How to protect a bow from the bow hunter? The secretive proboscis is a pest of onions. Control measures Onion secretive proboscis, or weevil
Hello friends! Summer is just beginning, the days are wonderful for gardening and field work. But after the hot spring weeks, pests attack vegetable gardens and orchards with incredible force. Aphids on everything possible, midges, fleas, beetles... The onion secretive proboscis does not sleep either. In our area, almost no one knows this pest by name, but almost everyone encounters its larvae in onion feathers.
Signs of a bow being damaged by a secretive proboscis
Pay attention to the bow feather. If the tops begin to turn yellow, and whitish transparent stripes appear along the feather, and the feather itself seems to have been broken by someone, look for the onion secretive proboscis. Select a few damaged feathers and carefully spread them lengthwise.
Onion sneaker
The secretive proboscis beetles overwinter under lumps of soil or plant debris along roads and ditches. Early in the spring, sometimes even in April, the beetles come out and begin to feed at first on waste onions, the ones left in the garden from last year, and then they move to the young seedlings of turnips, nigella and sets.
The female beetle makes a puncture in the feather and lays eggs, from which larvae emerge. The larvae of the secretive proboscis are yellowish and legless. They are the ones who eat away the passages in the pulp of the feather to the skin. If there are a lot of larvae in the feather, then such a feather may dry out. Over the course of 20-25 days, the larvae feed intensively and grow, after which they eat a hole at the base of the feather, through which they go into the upper layers of the soil to pupate. By the end of June, beginning of July, young beetles hatch and continue to eat the onions, only now outside until wintering.
How to fight the onion secretive proboscis
By mid-June, the larvae of the secretive proboscis leave the “cradles” and the bow begins to recover, a new feather grows. If the weather conditions and care of the plantings are proper, the plants will cope and produce a good turnip harvest. Accordingly, no chemicals should be used. Things are much worse with nigella for sets and turnips for nigella. These two stages of bow development suffer from the secretive proboscis quite strongly.
The feathers from turnips to nigella are usually not eaten, so you can spray such onions during the growing season with a solution of Karbofos (60 g per 10 liters of water).
To reduce the number of pests, it is necessary to loosen the row spacing more often during the period of pupation of the larvae. Before loosening, repellent substances are scattered over the onions: ash, red pepper, dry mustard. To reduce crop losses, you can feed the affected plants with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. On small plantations it is recommended to remove damaged feathers. Given our scale, this is quite problematic to do...
Harvest the onions carefully, without any leftovers in the garden.
In winter, beetles can fly quite far - more than 100m, so “it’s all about weed control.”
TaggedIt would be simply wonderful if the onion or garlic plantings grew strong and healthy. But sometimes it happens that diseases and pests attack our beloved and irreplaceable onions and garlic. There's no getting around this. But you can study the pests “in person” and prepare to fight back. This article contains the main pests of onions and garlic and measures to combat them.
Onion fly
Onion fly(Delia antiqua) is widespread. It affects crops of onion sets, onion, allium, and garlic. The onion fly is light gray in color, body length is 6-7 mm, it is slightly larger than a housefly.
The flight of the fly begins at the end of May. During the flight, flies lay white eggs in onion and garlic beds near growing bulbs, directly on the outer surface of the bulb if it is planted shallow in the ground, or in the neck of the bulb. After about a week, larvae hatch from the laid eggs. Within 3-4 weeks, the larvae eat away inside the bulb, mainly in the lower, root part. In July, the flight of the second generation of flies begins, the larvae of which damage onions and garlic that were planted late.
Plants affected by the fly are noticeable by prematurely yellowing leaves. The larvae penetrate the bulb, which then rots and the leaves turn yellow.
Measures to combat onion fly
To combat onion fly You need to sow onions and garlic as early as possible, because late plantings of onions and garlic are more damaged by flies. When planting, bury onion sets or turnips in the ground 2-3 cm. In this case, the bulbs will form in the top layer of soil, which creates unfavorable conditions for egg laying and further development of onion fly larvae. When planting onions and garlic, you can add Medvetox-U, which will serve as protection not only from the onion fly, but also from mole crickets and cutworms. Combined crops of onions and carrots can be used against onion flies.
