Home generalCockchafer and Juniper Beetle - are they dangerous? What to do?

Cockchafer and Juniper Beetle - are they dangerous? What to do?

  • Tips for fighting
  • The difference
    • cockchafer
    • chafer
  • Worth knowing about the grubs
    • Fight larvae and grubs
      • home remedies
      • Predators as a natural solution
  • Affected by the beetle plague - what to do ">

    Tips for fighting

    Both species of beetles can endure for years in the ground without you noticing anything. Then you are suddenly affected by a beetle plague. The animals appear in masses on the surface and become a burden. They eat flowers, leaves of young trees and they can also damage the lawn. For this reason, many gardeners decide to sell the beetles, often resorting to drastic means. It is not necessary to kill the beetles, because they are annoying, but not dangerous for humans. When fighting, make sure that you can do without chemical agents. These pollute the environment and also your garden, and often you can not permanently get rid of the beetles.

    The difference

    Both types of beetles belong to the same genus. These are leaf-horn beetles whose larvae are buried as grubs in the soil and can remain there for many years. The adult beetles lay their eggs in the ground. There the Junikäfer larvae remain about two years, while the May beetle larva needs three to five years, until it develops into a beetle. But these are not the only differences. If you look closely, you can see optical features that help you distinguish between the two types of beetles.

    cockchafer

    The awareness of the May beetle is much higher than that of the Juniper beetle. Nevertheless, both species have the same distribution. One can not say that the juniper beetle is less common than the cockchafer.

    The larva of the cockchafer hatches from the egg, which was deposited by the dam in the ground. This is the same with the Juniper. The cockchafer, however, can remain more than twice as long in the earth. He got his name because the time of his flights in the month of May, occasionally even in June. The beetle can reach a size of about three centimeters. He has a deep brown color and looks quite large in flight. He uses young leaves as food, which he eats from the trees.

    At intervals of several decades is repeatedly spoken of cockchafer pest. If the earth is particularly warm and humid, the larvae can multiply explosively. In this case, the gardener speaks of a plague, which he would like to get rid of. Isolated cockchafer do not need to be fought because they do not cause much damage.

    Important optical features of the May beetle:

    • Sensor with widened blades
    • deep brown color
    • looks quite big during the flight

    Cockchafs like young leaves

    If the May beetles populate the garden in more or less large numbers in the spring, they are primarily interested in the young leaves that decorate the trees in their fresh green. Depending on the number of cockchafer, it can happen that your trees are eaten bald. This is annoying, but it is not dangerous for the tree. When the tree is healthy, the leaves grow again and decorate the tree all summer long. Shrubs and some types of flowers are also preferred by May beetles. The young beetles, which have just hatched from the larvae, seem insatiable. It can happen that especially very young trees and shrubs are eaten down in a short time. After just a few days you will notice the change in your garden.

    chafer

    The juniper beetle is smaller than the cockchafer with a size of less than two centimeters. He remains at the age of two only half the time in the ground, before he turns out and becomes active as a beetle. This happens in the months of June and August. The junic beetle is after-active and extremely voracious. His diet consists of flowers and leaves, but he can also attack the lawn, which is why he is feared by many hobby gardeners. Overall, the damage in the garden by a Junikäfer larger. Even these bugs become a plague at intervals of decades and can destroy entire gardens. Control can be done by natural means. Basically, these beetles are not dangerous and should never be killed with chemical substances.

    Important optical features of the Juniper beetle:

    • Body color yellow to light brown
    • slight hairiness of the body
    • looks more petite than the cockchafer

    The autumn-active Junikäfer

    Juniper beetles hatch a bit later than cockchafer and are active until late autumn. Since they are even more voracious than their conspecifics, they are regarded by many gardeners even more as pests. They not only pass on trees and shrubs, but also on the roots of the lawns. The beetles are nocturnal, which means that in a plague you sometimes do not even recognize your lawn again after a short time. By working the beetle the livelihood is taken from the lawn. Despite optimal care he can look yellow and bald. A garden, which is visited by the beetles, can be very bleak. It is all the more important to effectively prevent the Junikäfer larvae. Then an eradication is not necessary.

    Worth knowing about the grubs

    The larvae hatch from the eggs that have been deposited in the soil and can multiply by leaps and bounds. The grubs live in the earth for several years. They are extremely sensitive to UV radiation. You can use this knowledge to drive out the larvae.

