Corn is on the market A small wasp is a natural enemy of the control of corn pests

Beijing News (reporter Yang Yijing) Every year in July and August, it is the season of spring corn marketing, and everyone can eat fragrant and sticky corn again. Corn cultivation is generally divided into spring and summer, and it is spring corn that is now on the market, and summer corn will meet with you in two months. At present, the main pest control work of summer corn has also been completed.

Pests are very harmful to crops, ranging from reduced yields to severe harvests, and there is a pest called corn borer that loves to "nibble" corn. According to the data, the victimization rate of spring maize is about 30%, the yield is reduced by 10%, and the victim rate of summer maize is up to 90%, and the general yield is reduced by 20%-30%.

This corn borer, also known as corn drill heartworm, is a member of the lepidoptera borer family, generally yellow-brown on the back, corn borer is still a larvae, it will be mothed into the stalk of corn, resulting in uneven distribution of corn nutrients, poor growth, and will continue to eat the leaves of corn, and eventually let the corn wither.

According to experts from the Beijing Municipal Plant Protection Station, there are two kinds of Asian corn borer and European corn borer, which have wings and are dressed very plainly on the surface, but in fact, their larvae are harmful to crops everywhere, in addition to corn, sorghum, millet, cotton, sugarcane, sunflowers, rice, etc. will be harmed by it.

Because the corn borer uses larvae to drill moths as a pest of corn stalks, spraying drugs is also difficult to reach, so it is difficult to kill them, and the heavy use of pesticides will also lead to excessive pesticide residues.

The use of biological predators to eliminate corn borers is a more environmentally friendly choice, and there is a biological predator called the red-eyed bee that is favored, although the body size of the red-eyed bee is less than one-tenth of the size of the borer, but it is very powerful.

According to the experts of the Municipal Plant Protection Station, the red-eyed wasp is a type of egg parasitic bee with the longest research history, the widest application range and application area in the control of modern agricultural and forestry pests, and its host range is wide, mainly used in the biological control of lepidopteran pests in agricultural and forestry crops. At present, there are 4 species of red-eyed bees that can be bred on a large scale and applied in a large area in China, including pine caterpillar red-eyed bees, borer-yellow red-eyed bees, corn borer red-eyed bees and rice borer red-eyed bees. Adult red-eyed bees lay their eggs in the eggs of their hosts (e.g., corn borers), and the larvae feed and develop in the eggs of the host, causing the death of the host eggs, thus eliminating the pests before they become harmful.

Yin Zhe, an expert at the Municipal Plant Protection Station, said that at present, the second-generation corn borer is used in Beijing to control the second-generation corn borer, "Generally, we release the second-generation corn borer before the trumpet stage of summer corn, and mainly parasitize the eggs of the second-generation corn borer." The Municipal Plant Protection Station will regularly monitor the occurrence of corn borers, and release the red-eyed bees before the peak period of the second-generation corn borer to ensure that "bee eggs meet", so that red-eyed bees can parasitize to the eggs of corn borers and play a role in prevention and control.

It is reported that the red-eyed bee in China is widely propagated and popularized, mainly used to control vegetables, corn, sugarcane, cotton, rice and other crops and some forest fruit tree pests, under the protection of the red-eyed bee, everyone can eat safe and healthy corn.

Beijing News reporter Yang Yijing

Edited by Zhang Shujing Proofreader Li Ming