During the period of onion fly larvae hatching, once a week you can water the onions and garlic with a solution of table salt (200 g per 10 liters of water) or every 10 days with a solution of ammonia (3 tablespoons per 10 liters of water), but the solution should not get into on onion or garlic leaves. The first watering with saline solution or water with ammonia should be carried out when the onion reaches a height of 3-5 cm. Once a week, it is recommended to periodically inspect the onion and garlic crops, remove and destroy damaged leaves and bulbs.
You can use insecticides against onion flies - Karate, Ratibor, Inta-vir and their analogues. Treatments are stopped 20 days before harvesting.
Carefully remove plant debris after harvesting and destroy. If you intend to use them in a compost heap, then first treat them with insecticides.
In the fall, the site is dug up deeply. To repel onion flies during flight, sprinkle the soil along the rows with tobacco dust in pure form or half and half with lime or ash (1-2 kg of mixture per 10 m2).
Onion moth
Onion moth(Acrolepia assectella Zeller) harms onions, leeks, and garlic in warm and dry summer weather. Light spots of irregular shape appear on onion leaves - mines. Damaged onion leaves begin to turn yellow and dry out from the tops.
In May, butterflies begin their flight. The onion moth is a small butterfly, its body length reaches 6-8 mm, and its wingspan is 12-14 mm, it flies mainly at night.
Female onion moths lay single yellowish eggs, about 0.5 mm in size, on the underside, at the base of onion leaves or on the flower stalk of garlic. The hatched caterpillars gnaw into the leaves, live and feed inside them, and gnaw on the flower shoots of onions and garlic. The main damage to onion moth caterpillars of the first generation is caused to onions in June.
They are yellow-green in color with brown warts on the back, up to 1 cm long. At the end of July - beginning of August, the flight of the second generation of onion moth begins. Hatched onion moth larvae harm late onion plantings. At the end of September - beginning of October, butterflies of the second generation appear and overwinter on the ground, in the bed where the onions grew, in fallen leaves, and on non-composted plant debris.
Measures to combat onion moth
To combat onion moths It is recommended to remove all plant debris from the garden bed, dig up the soil in the fall, and observe crop rotation, in which the planting of onions and garlic is returned to the same place no earlier than after 3-4 years. Next year, plant onions and garlic as far as possible from the places where they were grown this year. It is also not recommended to plant onions next to garlic.
During the period of flight and the appearance of the first signs of damage on onions, it is recommended to treat onion crops with insecticides, for example, Iskra, Inta-Vir, karbofos and their analogues according to the attached instructions.
Onion mite
Onion root mite(Rhizoglyphus echinopus R. et F.) harms not only vegetable plants - onions, garlic, but also well-known ornamental crops - tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and other bulbous plants, both in open ground and during storage. Garlic mite (Aceria tulipae Keif.), unlike onion root mite, damages the leaves and scales of the bulb, causing great damage to onion sets.
The onion mite inhabits mechanically damaged (for example, cut) or weakened plants. When the onion mite is severely infested, the outer scales lag behind the bottom and it becomes rotten. On such bulbs damaged by onion mites, roots do not form at all.
With a weak infection, the mite can remain between the succulent scales, thus damaging the bulbs during storage.
The mite is quite moisture- and heat-loving; it multiplies quickly in humid and warm conditions. The onion mite spreads especially quickly during storage if the bulbs are stored in a humid and warm environment and are spread in a thick layer. Under these conditions, mites quickly move into healthy bulbs through the bottom.
The female onion mite has the shape of a short oval, measuring only up to 1 mm. She lays up to 800 eggs. At the optimal temperature for the development of onion mites from +15 to + 28°C, one generation develops within 10 - 30 days. If development conditions change or food runs out, then mites transform into a very persistent form of existence - hypopus. In this form, ticks can exist for a very long time without feeding on anything.
The onion mite spreads with plant debris, through equipment, and soil.
Measures to combat onion mite
For sowing, use only healthy, undamaged bulbs. Before sowing, it is advisable to treat all planting material, as well as all plantings of onions, garlic, or flower crops 20 days before harvesting, with a solution of colloidal sulfur (40 g of sulfur per 10 liters of water, consumption of 1 liter of working solution per 10 m2). After harvesting, you need to destroy all plant debris and dig up the soil.