    Already the grubs can cause immense damage to lawns and flowers. If they feed on the roots, the lawn may die off over a large area without you knowing why. Once you have been affected by the damage that grubs can cause in your garden, it makes sense to effectively combat the beetles. You never know how many of the beetles are still in the ground, destroying your fresh lawn or planting. Although neither the beetles nor the grubs are considered dangerous, they are among the declared enemies of your plants.

    Fight larvae and grubs

    Fighting beetles requires good planning and a little knowledge of the stages of insect evolution. Once the plague breaks out, it makes no sense to kill the bugs. Rather, you should make sure that they can not develop at all. The home remedies are aimed at the destruction of the grubs. They are not dangerous and mostly easy to obtain. If you manage to prevent the grubs from further development, your measures have had the desired result.

    Keep in mind, however, that the beetles can evolve every year, because you do not know with certainty how many of the grubs really live in the soil of your garden. If wet and loamy soil prevails in your area, you are more likely to be affected by cockchafer plague than in areas with a rather dry sandy bottom. There, the larvae do not feel well, they lack the moist environment and they die before they could develop into a beetle.

    home remedies

    If you have decided to fight the beetles to protect your garden, you should resort to home remedies that can be used to control the larvae in a natural way. You do not need to make any distinction between the larva of the May beetle and the Juniper beetle when choosing home remedies. Both react to the home remedies in the same way and you will succeed in most cases with the measures.

    For the development to the beetle the larvae need humidity. Therefore, make sure that the soil dries out in spring and summer for some time. Find the balance between fighting beetles and optimizing your plants. In dry soil, the beetle larva does not feel well and dies. This applies to both types of beetles, there are no differences.

    Other recommended home remedies are:

    • Milling the ground or working with a zinc-containing cultivator
    • Setting up fragrances that attract beetles and larvae
    • Plant mushrooms as parasites to protect the lawn

    The milling of the soil supports the drying out of the larvae. In addition, they reach the surface and die due to the lack of UV protection.

    Predators as a natural solution

    Grubs serve as food for the so-called predators. They destroy the larvae living in the soil and specifically prevent the beetle pest. However, it is not so easy, especially in smaller gardens to settle predators, which represent a danger to the grubs. You must lure cats, birds, bats and shrews into your garden. There are various measures available for this.

    • Place cat food or milk in the garden
    • Install aviary
    • Lure bats with special boxes

    If you succeed in letting some of the animals in your garden home, you can achieve very effective protection against cockchafers and Junikäfern.

    Affected by the beetle plague - what to do ">

    Further measures are also recommended:

    • Covering the entire lawn in the evenings
    • Water plants on dry days

    In this way, you save the beetles their habitat, without destroying them, and protect their garden from the pests, which are very dangerous for your plants.

    Avoid chemical agents in any case

    Again and again, the question is whether chemical agents are not the measure of all things when it comes to pest control. You should definitely refrain if you want to preserve your garden as a natural habitat. Because the grubs live underground and often populate large parts of the garden, you would have to use the chemistry everywhere. It gets into the soil and can not be degraded for a long time. Your plants can be damaged, and for you, but especially for young children and the elderly, who are already struggling with health problems, an immediate threat may arise. A chemical that effectively kills the grubs must penetrate deep into the soil. There it can certainly expel the pests for a few years. During this time, however, you infested your garden with the chemical cudgel and did not really benefit from it.

    Trust in the effects of home remedies, even if they require more effort, and use them purposefully. Then, the success in combating the Junikäfer larvae and the larvae of the May beetle will set in a targeted manner without having to spray chemicals in your garden.

    Not dangerous, but enemy to the gardener

    Savvy gardeners find themselves struggling with the May and Juniper fawns almost every year. This is particularly the case if they live in a region where a very humid and nutrient-rich soil prevails. There the beetles find particularly good bases to develop themselves. If you try to worsen these optimal conditions in your garden for the grubs, you have fought the larvae in a very natural way. Often, however, this is not so easy, because the larvae are tough and adapted to the adverse living conditions underground. For this reason, you need a lot of patience and knowledge about one or the other home remedies, with which you can drive away the grubs.

    The cost of home remedies are hardly worth mentioning, because often they are in stock or can be procured inexpensively. Noteworthy is the effort you need to do to get rid of the bugs. You must repeat this effort every year if you want to achieve a significant success in controlling the grubs.

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