This insect is well protected. The body is securely covered with a hard shell, like that of crustaceans, which not everyone can crush with their hands, especially if the individual is large and well-fed.
The legs are short. The front ones have projections, which makes them look like a stove grip - for successful burying to a depth of 25–30 cm. The second and third pairs of legs are covered with spines. The abdomen ends in long processes called “cerci”.
The mole cricket also has wings, with the help of which it flies from one area to another in search of food. The wings are protected by dense, hard elytra half the length of the entire body.
The mole cricket has a frightening appearance, reminiscent of a monster from a horror movie in a reduced form or an ugly crayfish with the full set of a predator - a large head, “claws” and powerful jaws, reaches 10 cm in length
This infection is prolific. One female lays more than 100 eggs, which makes fighting her very difficult. It is problematic to keep up with such rates of population reproduction. In addition, mole cricket babies grow quickly. Two weeks after laying, the eggs turn into larvae, which begin to actively eat underground parts of plants.
It is difficult to see the mole cricket - it does not walk around the beds in broad daylight, but hides in the ground and only comes out in the evening.
The insect loves loose, fertilized soil and cultivated plants, therefore it is the evil fate of caring and hardworking gardeners. Areas overgrown with weeds and undug soil are not interesting to the mole cricket. It’s uncomfortable for her to live there, and there’s nothing to eat, and therefore she “takes wing” and flies to neat beds with young, succulent seedlings.
How does it harm plants?
The mole cricket does not eat weeds. In this regard, she is selective, but as for cultivated plants, then here she is not so whimsical - she chops, shears and shreds everything - carrots, radishes, beets, cabbage, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, flowers... And she does it underground, gnawing the stem, eating the roots, leaving no traces for the plant chances of survival.
The larvae actively help their parents. Being underground, they devour everything around them - roots, tubers, bulbs, underground part plant stem. The mole cricket is extremely prolific, so one can only imagine the scale of the garden disaster.
The damage caused by the mole cricket is especially noticeable in the spring, when the seedlings are young and have not had time to acquire a powerful root system to survive the consequences of the pest invasion.
Signs of a pest in the garden
A number of signs indicate that a mole cricket has entered the garden plot.
- Small holes in the beds and mounds of loosened earth around them are like moles, only in a smaller form.
- There may be traces of tunnels. These are raised strips of earth with lumps of earth discarded by the insect's paws along the path of advancement.
- When watering, water goes into numerous underground passages and holes.
- The mole cricket makes a characteristic sound, similar to the chirping of a grasshopper, only louder. The garden pest “sings” in the evenings and at night. During the day, he behaves quietly, without crawling out of his underground burrows.
- Just yesterday, healthy and strong seedlings lay lifeless on the ground in the morning or suddenly begin to wither for no apparent reason.
How to deal with a mole cricket
Insecticide for mole cricket control
The mole cricket is a serious enemy, it is important to know how to deal with it from the very beginning. Its destruction must be approached comprehensively and acted systematically, using all means of control - chemical, biological, mechanical and preventive. The situation must be constantly kept under control and not relax, remembering that the enemy can fly and can arrive to visit from the neighbor’s site at any moment.
The pest sleeps in winter, burrowing into the ground in the fall. He chooses a place close to the roots of the plants so that he has something to snack on when he wakes up. Therefore, experienced gardeners advise not to miss the time of early spring and late autumn for the fight, until the insect is sleepy, inactive and has not begun to reproduce.
Insecticides
If the mole cricket has managed to reproduce, and folk remedies can no longer cope with the increased population, then insecticides cannot be avoided. They are effective both in the fight against adult insects and their offspring - eggs and larvae. At correct use chemicals capable of destroying up to 90% of mole crickets that have bred on the site.
The most popular and effective chemicals against mole crickets - Medvetox, Fenaxin Plus, Anti-medvedka, Grom, Medvecid, Medvegon, Grizzly, Rembek.
The mode of action of these drugs is different and they are also used differently. Most often, the chemical is dissolved in water in the required proportion and the resulting solution is poured into the rows, for example, Vofatox. There are preparations designed to treat the roots before planting to make them inedible for the pest - Aktara, Prestige, Masterpiece.