After harvesting, the harvested crop of onions, garlic, as well as bulbs of tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils must be dried for a week at +35 +37 °C. Onions and garlic are stored in ventilated and disinfected areas. A small supply of garlic can be stored at home.
Onion secretive proboscis, or weevil
Onion secretive proboscis, or weevil(Ceuthorrhynchus jakovlevi Schulzer) is a small beetle 2-2.7 mm long. The body of the secretive proboscis is oval, with an elongated and slightly bent downwards rostrum, reminiscent of a “proboscis”, black in color with white scales. On the head of the secretive proboscis there are club-shaped geniculate antennae. The beetle's abdomen is protected from above by elytra.
The onion stalker damages shallots, spring onions, turnips, leeks, and garlic. The secretive proboscis overwinters under plant debris, small lumps of soil, and not necessarily on the site, but also in the adjacent territory.
The flight of secretive proboscis beetles begins in early spring and coincides with the first flowering of dandelions. First, the beetles feed on overwintered bulbs, then they move to early crops of onions or garlic. With their proboscis, beetles gnaw small holes in the leaves of onions and garlic; in these holes, the female beetles lay eggs on the inside of the leaf. After 1-2 weeks, the larvae hatch - legless, yellowish, with a brown head, bent in the shape of the letter C, about 5-7 mm in size. The larvae begin to feed on the inner pulp of the leaves, leaving behind longitudinal whitish stripes.
The leaves begin to turn yellow from the top. If the damage is severe, onion leaves dry out completely in dry, hot weather. Onion seedlings are particularly affected by the secretive proboscis. They often dry out and die.
The larvae of the first generation of the secretive proboscis develop inside the feathers of the onion for about 3 weeks, and by the beginning of June they go into the ground, where they pupate at a shallow depth of 3-6 cm in a cradle. The second flight of the onion secretive proboscis begins in late June - early July. At this time, the beetle feeds on the leaves and inflorescences of adult onion plants or plantings of late onions and garlic. The larvae of the second generation of the secretive proboscis gnaw the flower stalks - the flower heads of onions and garlic dry out, or puny seeds with low germination are formed in them.
Measures to combat the onion secretive proboscis
In May, you need to periodically inspect the onion and garlic crops, remove and destroy damaged and yellowing leaves and bulbs. It is advisable to carry out such inspections of onion crops once a week. In June, during the period of mass pupation of the onion secretive proboscis, it is necessary to constantly loosen the rows of onion and garlic beds to destroy the cradles in which the pest pupae are located. Before and after loosening, it is recommended to dust the soil with wood ash, ground black or red pepper, and dry mustard.
During the period of mass flight of the onion secretive proboscis, spraying of onion and garlic crops with karbofos or its analogues is used according to the instructions attached to them.
You should not thicken the plantings of onions and garlic, or over-moisten them. After harvesting, carefully remove plant debris from the garden beds and dig the soil deeply.
Onion cracker
Onion leaf beetle, or onion rattler, (Lilioceris merdigera) is found almost everywhere where onions and garlic, asparagus are sown, as well as plants of the lily family - lilies, daylilies, hazel grouse, but it causes damage in patches. When in danger, the beetle makes a very loud crackling sound emanating from the beetle's abdomen, hence the name rattler. This beetle is also called a fireman for its bright red color. The onion rattler has a red entire body, head and legs, and can easily be confused with the lily rattle, which has a red body and black head and leg.
The rattlefish overwinters in plant debris. Before the first shoots appear, the beetle feeds on unharvested bulb sets thrown aside during planting and on sprouted bulbs from last year.
With the appearance of young onion shoots, the beetle moves to young leaves, flower shoots - gnaws feathers and pedicels, and lays eggs in flowers. The hatched larvae feed on leaves and flower shoots; After about a month they pupate in the soil. Onion rattle larvae are large and can be collected by hand.
