Scoops are the largest family of butterflies. Today, there are more than 30 thousand species. Most likely, this figure is not final - it will increase.
All types of scoops have thick hairs on a thick abdomen, this makes their flight seem “soft”. A caterpillar scoop is a butterfly larva. They are very voracious, and therefore have a well-developed oral apparatus of a gnawing type. On the lower lip, they have glands that form a special liquid that instantly hardens in air. Of these spider webs, they weave cocoons, fasten the leaves.
At the end of their development, the caterpillars of the scoop turn into pupae, differing in size and color. All of them are motionless, convulsive movements are possible only with the abdomen. They have an ovoid shape, covered with a dense shell.
With mass reproduction of caterpillars, scoops can cause enormous damage to gardens, fields, forests. For example, in Ukraine in 1924, winter crawler caterpillars destroyed so much bread that they could load a train of 100 kilometers in length.
In household plots, the caterpillar of a winter scoop is most often found. It is thick, light brown or gray, indistinguishable on the ground. This is a malicious pest of many crops: beets, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, corn, cucumbers, etc. Can eat almost everything, and at night. In the afternoon she hides under the leaves or in the soil. For a season it develops in two generations.
A caterpillar of a scoop can cut off plants, like a bear, and eat whole hollows in root crops. The aboveground parts of plants located close to the soil can also be damaged. She does not disdain planted seeds, which is why there are large bald spots in the plantings.
Cabbage, gamma scoop, and many other butterflies of the Lepidoptera family also harm agriculture, and grain damage not only plants, but also harvested grain. For forest plantations, the most dangerous is the pine scoop, the caterpillar of which feeds exclusively on pines.
The most effective way to deal with this gluttonous pest is to deep dig the soil on the bayonet of a shovel, both in autumn and spring. In the summer period, you need to loosen the soil more often in the rows between crops. When you see a damaged plant, you should dig up the earth around it, for sure there will be caterpillars of the scoop.
For mass distribution, you will have to resort to insecticidal drugs, such as Decis, Bazudin, Aktara, etc. You can take half the recommended dose and about 100 g of urea for 10 liters of water. Such a solution should be sprayed with planting and the soil around them. The benefit will be double: the caterpillars of the scoop will die, and the plants will be fed.
To reduce the number of eggs laid by butterflies, bait should be placed during their mass summer (containers with jam diluted with water). The contents will have to be periodically changed, and the butterflies that have gotten destroyed.
You can use a harmless biological method - to release a trichogram (an insect that destroys scoop eggs). They are sold in specialized stores, and the number of individuals is calculated per unit of plantings. Perhaps one release of the predator helper will not be enough. Then after 6 days the procedure will have to be repeated.
Defeating the caterpillars of scoops and preserving the crop is quite possible, especially knowing their lifestyle and methods of struggle.