Some drugs act selectively (Phenaxin Plus), for example, only on female mole crickets. They love it and perceive it as a delicacy. Granules of the drug (3-4 pieces) are placed in specially prepared manure or compost piles or in detected pest tunnels.
The good thing about this drug is that it completely loses its toxicity when it dissolves in the soil.
Insecticide granules must be sprinkled with soil to prevent them from being accidentally pecked by birds or eaten by pets. When working with poison, you need to wear gloves and a respirator/medical mask.
- Medvetox – poisonous bait granules designed to combat mole crickets and garden ants. Reacting to the smell of granules, pests find a treat. Having eaten the poison, the mole cricket crawls out and dies. One granule is enough to destroy one adult. The active substance - diazinon - affects the respiratory system, forcing the insect to leave the hole. The drug is safe for worms and does not poison the soil. Retains its toxic properties for 3–4 weeks. It, like Phenaxin+, is placed in grooves to a depth of 5 cm, covered with earth and watered with water.
- Grizzly– a drug similar to Medvetox with the same active substance- diazinon. But, according to reviews from gardeners, it is inferior in effectiveness to Medvetox and does not always kill the mole cricket, but only causes inconvenience to it, forcing it to crawl out. Therefore, you need to collect “sick” mole crickets and destroy them mechanically until they came to their senses.
- Chop and Thunder– granular preparations that are toxic to mole crickets. Term active action- 2 weeks.
- Bankol- an insecticide whose mode of action is to paralyze the pest, dying of hunger after two days. The insecticide is not necessarily presented to the pest in pure form. Sometimes it is used to prepare bait - a porridge is prepared from corn or wheat with the addition of poison, for example, karbofos or metaphos - a contact insecticide.
- Lure with metaphos. Wheat/corn/barley grains (1 kg) are boiled until mushy. Add metaphos (50 g) and sunflower oil (30 g). The finished porridge is laid out in prepared piles of manure or humus or in the aisles when planting seedlings - to a depth of 3 cm and sprinkled with earth. Porridge consumption - 30–50 g per 1 sq. m of landing area.
Biological drugs
The advantage of biological preparations is their harmlessness to warm-blooded animals and beneficial insects. But in efficiency they are inferior to chemical ones.
There are artificial and natural biological weapons against mole crickets.
- Artificial - products made from bioproducts. Among biological preparations, gardeners highlight Otmed, which has a repellent effect. It is made from extracts of fragrant plants - pepper, wormwood, garlic, milkweed, the smells of which the mole cricket cannot stand. The drug Boverin is a biological pesticide. It is prepared from the Boveria fungus, which is poisonous to many types of insects and mites. This drug is used to treat seedlings and plant seedlings before planting them in the ground. Boverine is safe for humans, animals and beneficial insects.
- Natural enemies of mole crickets. These include birds such as chicken and hoopoe. Also on the list of human voluntary assistants in the fight against mole crickets are lizards, ground beetles, ants, hedgehogs, and moles.
Repellers
Mole crickets can serve as a repeller biological agents With pungent odor - rotten fish, tar, kerosene. Calcium carbide is also used. 5 g of carbide - into the pest's hole, a little water and the mole cricket will be blown away by the wind. Gardeners claim that it will last forever.
There are also noise repellers, which are often made by hand. But ultrasonic ones are considered the most advanced and promising.
Ultrasonic
The principle of their operation is based on irritating an underground pest with ultrasound; it leaves the territory in which it has become uncomfortable.
The ultrasonic repeller affects not only mole crickets, but also moles, shrews, hamsters and voles.
The advantages of this method of fighting mole crickets are that it does not require significant physical effort from the gardener - there is no need to set traps, check them, or tinker with poisonous granules and powders.
Ultrasonic mole cricket repeller
Manufacturers of ultrasonic repellers promise efficiency and complete safety for plants and ground dwellers that do not pick up the high-frequency waves of the device. The device works 24 hours a day and guarantees to “drive the mole cricket crazy” and drive it out of the area within a couple of weeks of use.