Stem nematode
Stem onion nematode(Ditylenchus allii Beij., Ditylenchus dipsacea) is found not only on onions and garlic, but also on other vegetable crops, for example, parsley, parsnips, tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers. Stem nematode is a very small, only 1-1.5 mm in size, thread-like white worm.
Nematode control measures
To recover from nematodes before sowing, garlic cloves and onion sets must be immersed in hot water: if the water temperature is +45+48°C, then the immersion will be 10-15 minutes; if the water temperature is +50+52°C - 5-10 minutes; if the water temperature is +55+57°C the treatment will take 3-5 minutes. Small bulb sets are processed for 3-5 minutes.
If garlic cloves or onion sets are slightly damaged by nematodes, they are soaked for 2 hours in water at a temperature of +40°C; at a water temperature of +16+18°C, the planting material is kept in water for about three days.
Before sowing, nigella (onion seeds) are pre-soaked for 4 hours in cold water, then immersed for 10 minutes in hot water heated to +48+51°C, the hot water is drained, and the seeds are again filled with cold water.
When writing this article, materials from the site https://ru.wikipedia.org, http://agrosovet.com.ua were used
Image source commons.wikimedia.org, www.hmbg.org, macroid.ru, gardener.wikia.com, alanbuckingham.photoshelter.com (Alan Buckingham), https://www.flickr.com: José Manuel Vega Santana, Labo de diagnostic en phytoprotection, Alan Buckingham, Christophe Quintin, Marko Kivelä, Anne SORBES
The size of the round, pale white eggs of pests is 0.3 - 0.5 mm. The yellow, legless larvae are slightly bent and have clearly visible heads. The length of such larvae reaches 6.5 mm. And the pupae, whose size ranges from 3 to 3.5 mm, are colored in light yellow shades and spend most of their time in earthen cradles.
Overwintering of immature adults takes place under the remains of vegetation, as well as under soil lumps in forest belts, ditches and on roadsides. Adults are quite active. In the spring, they feed on last year’s sprouted bulbs, and a little later they move to new shoots.
Females of the onion secretproboscis almost always lay eggs one at a time, placing them on the inner parts of tubular leaves. Their total fertility ranges from fifty to seventy eggs. The development of eggs takes from five to sixteen days, and the larvae - from fifteen to twenty.
Harmful larvae eat the pulp of the leaves and, without touching the outer cuticles, skeletonize them. On damaged leaves you can notice small spots and longitudinal stripes of whitish shades. With a significant population of onions, ten to twenty voracious larvae can be found in one leaf. The yellowed leaves dry out. Onion enemies pupate at a depth of three to six centimeters in the soil, in fancy earthen cradles. At the end of June, the emergence of adults is observed, feeding on inflorescences and leaf tissues. The onion secretive proboscis is characterized by a one-year generation.
How to fight
It is very important to be extremely careful when harvesting onions and promptly destroy plant debris. At the stage of transition of harmful larvae into the soil, as well as at the stage of their pupation, loosening and cultivation of all row spacing is required. It is recommended to plant new onion crops away from last year’s ones - maintaining spatial isolation will certainly serve a good purpose.
On commercial onion crops, as well as on its seeds, the use of insecticides is allowed if there are from five to ten larvae per plant or from two to four adults per square meter of crops. It is best to identify the number of pests in the morning or evening hours - this will allow you to get a more reliable picture. It is important to know that the use of insecticides is unacceptable if onions are grown for feathers.
During the growing season, plants are sprayed with Karbofos - 60 g of it is taken per ten liters of water, and a liter of the resulting solution is consumed for every ten square meters. In general, when fighting the onion secretive proboscis, you can use the methods used in the fight against the onion fly.
The onion weevil (another name for the weevil) is a pest that damages bulbous plants. Weevils live in Russia, Europe, Canada, and northern America. Small insects can literally eat the entire vegetable, but most often the green arrows suffer. That is why, if an onion secretive proboscis was discovered in the garden, control measures should be taken immediately.
How to identify weevils and damage caused by them?
Secretive proboscideans look like oval bugs of gray or black color, about 2.5 mm long. The pests overwinter as adult beetles or pupae in the top layer of soil and emerge in the spring. Weevils feed on plant shoots for several weeks and then lay eggs on healthy onion shoots. It is quite difficult to detect and eliminate eggs, because they are transparent and their size barely reaches 0.2 mm. The eggs will develop into yellow larvae with heads in about 10 days. In a warm year, up to two life cycles can occur.
