Control of Red-bellied White Lamp Moth, a Flower Pest in October

The weather is getting cooler in October, but we should still pay attention to the timely prevention and control of flowers and insect pests.

Red-bellied white lamp moth: also known as human dirt moth, is a wide range of leaf-eating pests, it mainly harms Chimonanthus, hibiscus, green peach, rose, elm, rose and other woody flowers, but also harms African chrysanthemum, carnation, chrysanthemum, lotus, peony, day lily, iris and other herbaceous flowers, and in serious cases, it can eat up the leaves of whole wintersweet, rose and other herbaceous flowers. The adult is characterized by red on the back of the abdomen and yellow-white on the ventral surface; the wings are white to yellow-white; there is a small black spot above the middle wing chamber, and there is an oblique row of small black spots on the outer and posterior edge of the middle chamber. When still, the wings merge on the back, and the small black spots on the left and right wings merge into one herringbone; the male's hind wings are orange-red and the female's hind wings are white.

The larvae are yellowish brown, the head is black, the topline is yellowish brown, and there are a pair of warts on the back of the first segment of the middle chest and abdomen. There are 16 protuberances in each segment of the abdomen, with several processes clustered with reddish long hairs, and the dark yellow broad band above the valve line. In the Yangtze River basin, there are four generations a year, overwintering as pupae in the soil, and Eclosion begins in April of the following year. Adults often lie still in the hidden places of branches and leaves during the day and move at night, showing obvious phototaxis. Females often lay eggs on the back of the leaves, showing blocks or arranged in rows, and the egg period is about a week.

The larvae have pseudo-death, the newly hatched larvae have the habit of social harm, eat more mesophyll, the larvae disperse after the 3rd instar, and can eat all the leaves, leaving only a few bare branches. The larvae are harmful from April to October, and the mature larvae pupate over the winter after October.

Control measures: remove weeds and litter around flowers and trees such as Chimonanthus chinensis and rose and burn them centrally; turn the land deeply to destroy overwintering pupae; remove egg blocks and leaves with clusters of newly hatched larvae and destroy them; at the larval stage, kill the larvae with 2000 times of permethrin or 1000 times of trichlorfon crystals. From May to August, when it is found that the mesophyll on the leaves of the plant is gnawed into a network or engraved shape, it is necessary to spray as soon as possible; in the spring adult Eclosion period, hanging black light trapping can greatly reduce the damage that may be caused by the larvae in that year.