Exists wide choose ultrasonic repellers - Tornado, Grad, Mole, Antikrot, Chiston, Ecosniper, Hawk, Typhoon. They differ from each other in coverage area - up to 750 m, penetration depth - up to 3 m and power source - solar battery, conventional batteries, rechargeable batteries. Improved models have several vibration modes so that the pest cannot adapt to them. Also, a valuable characteristic of the device is the insusceptibility of its ultrasonic wave to obstacles in the form of stones, walls, and buildings.
If the device breaks, nothing will stop the pests from coming back. The effect is stronger when ultrasonic repellers are also located in neighboring areas.
Homemade windmills from plastic bottles and cans
To create a noise effect that causes discomfort, bears are used wind turbines. They are installed on metal 3-meter poles/pipes, which are stuck into the beds at a distance of 5–10 m from each other.
The propeller is made of light metal (beer can) so that it rotates without difficulty and makes as much noise as possible. A plastic bottle is also used as a rotating element. To do this, several vertical cuts are made on it, the edges of which are then bent outward to form blade pockets. The bottle is placed upside down on a metal tube - a sound resonator.
Scented repellers
Their main advantage is low cost and availability. Everyone can find sand, onion skins and spruce branches.
- Onion peel tincture. 900 g of onion peels are poured into 10 l warm water and infuse for 5 days. The infusion is used to water the holes before planting the seedlings. After the rain, the beds are sprayed with onion infusion. You can water the seedlings once a week with diluted onion infusion in a ratio of 1:5.
- A mixture of sand and kerosene. 1 kg of sand per 50 ml of kerosene. This amount of mixture is enough for 1 square. meter of plot. If the plot is large, then this method is not very convenient, but for closed ground - greenhouses and hotbeds it is excellent.
Method of preparing the mixture: first, pour kerosene over the sand, then mix everything thoroughly and combine it with 2-3 shovels of dry soil.
Method of application: the resulting mixture is scattered over the garden bed or applied into furrows along the perimeter of greenhouses/greenhouses, such as a barrier. Some gardeners additionally stretch a rope soaked in kerosene along the furrow to finally convince the mole cricket that it has nothing to do here.
- Spruce branches, alders and aspen pegs. The mole cricket does not like the smell of pine needles and alder. Gardeners use this to combat it by placing coniferous spruce branches and alder branches in the spaces between planting rows. To preserve the aroma, the branches are sprinkled with earth.
The mole cricket is not friendly with aspen either. They drive her out, like a vampire, with the help of aspen stakes, only small ones - 30 cm long. They are driven in in those places where a cluster of mole crickets is noticed, entirely at a distance of 100 cm from each other. The bark is not peeled off, it retains the smell.
Folk remedies
Ammonia water is harmless and even beneficial for plants, since it is a recognized nitrogenous fertilizer
Folk remedies are distinguished by their simplicity and accessibility, as well as their proven effectiveness.
- Rotten fish and herring heads. The method is not the most pleasant, but, according to gardeners, it pays off. You need to stock up on rotten fish or herring heads, maybe smoked or lightly salted. This smelly bait is used as a repeller and placed in holes when planting seedlings and covered with soil. This method is good because it does not harm the environment. On the contrary, decomposed fish serves as a bio-fertilizer for the soil. But there are also disadvantages - rotten fish can attract cats, and they will dig it up and drag it away.
- This product affects the mole cricket with its pungent odor and has a repellent effect.
Method of preparation: for 1 bucket of water you will need 2-3 dessert spoons of ammonia.
Method of application: water the plants at the root with the solution, trying not to get it on the green part. One bush requires a 500-gram jar. There is another way - using pieces of fabric soaked in undiluted ammonia. The scraps are laid out between the rows of potato, cabbage, and carrot plantings.
Disadvantages of the method: short-term effect, since ammonia- volatile substance. Frequent and repeated repetition is required - every 7 days.
- Total screen. This method is used as a barrier obstacle in the path of the mole cricket. The goal is to prevent it from getting to the roots of the plantings. Metal strips are used as barrier material, which are dug to a depth of up to 30 cm along the perimeter of the site or bed. Similar “body armor” is also made from plastic bottles, thick film, roofing felt, and slate.
Disadvantages of this method: the mole cricket can not only crawl, but also fly.
