What are the effective control methods for the citrus longhorned beetle?
The citrus longhorned beetle (Anoplophora chinensis) is a species of longhorned beetle native to Japan, China and Korea. When the larvae hatch, they chew their way into the tree, creating a tunnel in which to pupate. It can damage many kinds of trees, including poplar, willow, elm, London plane, jujube and chestnut, and it is also a major pest of crape myrtle, plane trees and citrus. Let's take a look below at how to control the citrus longhorned beetle!
Damage characteristics of the citrus longhorned beetle
The citrus longhorned beetle is an important wood-boring pest in China's forestry. It has 1 generation per year and overwinters as larvae in the xylem of the infested host. It begins activity and feeding in mid-to-late March, pupates in late April, emerges in late May, and the larvae hatch in early June and cause damage until they overwinter in late October. The citrus longhorned beetle has a wide host range, omnivorous feeding habits, great destructiveness and is difficult to control. It has been reported to damage many kinds of trees, including plane trees, poplar, willow, elm, jujube, chestnut and crape myrtle.
Reproductive habits of the citrus longhorned beetle
Adult citrus longhorned beetles most prefer to feed on Melia azedarach, and the parts they feed on are usually branches and bark, rarely leaves. The larvae of the citrus longhorned beetle have no ability to choose their host on their own; the host where the larvae are found is determined by the egg-laying choice of the female adult. Female adults generally lay eggs on host trees with a larger trunk diameter and prefer to lay eggs on trees with weaker vigor. The egg-laying site has a diameter greater than 5 cm, and is generally less than 2.5 m above the ground.
How do you control the citrus longhorned beetle?
1. Manual capture: In response to the habit of adult longhorned beetles resting at midday in hot weather, adults can be captured by hand. Combined with pruning and thinning branches, eggs can be scraped off during the peak egg-laying period of adult longhorned beetles, which can greatly reduce the pest population density.
2. Manual hooking of larvae: In response to the habit of longhorned beetle larvae boring into trunks, a hooked wire can be used, much like hooking a rice-field eel, to insert the wire into the larval tunnel and hook out the longhorned beetle larvae for concentrated killing.
3. Controlling pests with pests: Make use of the natural control effect of the natural enemies of longhorned beetles, and artificially rear beneficial organisms such as Sclerodermus and Chongjifeng wasps to control longhorned beetles.
4. Pouring pesticide into the holes: In response to the habit of longhorned beetle larvae being good at "tunnel warfare", a 200-300 times dilution of phoxim can be injected into the pest holes to poison the longhorned beetle larvae inside the tunnels.
5. Whitewashing the trunk: In response to the habit of adult longhorned beetles preferring to lay eggs at the base of the trunk, the trunk base below 80 cm can be whitewashed before the adults appear. Whitewashing the trunk can effectively prevent adults from laying eggs.