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- Leafworm and its caterpillar
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- Damage from leafworm caterpillars
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- Track Control Chemicals
Leafworm is the most gluttonous insect of the Lepidoptera family, consisting of 2 thousand species. Most of them are pests that destroy grain, fruit, berry and ornamental plants. Various methods and techniques, how to deal with a leaflet on an apple tree, will help gardeners save their plantings.
Leaflet: lifestyle and harm
This insect belongs to the family of butterflies that live on all continents and climatic zones, ranging from the tropical forests of Asia to the middle strip of Europe and Russia. Leafworm (Latin Tortricidae or Olethreutidae) looks like a moth 2.5 cm in wingspan, the front wings are gray and the hind wings are gray-gold.
On a note!
Her body is thick and covered with hairs, wings can fold horizontally on her back. From the side it looks like a butterfly is hiding by them, which is typical only for this species.
The leafworm caterpillars are 12-20 mm in size, they have 16 legs, the body color is yellow-green or brown, and the head is brown or black. A belt with hooks runs along her abdomen. It is the caterpillars that are pests that actively feed on the green parts of plants. As can be seen in the photo leaflets on the apple tree, they are wrapped in tubes of twisted leaves and cobwebs, where the further life cycle of their development takes place.
In addition to the apple tree leaflets hit pears, currant, other berry shrubs and fruit trees.
Types of pests
The most preferred trees for leaflets are apple trees, which are most affected by such pests. The most common types of butterflies:
- bud or spider - has white-yellow wings with stripes of a dark shade;
- freezing leaflet - males have a gray-brown color of wings and scales; in females they are more acute in shape with dark brown spots;
- brown or apple - has brown-gray wings with a brown ornament on the front with a buffy border, the most common in Russia and Europe;
- mesh - females are painted in brown tones, and smaller males are yellow-brown, a fringe runs along the edge of the wings;
- subcortical leaflet - has bright spotty-striped wings of brown, orange or yellow colors, the front ones have clearly 7 spots, which is its hallmark;
- Rosanna - decorated with trapezoidal wings of a yellow-brown color, with a terry coating of the whole body.
Life cycle
Female leafworms are predisposed to mating already 3 days after leaving pupae. When breeding, the butterfly lays oval, almost transparent eggs up to 1 mm in size, 40-150 pcs.
On a note!
Ovipositors are usually located singly or in small groups in different places of the tree: on leaves, young shoots or in a fork in branches, in crevices of the bark on the trunk, inside ovaries, inflorescences and fruits.
The development of the embryo occurs 2 weeks, then a caterpillar is born. She begins to crawl along the branches, eating greenery and gnawing fruit. Often, caterpillars damage the ovaries before they bloom.By the beginning of autumn, they begin to prepare for the winter period, find a place near a bud on an apple tree, pear or other trees and shrubs to build cocoons from the web there.
In early spring, during the blooming of young greenery and flowering buds, larvae are selected from cocoons. Having eaten fresh growth, they turn into a 1 cm long pupa, acquiring a brown color. Her body consists of segments, each of which has 2 rows of small spikes. That is why in the spring you should regularly inspect all fruit crops in order to identify the caterpillars in time and process the apple tree, pear or peach from leaflets.
The flight of butterflies from pupae takes place from mid-June and lasts until August, twilight is a favorite time for hunting.
Damage to and control of leaflets
List of what does the leafworm caterpillar feed onvery extensive. This insect is omnivorous, affecting all fruit trees and shrubs. Having settled on the selected tree, an apple leaf maker eats leaves, from which they begin to curl. Damaged leaves drawn by a web resemble loose lumps. Eating fruits, the caterpillar leaves furrows and grooves on them.
