reproduction.

How to understand that the site is infected with a bear

The probability of seeing a bear during the day is negligible, which creates some difficulties in determining the infestation of the site with this pest.

A set of signs indicates the activity of an insect:

• mass death of seedlings;
• wilting of plants;
• root damage;
• the appearance of small loose heaps of earth;
• earthen paths, noticeable on moist soil;
• holes in the ground (entrance to the mink).

Larvae and adult bears harm crops, damaging them root system. They feed on the roots of plants: tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, eggplant, peppers, decorative flowers, cereals. Adult insects are more omnivorous than larvae. A developed individual willingly eats worms, small insects and large beetle larvae.

Advice. Thoroughly clean the area in the fall after harvest. With the onset of spring, when upper layer the earth warms up to 10-15 degrees, the bears come out of their winter holes and begin to eat the remaining fruits.

An adult mole cricket feeds on plant roots and can spoil up to 15 plants per night.

What do the eggs and larvae of the bear look like?

The mating season for bears begins in May and lasts until early July. After the insect arranges nests in which it lays up to 500 eggs. A place for masonry becomes a pile of garbage or manure, or loose earth. The nest looks like an earthen ball, inside it is a chamber with dense walls. The masonry reaches 6x6 cm and is located at a distance of 10-15 cm from the surface.

The chamber is filled with yellow or light brown eggs, similar to ants, but slightly larger. The size of the eggs is 3.5 mm. Larvae appear around the end of the 3rd week after nest formation. To the state of a sexually mature individual, the larva passes 4 stages in 1-2 years. The rate of its development depends on nutrition and soil moisture. The size of the larvae is 1.5-3.5 cm.

Attention. The larvae cause no less harm than adult insects. Their diet consists of small roots, seeds, larvae of other insects.

First, the larvae eat up the remains of the shell, and then begin to dig passages and tunnels. Adults prefer small insects, worms, large larvae of Maybugs and ladybugs.

How to deal with bears

Garden pest control different ways: warning, scaring, destruction of clutches and destruction of individuals.

Measures to prevent the development of larvae:

1. Site cleaning in autumn and spring.
2. Digging the ground in autumn and spring (nests are destroyed).
3. Regular loosening of beds.
4. Dung bait traps.

Advice. Manure traps are located throughout the site. Medvedka lays eggs in them. After 10 days, the traps check and destroy the nests.

Scare off adults by laying under the soil rotten fish, needles, mixtures of sand with kerosene, onion infusion. The mixture is prepared at the rate of 70 ml of kerosene per 1 kg of sand. Lay it out around the perimeter of the beds or greenhouses. Onion infusion is made from 1 kg of husks and onion waste per bucket of water. A solution diluted with water (1: 5) is watered over the beds after rain.

To scare away the bear on the site, you can plant chrysanthemums

To scare away the bears, marigolds and chrysanthemums are planted on the site. You can lay the crushed stems and flowers of these plants underground.

You can destroy pests with special chemicals. Apply special means in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. In order to destroy the bear without chemistry, jars of water are buried in the territory of the site at night, flush with the soil surface. The neck of the jars should be 5-6 cm. The jar is not closed - the bears should climb inside. In the morning destroy insects. To bait pests, instead of water, some summer residents use boiled oatmeal or oatmeal porridge.

A simple trap for a bear - glass jar with water that is buried overnight in the soil

If you notice a bear in your area, choose the most effective way for you to deal with them. Observe preventive measures and in the future. Insects fly well and can move to your site from neighboring infected areas.

How to get rid of a bear in the garden - video

Class: Insects – Insecta

Detachment: Orthoptera - Orthoptera (Saltatoria)

Family: Bears - Gryllotalpidae

Medvedka common (Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa Linnaeus) is a dangerous polyphagous pest that damages all agricultural crops. It is found throughout the European continent, except for Norway, Sweden and Finland. Also, this pest lives in North Africa and Asia, in the Caucasus and Kazakhstan.

Harmfulness of the common bear

common bear is a polyphage and harms all agricultural crops, young fruit, ornamental and berry plants. The pest damages the underground part of the plant, gnaws the seedlings, eats the sown seeds, and gnaws passages in the tubers. Adults and larvae harm. There are different ones, for example: agrotechnical, folk, chemical.

Morphology of the common bear

The body of an adult representative is elongated, massive. The body length is from 3.5 to 5 cm, and the thickness is 1.2-1.5 cm. The abdomen is brown, lighter towards the bottom. The head, chest and legs are brown. The cephalothorax is approximately three times larger than the abdomen. The shell on the chest is hard, chitinous, in which the bear partially hides its head. Two pairs of tentacles frame the oral apparatus of the pest. On the head are antennae-antennae and two compound eyes. The hind wings are long and membranous, fan-shaped. Shortened elytra are placed above the hind wings. The front legs are adapted for digging the soil, they are short and massive, the lower legs are widened and there are small strong teeth on them.

