Earthen fleas have nothing to do with real fleas.
They are actually shrimp from a large family of leaf beetles and belong to plant pests.
Earthen fleas do not bite people, but they are quite capable of entering the house and settling there.
Appearance
Pretty typical for squad bugs. Beetles. They have an elongated body, reliably protected by dense rigid sheaths. The color may be different, from light green to almost blackit is usually solid and has a metallic sheen. Some species are decorated with transverse stripes in contrasting colors.
The flea has small transparent wings with which it flies for short distances. Insects cannot fly for long periods.
Antennae of bugs are long, black, dotted. Lapok usually 6, like all other beetles. A special feature of fleas are hind legs. Have them thickened first segments ("thighs"), and the "legs" are elongated, so the bugs have good jumping ability. It is because of this ability that flea flakes are confused with the usual bloodsucking fleas..
Next you will see a photo of earth fleas:
- Larvae.
These are small worms with soft outer covers of off-white color. The body consists of many segments, the head is dark. Leg 3 pairs.
- Egg.
It has an ellipsoid shape, slightly elongated upwards. The color is light yellowish or greenish.
- Baby doll.
The larva acquires the snow-white coloring of the integument. From above it is covered with a hard shell of beige or yellow color.
How are fleas different from fleas?
The difference is so great that it is almost impossible to confuse them. Cute shiny pests are completely unlike soft-bodied parasites. The main differences include:
- dimensions. The length of an adult flea rarely exceeds 2 mm, while fleas reach 6 mm;
- coloring. Real fleas have a faded color, mostly brown or gray tones. Fleas also delight the eye with shades of green, red and other bright colors;
- lifestyle and diet. Earthen fleas do not live in animal hair and do not drink the blood of warm-blooded organisms.
Lifestyle
Pest bugs live on the street, settling near those plants that feed on. Each species has its own dietary preferences. The most common flea eating cruciferous crops like cabbage and radish.
Young individuals go to winter, they go underground and wait there for the cold. In spring, when the temperature of the upper layer of the earth reaches 11-13 °, flea wake up and crawl out. At this time, they begin to actively eat the young sprouts, preparing for the breeding season.
Mating and laying eggs occurs in May or June. The female hides future offspring into the soil near the fodder crops or directly on the plant. In laying maybe 10 to 50 eggs.
The development of this stage and the release of larvae takes only a few days. Then the larvae begin to eat a lot, damaging the roots, stems and foliage. A month later, they pupate in the ground. This stage goes away from 7 to 17 days. An adult pest appears from the pupa, which is sent for wintering.
IMPORTANT! In warm regions with mild, short winters, 2 generations of earthen fleas may develop over a season.
Harmfulness
Earthen fleas are perfectly safe for people and pets. Unlike real fleas, they not interested in blood, preferring plant foods. Here for garden crops these bugs are a real threat!
Both adult flea plants and their larvae feed on plants, causing harm from all sides. The fact is that the pest bug eats leaves, scraping off the top layer. The larvae gnaw the roots or eat the stem from inside.
Large concentrations of pests able to destroy all the landings. Young shoots in the spring are most often affected, when overwintering imagos rush off to “eat off” after wintering. During dry periods, the damage caused by earthen fleas increases many times! After all, plants can not compensate for the loss of moisture and die faster.
Once in the house, flea can damage ornamental plantsnibbling their leaves. If time does not take action, bugs will destroy the home flowers.
Signs of an earth-flea attack:
- rough and asymmetrical round holesappearing on leaves and stems;
- skeletal leaves;
- damage to the stems of perfectly healthy plants for some strange reason;
- inflorescence drying;
- detection of small jumping bugs on plants.
How to get into the house?
Most often, pests or their larvae are introduced along with garden soil or a plant. Adult bugs can accidentally jump into an open window or door, “come” on clothes.
After harvesting, fleas can be brought together with vegetables in the basement or cellar. If in the winter they live in the storehouse, they will not harm the roots and other products.
How to get rid of the house?
Fleas in a dwelling place fall from adjacent gardens and garden plots, so you should start fighting with them there. As a preventive measure, the correct agricultural technology is applied. With its help, you can greatly reduce the "livestock" pests without resorting to chemical means.
- Change culture places when planting, observing a competent crop rotation.
- Water the plants regularly and plentifullywhile maintaining moisture. Fleas prefer dry air and soil, becoming very active in favorable conditions.
- Between plantings of cruciferous crops like radish and cabbage it is desirable to plant pest repellent plants. These include tansy, tobacco, marigold, calendula, celandine, wormwood, anabasis. They can also be planted around the perimeter of the site to prevent the invasion of flea from neighboring areas.
- Timely weed controlwhich serve as a refuge for bugs.
If there are too many fleas, an insecticide should be called in to help. Anti-Colorado potato beetle can be used against these pests: Gaucho, Regent, Antijuk, Konfidor Maxi, Fitoverm, Ratibor, Aktar.
In the house, earthen fleas rarely form numerous colonies due to the lack of a good food base. Most often they attack for young seedlings and home flowers.
You can eliminate them with chemicals. For treatment in the house can be used insecticides from cockroaches: Raptor, Hangman, Get, Combat and Reid. Usually it is enough to spray the plants once so that the bugs disappear forever.
In this case, you need to spray all the nooks: rear furniture surfaces, window sills, baseboards, slots in the flooring. There is no need to remove fleas from animals, as these pests will simply ignore your pets, focusing on the plant food base.
As folk remedies, you can use various repellent plants. Their enough to expand in the possible places of settlement earthen fleas. Suitable and fresh plants, and dried.
Another effective tool is benzenemixed with regular kerosene. This "hellish mixture" with its smell will expel all uninvited pests. The solution should be treated plants suffering from the attack of flea beetles.
Finding in your neat home earthen flea, do not worry! Leaf beetles are not the biggest problem among domestic pests.