Filling holes
The method is fast and affordable. The results are immediate. A special solution is poured into the passages and holes of the pest and it emerges into the light of day.
To prepare the “fill”, kerosene-based solutions are used, laundry soap And washing powder.
Proportions: for 1 bucket of water you need 20 g of laundry soap or 50 g of washing powder or 100 g of kerosene.
Vegetable oil is not diluted, but used in its pure form, pouring a teaspoon into the discovered hole. Then add water from a hose to the hole. The oily liquid, falling on the body of the pest, clogs its respiratory tract and it dies or crawls out, where it must be caught and crushed.
Traps with bait
Homemade bait traps - effective way fight against a formidable garden pest.
There are different ways to use them. There are “trapping jars and bottles” that are buried in places where the mole cricket moves. Walking through her tunnel, the bear falls into a slippery trap, from which she cannot get out. To increase the percentage of pest penetration, the trap is smeared with something attractive, luring - jam, unrefined sunflower oil, beer.
For other types of traps - “trap pits” - gardeners prepare special places so that the pest nests there comfortably and lays eggs.
Manure traps
A biological and effective method of pest control that does not cause damage to the environment. The method is based on the mole cricket’s love for loose, fertilized soil and its need for hibernation.
A manure trap is very simple to make. A 50-centimeter hole is dug. Manure is placed at the bottom, then there is a layer of straw and the whole thing is covered with earth. The nest for the mole cricket is ready. To avoid losing it, you need to mark it somehow, for example, with a peg.
Such traps are made at the end of summer so that the pest has time to detect them and lay eggs before falling into winter hibernation. On the first autumn frost, at sub-zero temperature, the traps open, manure is scattered throughout the garden. The sleepy mole cricket and its eggs die in the cold.
With beer or jam
This type of trap is used to reduce the population of a multiplying mole cricket. Both glass jars and plastic bottles. A half-liter jar or plastic bottle with the neck cut off is dug into the ground up to the neck at the site of the mole cricket’s “promenade.” Beer/kvass is poured into a jar/bottle, filling it a third/quarter full. The top is loosely covered with a board, leaving a small gap so that the pest can get inside.
Video on the topic
After the trap is set, the gardener’s task is to regularly check it for prey.
A sweet trap is made in a similar way, using honey or jam as bait. They coat the walls of the trap from the inside.
Prevention of appearance and protection of plants during planting
In order to deprive a mole cricket of its habitat and wintering place, it is enough to simply remove dry leaves and branches from the area
Considering that the mole cricket is a very dangerous garden pest and it is difficult to achieve its complete destruction, it is important to work proactively, that is, to use active preventive measures.
- Autumn harvesting of crop residues, dry leaves and branches.
- Late autumn deep digging destroys the burrows and nests of the pest.
- Using manure traps that are set on fire in early spring.
- Do not use fresh cow dung.
- Release chickens onto the plot after harvesting.
- Adding fresh chicken droppings V compost heaps. The bear will not come there.
- Planting marigolds, marigolds and chrysanthemums along the seedling beds. The mole cricket does not like their smell.
Seedling protection
Damage to its root system leads to the death of a young plant. To prevent the mole cricket from getting to the roots, they are covered using various means.
- Rings of plastic bottles around the plant are buried 15 cm, leaving 2 cm above the ground.
- A cover made of nylon stockings - put on the roots while they are small.
- Peat/paper cups - decompose in the ground when the plant gets stronger and the mole cricket is no longer afraid of it.
Pests of agricultural crops are: mole cricket.
During the breeding season (May, June), mole crickets appear on the surface of the earth. Next to the main passage, mole crickets make a special nest-cave measuring 6x6 cm at a depth of 10-20 cm, compacting the soil inside it.
There they lay clusters of dark yellow eggs with a diameter of about 4-5 mm in an amount of 300-500 pieces. After 2 weeks, mobile gray larvae emerge from the eggs - they look like ants. only gray, leaving the nest after the first molt in late June-early July.
Voracious larvae eat up vegetable seedlings
Plants should not be fertilized in mole cricket-infested areas. fresh mullein- it will attract pests from all over the area. Diluted bird droppings, on the contrary, repel mole crickets (you need to water the ground with infusion of chicken droppings in dry weather).