Signs of leafworm damage depending on the time of year:
| Period | Habitat | Signs of defeat |
|---|---|---|
| March, April | Caterpillars settle after wintering on buds and young shoots | You can see the web on inflorescences, buds and greenery, which are partially eaten |
| May - early June | Pupation of caterpillars among leaves | Damaged green parts are folded into a tube, in the forks of branches and on the fruits are shelters from the web |
| June – mid July | Among the leaves, in the bark of the tree are pupae | Silver and white cobwebs are visible on the shoots |
| Late July - Mid August | Butterflies start to fly | |
| August - mid-September | Butterflies form egg clutches on leaves on both sides. | Ovipositions look like darkening on the surface of leaves, which are covered with a wet coating from the secretions of leafy leaves |
| From late September to early October | Caterpillars hatch from ovipositors, which will then winter | Damaged and folded into tubules leaves and fruits drawn by a cobweb are noticeable. |
| October - March | Caterpillars winter |
An active fight against the leaflet on fruit trees should be carried out throughout the summer season in order to save their green parts and crops from destruction. To get rid of any kinds of caterpillars in the garden, used mechanical, folk and chemical methods aimed at the destruction of larvae on apple trees, pears and other crops.
Folk methods of salvation
The fight against leaflet folk remedies provides:
- manual collection of eggs and destruction, in some situations it is even recommended to cut them together with bark or branches;
- destruction of damaged and twisted leaves along with caterpillars, for which it is recommended to wear gloves; then you need to burn everything away from the garden;
- the manufacture of pheromone traps-containers: at night they are fixed on trees, pouring in liquids during the fermentation stage (kvass, treacle, stewed fruit), into which butterflies attracted by this smell then fall;
- the belt for trees is made of fabric on which a heated mixture of 1 tbsp. is applied. sunflower oil, 100 g of wax or resin, 100 g of solid oil, cardboard or other material is placed underneath to prevent the substance from reaching the tree bark;
- after flowering, it is recommended to spray the tree with plant infusion of wormwood, tobacco or tops of potatoes and tomato;
- feeding on the site of arriving birds that feed on harmful insects and their larvae.
On a note!
The decision to use chemical insecticides is made only with severe damage to trees and a large number of leafworms.An indicator is the count of caterpillars sitting in the buds: if out of 25 inspected outlets, 5 larvae are sitting, then the garden should be treated with insecticides.
Chemicals
Chemical insecticides are the most effective means of leafworm on fruit trees, because they have a wide range of effects on various types of insects. Spraying can be used in any period of vegetation of apple trees and other fruit trees.
Popular drugs for brown leafworm and other types of such pests:
- Dimilin is an insecticidal agent with contact-intestinal action, low toxicity and low hazard for people and beneficial insects, the duration of protection reaches 1.5 months;
- Ditox is an emulsion concentrate containing an insecticide that acts on a wide range of pests, is not washed off by rain, destroys pests within 3 hours after treatment, is safe for people and bees;
- Calypso of Bayer company - sold in the form of a suspension, destroys leaf-eating and sucking insects, duration of action - 1 month;
- Fastak is a concentrated emulsion, effective against pests at all stages of the life cycle and helps to get rid of leafworms on apple trees and other fruit crops; the prepared solution must be processed all the green parts of fruit crops, resistant to washing off by rain and high temperature;
- Avant is an effective innovative means of contact-intestinal action, acting at all stages of development from eggs to caterpillars.
In June, fighting with a leaflet on apple trees, when the caterpillars hid in twisted leaves and flowers, can be done with insecticides: Alfacin, Aivengo, Accord, Altyn, Karate Zeon, Lambda-S and others. They contain synthetic pyrethroid substances that are effective at temperatures up to + 23 ° C, so in the hotter months they are not used.
It is recommended that the fight against a leaflet in the garden with the help of chemicals be carried out in several stages: before and after flowering in the spring months or in the fall. In the period of fruit setting and ripening on apple trees, pears and other fruit, it is recommended to use only biological preparations that are safe for people and healthy insects and do not affect the future crop:
- Fitoverm is a bio-insecticide in the form of an emulsion-concentrate, it can be used to treat trees from leaf moths after flowering in the fruiting phase, its efficiency increases with increasing temperature, it is not washed off by precipitation, and due to its low consumption, it is economically profitable;
- Lepidocide - a biological insecticide, is produced in powder, before spraying the apple tree and other fruit, it should be diluted with water, can be used during all phases of the growing season to destroy lepidopteran pests.
Important!
Gardeners must be aware that pests can get used to drugs used several times in a row. Therefore, the processing of apple trees and other fruit crops should be carried out alternately with different insecticides.
It must be borne in mind that measures to combat leaflet on peach, apple, pear similar to the above. The above folk methods and chemicals for the destruction of such pests can be used for all fruit trees and shrubs.