Adult beetles feed at night and hide in the soil during the day. Damage from secretive proboscideans is very characteristic: the edges of bow arrows will be uneven, zigzag, as if someone had chewed them off.
Fighting secretive proboscis without chemicals
The first method of prevention is to plant onions in different places from year to year. Further methods of control can be divided into three stages.
- Preparation before the summer season.
Due to the fact that the secretive proboscis overwinters in the soil, before planting plants it is necessary to carefully dig up and loosen it. If there are chickens on the farm, they will help destroy the larvae.
- During planting and plant growth.
Directly when planting the bulbs, it is necessary to create a natural barrier of diatomaceous earth around each of them. After the first green arrows appear, you need to carefully inspect them several times a week for the presence of eggs and larvae. Noticing small eggs is not easy, but it is possible. If most of the green shoots have been affected by larvae, then you can treat the plants with a solution of pyrethrum powder (despite the fact that this drug is completely organic, you should not use it more than once a week). 
- After the harvest.
It is necessary to completely free the garden from weeds and onion residues (as secretive proboscis may be present there). You also need to dig up the soil, leave it for a few days, and then cover it with compost.
If a severe infestation of the secretive proboscis has been noted, then in the spring it is necessary to completely remove 20-30 centimeters of the top layer of soil and replace it with fresh compost. Recycled compost may contain weevil larvae, which will turn into beetles as the first warm days arrive.
How to make traps for onion weevils?
Since the onion secretive proboscis feeds exclusively at night, this fact makes mechanical control of the pest possible. It is worth considering that adult bugs can fly short distances. Also, the paws of the secretive proboscis have characteristic “fingers”, with the help of which the pest can burrow into the soil.
If onions are grown not on an industrial scale, but for personal use, then at least in one summer season it is necessary to plant onions not in open ground, but in pots with high sides, covered with a net on top. The secretive proboscis simply physically cannot get to the bulb. In addition, you can place flat, bright plates of water near the plants, where a certain percentage of pests will fall (weevils cannot swim). 
Another inexpensive but effective method: build a burlap trap right in the garden bed. To do this, you need to cut the burlap into strips about 10 centimeters wide and wrap them around the base of each onion. This is a rather labor-intensive, but effective and safe method of control. In the morning, the burlap will be full of pests entangled in it.
In order to get rid of secretive proboscis, you will need to wash the burlap in soapy water. If you don’t want to bother with daily washing, you can make disposable traps from soft corrugated cardboard. You need to make a lot of blanks: strips 10 centimeters wide and 20 centimeters long. Use strips to install improvised “fences” around each bulb (can be secured with rubber bands or ropes). Within a day, the pests will find themselves between the layers of cardboard. Then you can simply burn the cardboards with pests and install new traps. 
Modern chemical preparations for onion secretive proboscis
Of course, if onions are grown for sale, or in industrial quantities, then all of the above methods automatically become ineffective. And if the onion secretive proboscis appears on the plants, control measures must be tightened. The maximum effect of chemicals is achieved only when used at night, when pests are feeding. Therefore, chemical aerosols should only be sprayed at night (preferably between sunset and midnight).
The best results can be achieved when treating plants on a warm evening, but during cold or windy nights, pests may not appear on the soil surface at all.
Suitable for one-time processing:
- karbofos;
- phosbecide;
- azadirachtin.
It is recommended to treat seedlings before planting with thiamethoxam (trade name “Aktara”). Onions should be sprayed 3 days before planting with a diluted solution at the rate of 1 liter per m2. The protection will last 24 days, after which the treatment can be repeated. The main advantage of thiamethoxam is that the chemical does not harm the bulb itself. But at the same time, if processed too frequently and intensively, the green arrows will begin to wither.