Marigolds sown along the borders of the site block the mole cricket's access from neighboring territories - the mole cricket cannot tolerate the smell of marigolds.
Ways to deal with mole crickets
1. Cook barley or buckwheat porridge, add VAFATOX, or Regent, or phenaxin plus, add unrefined vegetable oil for the smell and attracting mole crickets - 1 tablespoon per half liter of porridge, and after a while you will notice that the mole crickets are becoming smaller. The result is very good. Peas of Medvetox are placed in the passages.
2. In the evening, listen in which places the male mole crickets sing, the sounds are similar to whistling, and early in the morning put poisoned bait there.3. One of the gardeners, knowing that there were mole crickets on the plot, planted all the seedlings of cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and eggplants in disposable cups without a bottom, the seedlings were saved.
4. One of their summer residents gives the following advice: “Common feed made from wheat or corn, I take about 100 grams of BI 58 per bucket of feed and mix it well. After that, I scatter this mixture on the ground and after a maximum of 2 hours the result is clear: they crawl out of the ground and die.”
4. Nikolai Karpukhin from the Moscow region:
In early spring, as soon as the ground thaws, in the morning he lays out pieces of plywood, boards, and thick cardboard on the still empty beds. The mole cricket loves to crawl out of its holes and bask under them. In the middle of the day, Nikolai pours two liters of water and a little kerosene into a bucket and collects seedling pests from under the shelters. In the summer, he places the same traps on the paths and catches mole crickets in the early afternoon or evening.
5. In addition, Nikolai Karpukhin, learned find mole cricket nests with a clutch of eggs. He recognizes them by their withering plants. Usually mole crickets gnaw them from the south or southwest side so that the leaves do not shade the masonry. With his hands he feels the mole cricket’s hole in the ground, which is slightly compacted. There is a lump of dense soil in it. This is a nest with eggs. If you carefully take it out and break it, there can be from 100 to 200 pieces in the clutch.
6. Viktor Kravchenko from Rostov region: Whole year he collects eggshells, and in the spring it mulches seedlings to protect them from mole crickets. He does it this way. First, he plants and waters the plants. Then he sprinkles it with a thick layer of crushed shells, and sprinkles humus or sawdust on top. The insect does not like sharp and hard shell fragments when it approaches the seedlings.
7. Grigory Panteleev from Krasnodar: Desperate to finally defeat the mole cricket, he found this way to protect cabbage seedlings from it. He places the root ball of the seedling in a bag made from a piece of old women's tights. The ends of the bag are tied crosswise around the stem so that there are no gaps where the mole cricket could crawl through. The seedlings are planted so that the top of the nylon bag protrudes 4 cm above the ground. With this method, the roots of the plants easily penetrate through the fabric, insects will not harm them great harm, and the stem below is protected. When it becomes coarser over time, it ceases to attract mole crickets.
8. You can catch mole crickets using honey
As a trap, you can use a glass jar, greased from the inside at the neck with honey. The jar is dug into the ground, the neck is covered with a board with a gap of 1-1.5 cm. After some time, the jar is taken out and the insects that have crawled into it are destroyed.
9. Windmills against mole crickets
Another method of fighting mole crickets. It is necessary to place wind turbines on the site at a distance of 5-10 m from each other. For this, it is better to use iron pipes 3 meters high. Attach a light metal propeller to the top of the pipe so that it rotates easily and creates more noise. The mole crickets are disturbed by the vibration and noise from the propellers like a natural disaster and leave the area.
10. Mole crickets do not like the smell of calendula, garlic, parsley, or fresh alder leaves.
Traps.
1. It is necessary to make a tin box measuring 10x30x15 cm, dig it into the ground so that the upper edge is level with the upper soil horizon. The box should be covered with a large mesh made of wire, a perforated rag, gauze or other similar material and sprinkled with earth. You can put it on the bottom of the box, moisten it, thin layer earth, humus.
Spread the inside of the bottom with honey or unrefined sunflower oil:
2. Place around the area pieces of roofing felt or cardboard and press down the edges with pebbles or small stones and leave, you can put bait. Then after some time, after a day or night, put on gloves and quickly pick up the leaf, considering how agile the mole cricket is, be prepared to quickly grab it.