The eggs of the bear are 2-2.5 mm long and 0.9-1.3 mm wide, oval-elongated, yellow in color with a greenish or brown coating.

At the first age of the larvae, common bears resemble six-legged spiders. Later they become like adults, but without wings. The larva of the first age has a length of about 1.5 cm, the second up to 2 cm, the third - 2.5, and the fourth - 3 cm. At the fourth age, the larva has rudiments of wings up to 2 mm long. After the sixth molt, these rudiments reach 8 mm. On average, the larva molts 5-10 times.

Life cycle of the common bear

Adults overwinter in the soil. When the soil is heated at a depth of 20–30 cm by 12–15 °C, a mass emergence of adults to the surface occurs. At the same temperature, the pest begins to feed.

Mating at the common bear takes place in the spring. After that, the female builds an earthen chamber at a depth of about 15 cm, where she lays eggs in heaps. On average, each clutch contains 300 eggs.

Mass emergence of larvae occurs from the second decade of June to the third decade of July. By autumn, the population consists mainly of adults, but very young larvae sometimes leave for wintering. These larvae will become adults only next summer.

The full development cycle of the pest takes about two years.

Medvedka common photo

With this article, we begin a new cycle of materials on domestic pests. The topic of a number of subsequent articles is the bear, an insect that lives all over the world and can do some harm, both to private residential buildings and in the garden. In this material, we will talk about where the bear lives, what is its life cycle, what it eats and other information describing this type of insect. In subsequent materials, we will begin to study ways to deal with bears in the house and garden.

Summarized brief information

This type of pest belongs to the insects belonging to the Gryllotalpidae family. For those who have seriously decided to engage in baiting, it is useful to know that the bear belongs to the Orthoptera order, in addition to grasshoppers, locusts and crickets.

Insects are large insects with a cylindrical body, about 3-5 centimeters long, with small eyes and spade-shaped forelimbs that are perfectly adapted for digging. Medvedki are present in many parts of the world, and where the agro-industrial complex is well developed, they can become serious agricultural pests.

This insect species has three life stages - egg, nymph and adult. Medvedka spends most of its life at these stages underground, however, during the breeding season, adult insects of both sexes can scatter over fairly long distances with the help of well-developed wings.

Types of bears are very distinguishable among themselves by their diet. Some are completely vegetarian, feeding mainly on roots, while others are omnivorous, using worms and grubs in their diet. In addition, some species are largely predatory.

Males have exceptionally loud vocalizations, they 'sing' through so-called subsurface holes that open into the outside environment in the form of an exponential horn. The "song" of the bear is an almost pure tone, somewhat modulated into chirping. These sounds are used by males to attract females, either to mate, or to indicate favorable places for laying eggs, a kind of male attention to procreation.

AT different countries bears have different folklore and culinary properties. For example, in Zambia, bears are believed to bring good luck, while in Latin America, they are able to predict rain. But in West Java, Vietnam and the Philippines, some types of bears are widely used for food.

More about the appearance of the bear

Medvedki vary in size and appearance, but most of them are medium or large size characteristic of an insect - from 3.2 to 3.5 cm along the length of its body. insects are adapted for life in the ground and have a cylindrical body, covered with small, dense hairs. The head, forelimbs and prothorax are strongly sclerotized, which gives the insect sufficient body strength, but the abdomen is rather soft. The head has two threadlike antennae and a pair of beady eyes.

Two pairs of wings are folded flat over the abdomen. In most species, the forewings are short and rounded, while the hindwings are membranous and reach or exceed the edge of the abdomen. However, in some species, the hindwings are reduced in size and the insect cannot fly.

The front legs are well adapted for digging, but they are very similar to cockroaches and serve more to move the massive body of the insect. However, these limbs are better suited for pushing the soil, rather than jumping, which the bears do rarely and badly. The larvae are similar to adults, except for the absence of wings and sex organs, which are formed with each successive molt.

Some features of the biology of the bear

Adults of most species of bears are able to fly confidently, but not with such dexterity as other flying insects do, and males fly extremely rarely. Females typically take to the wing shortly after sunset and are attracted to areas where males start their long warble, which they vocalize for about an hour after sunset. As noted above, females fly to this sound to mate or lay eggs.

Stages of development of the bear

Medvedki, in the process of their development, experience incomplete metamorphosis. When the mole cricket larvae hatch from their eggs, they increasingly resemble adults as they grow and go through a series of about ten molts. After mating, there may be a period of one or two weeks before the female begins to lay eggs. To do this, she burrows into the soil to a depth of 30 cm. 72 cm is a result that has been seen in the laboratory.

