What are the natural enemies of aphids? What are the methods of biological control?

Aphids are pests that propagate very fast, which can harm many kinds of economic crops, such as cotton, tea, rice, wheat and so on. Controlling aphids is a headache for almost every farmer. Biological control can reduce the use of pesticides and make crops safer. So what are the natural enemies of aphids? What are the methods of biological control?

What are the natural enemies of aphids?

1. Ladybug

Ladybug is a general term for round raised beetles of the family Coleoptera, often with red, black or yellow spots, and predatory ladybugs feed on aphids. Many ladybugs live only in specific habitats, sometimes limited to a few plants in specific habitats. On the contrary, many species, such as discolored ladybeetles and tortoise ladybugs, are widespread and can be found in many habitats, leaving him in search of food when there are fewer prey in the habitat.

two。 Aphid-eating fly

Aphid flies are effective natural enemies of aphids, shell insects, whiteflies, leafhoppers, thrips, Lepidoptera larvae and so on. Adults are small to large, wide or slender, with a single dark color or bright markings such as yellow, orange, gray and white, while some species have metallic colors such as blue, green and copper, which look like bees.

3. Parasitic wasp

Parasitic wasps refer to many kinds of insects living by parasitism in Hymenoptera Hymenoptera, Trichogramma, Trichogramma and so on.

4. Aphid-eating gall midge

Aphid-eating gall midges are insects of the family Diptera, distributed in Hubei and other areas. the host insects are cotton aphids. Cocoon larvae overwinter under the topsoil around the host plants of aphids and pupate from March to April of the following year. After Eclosion mating, they lay eggs on early spring hosts such as weeds with aphids and hibiscus.

5. Crab spider

Crab spiders refer to spiders of the family Araneae, which are not only shaped like crabs, but also run rampant or retrograde like crabs. With the spirit of fighting for the big with the small, he will prey on insects that are much bigger than himself, such as butterflies, damselflies, mosquitoes, bees and so on. It often preys on pests in flowers and plants or in bean fields, or in cotton and wheat fields near bean fields.

6. Lacewing

Chrysopa is a large family of Neuroptera, which is widely distributed in most areas of China. It is an important natural enemy of all kinds of aphids such as pine aphid, willow aphid, peach aphid, pear aphid and pine scale. It can effectively inhibit the growth and decline of aphid scale insect population in forest nursery orchard farmland.

II. Biological control methods

The biological control of aphids is mainly to protect natural enemies, and there are still many natural enemies of aphids, such as ladybugs, aphid-eating flies, parasitic wasps, aphid-eating gall mosquitoes, crab spiders, lacewings and entomopathogenic fungi. Broad-spectrum pesticides can be applied as little as possible, at the same time, the application of pesticides during the peak period of natural enemy activity can be avoided, and aphids can be artificially reared and released under certain conditions.

III. Other prevention and control methods

1. Making use of natural enemies: the method of using natural enemies to control pests is the most common, and natural enemies can effectively restrain the mass reproduction of pests.

2. Resistant crops: resistant crops are to select resistant crop varieties to control diseases and insect pests, such as potato varieties resistant to potato late blight.

3. Sterility control: a large number of harmful insects are cultivated into sterile individuals and released to mate with wild pests, resulting in the loss of reproductive ability of offspring.

4. Genetic control: by changing the genetic composition of harmful insects, the vitality of their offspring is reduced, the fecundity is weakened or genetic sterility occurs.

5. Tillage control: tillage control is to change the agricultural environment and reduce the occurrence of pests.

Biological control can effectively reduce the use of pesticides, so that the crops planted can eat more at ease. I hope everyone can use biological control methods to effectively prevent aphids.