Medvedka - dangerous pest, capable of causing colossal damage to the crop. Apply different methods struggle and your success will be ensured.
Jun 4, 2015 Galinka
Making a mole cricket trap with your own hands is quick and simple, the effect reaches 90%. It's simple and effective. To build the structure, jars, bottles, buckets, planks, linoleum, plywood sheets, plastic film. To attract the insect into the trap, bait with a strong aroma is prepared.
You will need an empty bottle of any capacity.
- Make a small depression in the ground, water the soil so that it does not fall through.
- They dig in the bottle at an angle.
- First, food bait with vegetable oil or 100 ml of beer is placed inside.
- Cover the hole with a plank, a sheet of plywood, or linoleum. Any material available on the farm. Create favorable conditions for the insect, protecting it from sunlight.
- turn on a bright flashlight;
- A bucket of soapy water is placed underneath it.
Insects fly into a bright light, hit a lantern, and fall into the water. They find their death there. In one night you can collect half a bucket of pests.
Banks
You will need 500 ml jars. Fill halfway with water. They dig throughout the garden or in separate beds at a distance of 50 cm. The neck should rise 5 mm above the soil or be completely level with it. Traps are checked daily.
On a note!
Water attracts mole crickets very strongly, but if the effect is rather weak, you can try porridge bait.
This mole cricket trap is the simplest, but no less effective. Additionally, others are used traditional methods struggle (with help, etc.)
Soapy water
You can wait for the mole cricket to come out of the hole on its own following the smell of the bait, or you can help her decide on her own.
Prepare a soap solution. Add any soap product to a bucket of water - powder, soap, washing gel, etc. Find mole cricket holes and pour water into them.
Sensing danger, mole crickets will crawl out of the emergency entrance to the surface. At this moment, you should chop them with a shovel, breaking the body into 2 parts. Insects that did not have time to escape emerge from their holes along with the water, already dead.
Shadow like a trap
Mole crickets love warmth, moisture, and lack of light. If there is no time to build traps, but you need to catch the pest urgently, proceed as follows:
- choose sunny plot in the garden;
- dig a small hole;
- water with plenty of water;
- covered with a sheet of plywood, iron or other suitable material.
Preparatory procedures should be done early in the morning with the first rays of the sun. When the sun rises well, it will warm the earth. Mole crickets will climb to bask on damp place. At approximately 11 o'clock in the afternoon, carefully and silently make your way to the trap, immediately splash a large amount of soapy water into the trap, or destroy the pests with a shovel. There are other ways.
On a note!
Mole crickets are fearful creatures and react sharply to sounds. If you can’t approach silently, then you should use another version of the trap.
Bait
The trap will not work or will be ineffective if the bait is not offered to your liking.
Smell requirements
The contents should be fragrant. To enhance the smell of any prepared product, you need to add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil. Other scents may repel insects.
Beer bait
The best remedy for mole crickets is beer. There is no need to buy expensive drinks; pests will not appreciate this gesture. You can get by with the cheapest option. 50 ml is poured into trap bottles, this is enough for insects to smell the smell. Or simply bury a beer bottle with drops of the drink left in the ground as a trap.
Porridge for bears
The bait is made from cereals. Prepare crumbly porridge. Cook until half cooked, cover with a lid, wrap in a towel. Place in small handfuls in a trap. Rice, millet, barley, peas are suitable. To enhance the effect, a poisonous agent is added to the porridge. The simplest option is boric acid. The substance is tasteless and odorless and will do nothing to repel the mole cricket. But it will begin to act when it enters the stomach.
Dish with a surprise
You can cook it with a little surprise. Any toxic agent is diluted in water. Fits , . Soak the peas for a day. Scattered into traps. This option is suitable for those who do not want to bother with live insects. The trap will already contain dead pests. The poison is effective for 3 hours.
Any trap option gives good result, but does not guarantee complete cleansing of the land from pests. Works great in tandem with other control methods.
To destroy mole crickets in the garden, summer residents have to search for a long time effective ways. After all, the pest easily adapts to the poisons used and multiplies very quickly. A do-it-yourself mole cricket trap will be an excellent and safe option to completely destroy the insect.
