Armored guards protecting crops (what do ladybugs eat)

In the hedges beside the sidewalk and on the garden plants in front of and behind the house, we can often find some small insects wearing armor, bright colors, colorful markings, and hemispherical bodies. They are ladybugs, commonly known as "Big Sister Flowers". ". Ladybugs are carnivorous insects that mainly prey on aphids, scale insects and other small insects. They are loyal iron-clad guardians of plants. In the mid-to-late 19th century, citrus trees in California, USA, were covered with scale insects, which almost destroyed all orange orchards. Even killing them with pesticides did not solve the problem. Later, they thought why Australia's cotton-blowing scale insects could not cause disasters? The secret was revealed through fieldwork in 1886, because there is a species of ladybug that specifically eats this scale insect. As soon as they found the treasure, the Americans immediately sent 139 ladybugs back to the United States. The next year, they were multiplied to 11,000, and they were put into 208 orchards. At the end of the year, they achieved amazing results. Scale insects The ladybugs have been eliminated and no longer cause harm. Later, the ladybugs settled in the local area, reproduced continuously, and established a permanent community. They still play an effective control role in blowing scale insects until now. When humans use natural enemies to control crop pests, In history, it has written a glorious chapter that will go down in history.

Since then, ladybugs have been used in the biological control of various crop pests and have made immortal contributions. New Zealand, France, Egypt and my country have all followed suit and introduced this kind of ladybug from the United States, and all have achieved the same effect. Because this kind of ladybug is native to Australia, people call it the Australian ladybug. Why can Australian ladybugs eliminate cotton-blowing scale insects? Just study its reproduction and ability to prey on scale insects, and it's clear. It turns out that this kind of ladybug can reproduce eight or nine generations a year, and each female lays 54-800 eggs, with an average of about 280 eggs. The eggs are laid on the egg bags of scale insects or under their bodies. The larvae can eat up to 46 scale insects per day. On average, they can eat 126 first and second instar scale insects throughout the entire larval period. Adults can eat up to 43 second-instar scale insects in one day. The entire adult stage can eat 213 scale insect eggs and adults. If we eat the scale insects at this speed, can the latter not be eaten up?

There are more than 5,000 species of ladybugs recorded in the world, four-fifths of which are carnivorous and can prey on a variety of pests, including aphids, scale insects, whiteflies, spider mites and small arthropods. . More than 650 species have been recorded in China. At present, my country has achieved remarkable results in using Coccinella septempunctata to control cotton aphids. It was observed that the larvae of Coccinella septempunctata eat 11 aphids per day in the 1st instar, 38 in the 2nd instar, 61 in the 3rd instar, and 124 in the 4th instar. Adults can eat about 100 cotton aphids per day on average. The Shanghai Institute of Entomology has conducted experiments on using turtle ladybugs to control aphids on greenhouse vegetables. In plastic greenhouses where eggplants are produced, hundreds of adult ladybugs are released every week, effectively controlling the growth of aphids over a long period of time. Similar experiments were also conducted in modern self-controlled greenhouses, and it was found that even when the aphid density is very low, adult ladybugs can lay eggs and reproduce, and can complete the development of the entire generation in the greenhouse, which provides a good foundation for greenhouse crops. Biological control of pests shows good promise.

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