If the secretive proboscis breeds too quickly, then all the beds will have to be treated with chemicals at least once a week. One of the most proven chemicals is bifenthrin (trade name Pirinex). The drug in the form of an emulsion was developed specifically to combat secretive proboscis. The plant protection period is approximately 2 weeks. Consumption rate for one treatment: 0.5 liters of concentrate per 1 hectare. However, if you treat onions with bifenthrin more than three times per season, the green arrows will become unfit for consumption. This drug will also be effective in combating spider mites.
Imidacloprid (trade name "Confidor") is the most powerful chemical, as its effect lasts up to 5 months. Imidacloprid is very toxic to bees, so it should not be used if there is an apiary nearby. For optimal absorption of the chemical, it is necessary to spray the drug (diluted according to the instructions) using low-pressure irrigation systems. One treatment should be enough for the entire summer season, but if the summer turns out to be rainy, then spraying must be repeated.
Of course, the discovery of secretive proboscis on bulbs causes a lot of trouble for the responsible gardener. There are many methods to get out of the situation. But the best option remains prevention. It is necessary to regularly maintain cleanliness in the beds: perform preventive weeding and do not forget about weed control.
Onion sneaker – Ceuthorrhynchus jakovlevi Schultze
Class: Insects - Insecta
Squad: Hardwings – Coleoptera
Family: Weevils – Curculionidae
The harmfulness of the onion secretive proboscis
This pest is found everywhere. The main food plant is onion and seeds. Sometimes garlic gets damaged. They damage adults in the form of small bites closely spaced in a row. Damaged foliage bends towards these bites. The larvae feed on the pulp of leaves, skeletonizing them. White stripes and small spots form on such leaves. With significant development of the pest, up to 20 larvae can be found inside the leaf.
Morphology of the onion proboscis
The length of the beetle reaches 2.0-2.5 mm, its body is oval in shape, the rostrum is thin and long, as a rule, bent under the body; The color of the elytra is uniform, dark brown; the setae located on the peri-neck space form a dirty yellow intermittent stripe.
The insect egg is about 0.3-0.5 mm in size, round, and colored off-white.
The larva has no legs, is yellow in color, the head is clearly defined; body shape is C-shaped, length about 6.5 mm.
The weevil pupa has body dimensions from 3.0 to 3.5 mm, is yellowish in color, and is located in an earthen cradle.
Biology of the development of the onion secretive proboscis
Adults that have reached sexual maturity overwinter under various shelters - dead plants, lumps of soil, in forest belts. Adult insects are active, as a rule, from dusk until early morning.
With the arrival of spring, the beetles feed on last year's onion seedlings and later move on to new seedlings. Females lay eggs one at a time and place them inside tubular leaves. The female's fertility is 50-70 eggs.
The embryonic development of the egg lasts 5-16 days, the larva develops 15-20 days. Pupation takes place in the soil at a depth of approximately 3-6 cm. Around the end of June, adults of a new generation appear. These beetles eat leaf tissue and inflorescences. One generation per year.
Onion secretive proboscis photo
Protective measures against the onion secretive proboscis
Agrotechnical control measures
- onions should be thoroughly harvested from the field;
- destruction of post-harvest residues;
- It is recommended to cultivate row spacing at a time when the larvae begin to pupate;
- maintaining spatial isolation between different onion crops;
Chemical control measures
If there are 2-4 beetles per 1 m2 or 5-10 larvae per onion plant, insecticide treatment should be carried out. When growing onions for plumage, insecticide treatment is not allowed.
- Enzhio 247, k.s.(a.v. 141 g/l thiamethoxam and 106 g/l lambda-cyhalothrin) – 0.18 l/ha, spraying is carried out in two stages, waiting period 20 days; the drug contains two components and is effective against a wide range of pests, which also prevents the emergence of resistance in pests; effective at low temperatures;
- Karate Zeon 050, mk.s.(a.i. 50 g/l lambda-cyhalothrin) – 0.2 l/ha, double treatment during adult emergence, waiting period 10 days; the drug is recommended to be used in a mixture with drugs based on FOS (Actellik, Dursban);
- Decis f-Lux, k.e.(a.i. 25 g/l delmethrin) – 0.3 l/ha, two treatments during the growing season, waiting time 20 days; the drug has very high efficiency in the pyrethroid group, due to the presence of innovative adhesives in it.