What are the advantages of homemade traps
When choosing any method of getting rid of garden pests, you need to weigh its strengths and weak sides. Arranging traps offers the following advantages:
- Availability. Materials for making traps can almost always be found on the site and you don’t have to buy anything for this.
- Simplicity. The mole cricket trap has simple design, and even a novice summer resident can do it.
- Efficiency. Numerous positive reviews and big number supporters homemade traps may be confirmation that the method really works.
- Safety. Most cooking methods homemade devices don't assume . They are more focused on mechanically catching the pest. Therefore, this method is also popular among those who do not want to treat their beds with chemicals.
It is impossible to form a correct opinion about traps without studying their shortcomings. There are few of them:
- Waiting for the result. It can take more than a month to wait until all the individuals fall into the traps. During this time, the pest will continue to multiply and destroy plants. Therefore, it is better not to use it if the area is heavily infested with cabbage weeds.
- Time spent on preparation. Some models of homemade traps require a serious approach and time. You will also have to periodically get rid of caught crayfish.
- Not suitable for emergency use. The trap is most relevant as a preventive measure.
On a note!
Some types of traps require the use. This is an optional condition, but will greatly simplify the fight.
Dung piles
The insect loves to swarm in manure. It is always warm there, quite humid and there is something to eat. This feature is used by many summer residents. There are a lot of options for making a mole cricket trap using manure:
- Scatter manure throughout the area and leave it for a while. To do this, it is necessary to form small piles every 1-1.5 meters of earth. The bear must go to the smell. After 2-3 days, the heaps must be inspected; a considerable number of pests should accumulate there. They must be taken outside the site and burned.
- You can also dig small holes in the soil. Cover the bottom of the hole with cellophane and put manure in the middle. They will follow the smell and end up in a hole. They will not be able to get out of it, since the cellophane is very slippery. From time to time it will be necessary to clean such traps and throw out caught cabbage mushrooms from them. Fighting mole crickets in this way is very simple and effective, especially considering invaluable benefits for soil quality.
We try to periodically spread manure in the garden every 2-3 years. We make small piles and after 3 weeks we take them out of the garden. As a result, we get rid of the pest and effective fertilizer soil. The most important thing is not to forget to remove the manure from the garden. Otherwise, you can get the opposite effect and help pests multiply.
Alexander Igorevich, Moscow
Wind structures
Medvedka does not really like vibrations and noises in occupied territory. Therefore, a separate niche among anti-casserole remedies is occupied by various. Such a device produces sound vibrations that force the mole cricket to leave the area. They are quite expensive, about 500 rubles for the simplest model.
You don’t have to spend that kind of money, because you can make a vibration repeller yourself:
- To do this, you need to prepare a large number of empty plastic bottles and the same number of metal rods.
- Insert the rods into the soil to a depth of 30 cm. Place a bottle on the upper end. Under the influence of the force of the wind, the bottle will knock on the metal base and the vibrations will spread underground.
The difficulty with this method is that for effective fight traps should be placed approximately 1 meter apart to cover the entire garden area. This is not very convenient, and failure to comply with this rule significantly reduces the effectiveness of the method used.
We use bottles on metal rods as preventive measures. Until this time, it was not possible to find mole crickets in the garden. Therefore, we tend to believe that the method really works.
Dmitry, Pskov
Honey bait
Experts have proven that mole crickets are very attracted to sweet smells. Therefore, you can use this knowledge to combat the pest.
- The trap is prepared from glass jar volume 1-2 liters, honey and vegetable oil.
- The inner surface of the jar should be smeared with oil, and a little honey should be placed on the bottom.
- A ready-made trap for cabbage grass is buried in the beds. This should be done at a slight angle so that the pest can easily climb there.
- The top of the jar should rise 1-2 cm above the surface. Cover the top of the jar with a board or piece of linoleum so that water, debris and other unnecessary materials cannot get in there. It is enough to leave a small gap into which the earthen crayfish can crawl.
The pest will follow the smell and climb into the jar, but the slippery edges provided by the vegetable oil will prevent it from getting out. Periodically, the trap should be emptied of trapped pests and honey should be added to increase efficiency and refresh the aroma.
