The barbel beetle (or lumberjack beetle) belongs to the beetle family, which includes more than 25 thousand species of insects. Their development is associated with shrubs and trees of various species. Beetles accurately determine whether a particular tree is suitable for feeding their larvae.
Who is the barbel beetle?
Adult reaches 22 mm in length. Females are able to lay up to a hundred eggs in cracks in pine blanks: floors, rafters, doors. From the laid eggs, larvae are born that eat the tree. The larva turns into a chrysalis, but this transformation lasts a very long time, sometimes up to 10 years. It grows up to 30 mm and eats dry wood with its jaws with such a crunch that you can even hear it.
The barbel beetle is a danger to the home
After emerging from the chrysalis, the beetle gnaws its way out. Such a hole with dust is the only visible fact of the wrecking of this insect. If you try to stick a knife into the affected tree, then it will enter gently, like butter.
Also, the barbel beetle eats flower larvae, pistils, leaves, young bark. The greatest harmIt is the larva of the longhorn beetle that brings it, which develops in many types of trees, destroying them. The larvae are hardy. If the tree dries up and dies gradually, they can exist in such an environment for up to 45 years, and then turn into dwarf beetles. Outwardly, the barbel larva has a yellowish or white flattened body with a well-developed chest and retracted head. The larva ends with strong dark-colored jaws, stretched forward.
The barbel beetle is distinguished by its slender, elongated body and unusual antennae, which in some species are even longer than the body itself. At the base of the antennae are kidney-shaped eyes.
The barbel beetle, common in the forests of the Amazon, grows up to 180 mm in length, Brazilian species - up to 140 mm. The longest barbel in Russia lives in the Ussuri taiga (its length is 100 mm). Of course, there are also smaller varieties. All species lay in crevices in wood, in bark, or gnaw out small caves.
House barbs
There are varieties of barbels that have become unpleasant companions of people. For example, Hylotrupes bajulus is a small member of the Coleoptera order with small antennae and a rounded anterior back. Color they can have from black to brown and dirty gray tones, with elytra in oblique bands.
Natural habitat for this species is not an option. They prefer to live next to a man in his wooden dwelling. They settle in the floor, in the upholstery, inpartitions, in wooden shelves, in the legs of tables and beds, in the roof, etc. Females of the domestic barbel are able to lay more than 400 eggs deep in cracks or cracks in wooden objects. A couple of weeks pass, and voracious larvae hatch from the eggs, initially eating the outer layers. This is evidenced by the appearance of wood dust. Furniture or building will simply collapse in the near future.
Control measures
In the fight against this pest, chemicals are used: EC, ME, kinmiks. They are diluted in a 10 liter bucket of water. 2 ml of decis, 90 g of karbofos, 2 ml of EC are taken. The resulting solution should be sprayed twice on the habitat of pests. A good effect is also obtained from a single spraying with a solution of KE and 2 ml of karate diluted in 10 liters of water.