After burrowing, females lay 25 to 60 eggs. When a bear lays eggs, at the end of this process, there are some specific features. For example, the Neoscapteriscus species is then removed by sealing the entrance to the burrow, while the female Gryllotalpa and Neocurtilla species remain in the burrow until the larvae hatch. At what depth the bear lives - it also depends on the quality of the soil itself, for example, on wet black soil, an insect can be found at a depth of 5-10 cm, and on dry sandstones - up to 15 cm.

The humidity of the earth is important for the process of procreation of the bear. The eggs must be laid in moist soil, otherwise many nymphs die immediately after hatching due to lack of moisture. The eggs hatch within a few weeks, and as they grow, the nymphs consume large amounts of plant material, either directly in their burrows or periodically crawling to the surface.

It is worth noting that when the mole cricket breeds, adults of some species are able to move considerable distances, up to 8 kilometers during the breeding season. Medvedki are active most of the year. Nymphs and adults are able to overwinter in cold climates, resuming activity in the spring. Medvedka hibernates at a slightly greater depth, preferring places with greater humidity. In hot countries, bears are active all year round.

Burrowing abilities

Bears live almost entirely underground, burrowing tunnels of various depths and lengths for their basic activities, including feeding, avoiding predators, fertilization and growth.

Bears are known for their burrowing abilities. Their main tunnels are used for feeding and escape. They can dig into the ground very quickly, find one of their old holes and move along them at high speed, both forward and backward.

Their digging technique is very successful - insects spread the soil in both directions with the help of their powerful spade limbs, which are wide, flattened, serrated and very rigid.

Mating takes place in the male's burrow. Before starting his "song", the male can expand the tunnel to make room for the female, however, for some species this is not required - mating goes tail to tail. Females lay their eggs either in their usual burrows or in specially dug brood chambers.

Vocal features

As already mentioned, only the male bear has vocal abilities, which is used to attract females to mate or lay eggs. Before this, the males dig a separate mink, which may or may not be connected to the rest of the passages dug in the ground. The burrow of males always has the form of a double exponential horn, which forms an effective resonator, thereby amplifying the sound of singing.

The call of the male is an almost pure tone, with a frequency of 3.5 kilohertz, loud enough to vibrate the top layer of the earth within a radius of at least 20 cm.

The geometric characteristics of the bear's hole vary from species to species. The common bear digs somewhat rough contours, but in the species Gryllotalpa vineae the hole is smooth and regular cylindrical shape without any irregularities larger than 1 mm. In both species, the burrow takes the form of a double exponential horn with two holes in the soil surface. In the region of the second hole, there is a narrowing and then an expansion in the form of a resonant "onion". It is worth noting that bears, both males and females, use their minks for no more than a week.

The volume of the "song" of the male correlates with the size of the body and the quality of the habitat. In fact, it is the characteristic of sound that is an indicator of male attractiveness. The loudest males can attract 20 females in one evening, while the quieter males are unable to attract a single female and will have to spend the next night alone.

What is a bear in the garden - nutritional features

Bears differ in their diet - they can be herbivorous, omnivorous, or exclusively predatory, such as the southern bear. Insects feed on roots found in the ground, and they are also able to leave their holes at night to find leaves and stems for themselves, which they drag into the mink before direct use, than sometimes. The lifestyle of the bear can significantly harm agriculture.

Enemies Medvedok

A separate predator attacking the eggs of the bear in China and Japan is the scorer beetle Stenaptinus jessoensis. An adult beetle lays eggs near the insect burrow, and later the beetle larvae find their way to the burrow's egg chamber and eat the bear's eggs.

Fungal diseases can devastate mole cricket populations during the winter before the onset of a thaw. The fungus Beauveria Bassiana is able to infect adults, completely destroying their body. Other fungal, microsporidia and viral pathogens may also be involved in this process.

In general, bears elude predators easily, living underground and burrowing vigorously if they feel that something threatens them on the surface. As a last line of defense, bears spray a foul-smelling brown liquid into their enemy's anal glands when captured. Plus, they can bite.

Spreading

Bears are nocturnal insects and spend almost their entire lives underground in extensive tunnel systems. Most of them are in the field of agricultural land and grassy areas.

Medvedka is found everywhere, it can be found on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica. By early 2014, 107 different types the mole cricket has been described and there is a high percentage chance that even more species will be found, especially in Asia. Neoscapteriscus didactylus is one of the most widespread pests that plague Agriculture South America, West Indies and New South Wales in Australia. The African mole cricket is one of the main pests in South Africa. Other species are widely distributed in Europe, Asia and Australia.

What harm bears?

Bears are enemies of plants. The main damage caused by these insects is the result of their burrowing activity. Breaking their tunnels to a depth of several centimeters in the soil, they push the earth out in small ridges, increasing the evaporation of surface moisture, which greatly impairs seed germination and damages the delicate roots of young seedlings. In addition, bears are harmful to turf and lawn grass, because the insects feed on grass roots, causing plants to dry out and reduce yields.