Honey bait works very effectively. I always trust only this method. After 3 weeks, you can collect a large number of crayfish. The only drawback is that even in a garden of 2-3 acres you need to equip at least 4 such traps. This is the only way to quickly and effectively protect the crop.
Antonina, Perm
Beer
This method is not the cheapest, although materials should be purchased at the lowest price. The bear is very attracted to the smell of beer, so she will not deny herself the pleasure of enjoying such a treat. The summer resident’s task is to block her escape routes.
The mole cricket trap is constructed as follows:
- A glass or plastic liter beer bottle is emptied of the drink. About a third of the available volume should remain in the vessel.
- Cover the neck with gauze.
- Bury the bottle at an acute angle near the beds.
- The neck should rise 1-2 cm above the ground.
In search of a treat, the pest will gnaw through the gauze and fall into a trap, and will no longer be able to get out of it. Periodically you will need to change the contents of the traps and add fresh beer.
The method is good, it works. I used existing bottles. I bought the cheapest beer on tap. 1 liter was enough. Poured into clean plastic half-liter containers and liter bottles and buried it in the garden. I checked it a few days later. Each trap already contained cabbage mushrooms. After 3 weeks I cleaned the containers.
Andrey, Yaroslavl
How to protect seedlings
You can set up a trap for cabbage grass at the stage of planting seedlings. For this you will also need empty plastic bottles. From them it is necessary to cut rings with a height of at least 20 cm. Each unit of seedlings must be fenced with a ring made. The mole cricket trap should be installed 15 cm deep and 2-4 cm above the ground. This method allows.
On a note!
In this way you can protect entire beds. To do this, they need to be protected on both sides with plastic or wooden fences. The mole cricket will not be able to overcome them and will be left without food.
Thus, to build a trap for a mole cricket you do not need any special skills. The most important thing is to choose the right bait and update it periodically in order to attract the pest as effectively as possible.
The mole cricket repeller is actively advertised on Internet sites, promising quick release plot large areas from harmful insects. The small device operates on the basis of high-frequency ultrasound and is powered by a solar panel, electricity or regular batteries.
Features of the device
Manufacturers offer a wide range of products with a deterrent effect:
- Mole cricket repeller solar powered. Provides continuous operation with a service life of about 4 years. The battery charges itself. It is possible to insert regular batteries. The device emits high-frequency waves capable of covering an area of up to 750 m and a depth of more than 2 m.
On a note!
A prominent representative of this product category is the mole repeller and mole cricket STAGE B44 REPELER from Canadian manufacturers. To get started, you need to install the device from plot of land. Works in any lighting, different temperatures. Efficiency is not affected by obstacles in the form of buildings, walls, or stones in the soil. The weight of the device is about 400 g.
- Electronic mole cricket repellers. Less popular because they are used on open area problematic. It is necessary to provide additional conditions for safe work. The operating principle is no different. There are several modes to prevent pests from adapting to vibrations.
A prominent representative of this product category is the device domestic production- Tornado. Powerful ultrasound bypasses obstacles and penetrates the ground. Positive reviews Users have written about this device regarding rodent control. Universal remedy, which acts with the same frequency on animals and insects.
The ultrasonic mole cricket repeller should act on the organs of touch. Insects feel uncomfortable, leave their burrows, and move to more favorable territories.
Features of the bear
What insects hear is beyond doubt. In the evening you can hear the melodic trills of the male, who sings songs for the females. Adults crawl out, following the sound. However, how insects hear plays an important role. Mole crickets do not perceive sound, but they detect vibrations of a certain frequency with their whiskers.
On a note!
Scientists have not been able to reproduce the exact vibration frequency of sound, which is . If this were possible, the problem of fighting mole crickets would be solved without much effort.
It is theoretically possible to fight mole crickets with ultrasound. In practice, the device is absolutely useless. The frequency it emits is designed for animals and insects. While every living creature emits and picks up a special range. The ultrasonic repeller loses its power when it hits obstacles. Does not penetrate deep into the ground. Manufacturers' claims to the contrary are a marketing gimmick. Therefore, with more high efficiency it is recommended to use others
