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Sugar beet weevil (Bothynoderes punctiventris) – pest management
The sugar beet weevil, Bothynoderes punctiventris, is widespread in areas with chernozem and alluvial soils, being an important crop pest.
Description. The adult has an elongated body, 10-12 mm long and black, covered with thick, gray-brown scales. The head is elongated and has a short and wide face. The elytra are oval, covered with gray scales, and have 10 rows of dots arranged longitudinally. On the ventral side, the body has whitish-gray scales and black spots, round, glabrous, and glossy on the second, third and fourth abdominal segments. The larva doesn’t have any feet, and is white-yellow, with a slightly curved body.
Biology and ecology
This insect overwinters in the adult stage, in the soil, at a depth of 20-25 cm, in the pupal chamber in which it was formed. It produces only one generation per year (univoltine species). Adults appear on the soil’s surface in spring, starting with March and until May, when the air temperature exceeds 10-12° C. From a phenological point of view, this period corresponds to the sowing and germination of beet seeds or the flowering of apricot and cherry plum trees.
When they first emerge, these weevils feed on orache, after which they migrate to beet crops. Adults can move around both by walking (during the cold weather) and by flying (during the sunny weather), thus spreading to a surface of up to 30-40 km. The female lays eggs in the soil, near the area between the roots and the stem of the plants they feed on. After hatching, the larvae penetrate the soil and remain on the pivot of the roots, chewing their tips, or digging lateral cavities. In July-August, the larva transforms into a pupa, then into an adult, which remains in the soil and overwinters.
Damage
It attacks cultivated and spontaneous plants from the Chenopodiaceae family and is considered a dangerous pest for beet crops. As an adult, it is dangerous during the sprouting of beet seedlings because it cuts them from the area between the roots and the stem or it chews their cotyledon, thus reducing the number of plants. Plants are less vulnerable after the formation of their second pair of leaves. The larvae bite the tips of the roots and make galleries in the roots of more developed plants, thus creating gateways for other pathogens. The attacked plants are less developed.
Pest management
It is recommended to apply some agrotechnical measures to reduce the risk of weevil attack. The deep autumn plowing and placing the crops at great distances from those of previous years help reduce the remaining pests.
Crop rotation is important you should avoid beet cultivation after crops of corn or sunflower because they have a number of common pests.
To increase the resistance of plants to pest attacks, proper preparation of the seedbed, balanced fertilization, uniform, and early sowing, as well as crop care are recommended.
For the chemical control of the pest, the moment of their emergence from the overwintering places has to be monitored. During this period, field observations must be made. The application of treatments is recommended when the density of the pest infestation is 0.5 specimens / m².
The control of the sugar-beet weevil should be done together with the other phytophagous pests of the culture from the germination-sprouting period, such as Chaetocnema tibialis, Tanymecus dilaticollis, Tanymecus paliatus, Agriotes sp.
The treatments must be carried out with specific insecticides.
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