Grenostaevaya mole: photos and methods to combat it

With the onset of May in Russia, a beautiful time begins, when the cities dress up bright green, the air is filled with a delicate aroma of flowering apples and bird cherries, and in the suburban areas the gardeners prepare their pets for the autumn harvest. But it happens that trees are chosen by various pests and people have to join them in the struggle for the safety of green spaces. One of these raiders is the ermine moth. The insect has a number of characteristic features, each of which must be taken into account in the process of combating it.

general description

The term "ermine moth" was called by biologists a family of lepidoptera moth-shaped butterflies. It includes about 600 species of different insects. Their dimensions are not large: the wingspan is six to twenty-eight millimeters. Such organisms dwell mainly in the tropics, but some species are found in Russia.

Representatives of this family mainly feed on plants. Sometimes they can eat roots, more often leaves. Caterpillars settle on the stem and leaves of trees, gradually entangling them with a cobweb. In this way, social nests are created, where insects pupate one by one or gluing several cocoons together. Several hundred caterpillars can settle on one tree. Plants often do not cope with so many residents and die. Feeding on a certain type of plant, the moth harms forestry and agriculture.

Common species

On the territory of Russia and neighboring countries, you can find about ten species of ermine moth. The greatest harm to forests and gardens is caused by insects, "specializing" on apple and cherry trees.

The apple-tree ermine moth occurs on the British Isles, in Sweden and Finland, on the territory of Siberia, as well as in Korea, Japan, in some regions of Canada and the USA. Caterpillars of this moth, dark yellow with black legs and spots, in some localities also bear the name "May worm".

Moth ermine bird-cherry is found in a vast territory from the Caucasus to China. As in the case of the apple pest, it is very difficult to combat this insect, since most chemicals are ineffective. A few years later, insects are lost due to natural factors, and damaged trees are completely restored. Of course, if you resist the pest, then this process will be greatly accelerated. Insects will stop attacking the plant in two to three years.

Outbreaks of moths

In the European part of Russia, the ermine moth affects the trees of the Moscow and Leningrad regions. Outbreaks of this pest were noted in the early 80's, in the mid-90's. In the late 90's trees from the Krasnoyarsk Territory suffered from it. In the early 2000s, this mole appeared in Khanty-Mansiysk. In 2006, the mass reproduction of an insect was observed in Sweden. In 2012, the epidemic began in Irkutsk. Every year the number of individuals increases, and this can lead to the fact that whole gardens and parts of forests will be infected. Despite active struggle with the pest, the next summer the mole comes back again and with new force destroys the trees. The pest disappears only a few years (from 2 to 5). At the same time, the struggle with each year should become more pronounced, as the animals could develop immunity to the old means and preparations.

Appearance of an insect

Gornostaevaya moth, a photo of which can be seen below, has a soft, but beautiful enough appearance. On the territory of Russia, butterflies of white color live with three to five rows of small black specks on the front wings. The hind wings are painted in gray, as well as the lower part of the forelegs. Their range is 20-26 mm. Butterflies are nocturnal.

The caterpillars of this insect are painted grayish-yellow, have black paws and a black head. Like the wings of butterflies, on their sides are small specks.

Life cycle

The ermine moth lives for one year. At the end of summer, butterflies lay eggs on the trunk of the fodder tree, covering them with a shield of protective mucus. Caterpillars hatch after 3-4 weeks after masonry and remain under the shield for the whole winter. There they feed on eggs and partly bark. In spring, they move to the inside of the leaves and eat them from the inside, leaving an undamaged outer shell. Growing up, the caterpillars move to the outer side of the leaf, creating a spider web over them.

In late May, grown caterpillars create nests of spider webs on the tops of trees, which gradually expand. Early in the summer, insects pupate. Cocoons are arranged in groups in the branches of branches. By the end of June, new butterflies appear.

Damaged

An overgrown colony of caterpillars can completely destroy a tree. But even if it does not come to this, the apple or bird cherry, on which the ermine moth has settled, will be seriously damaged. Throughout their short life, the caterpillars destroy the leaves of the tree. First they eat out the core (parenchyma) of tender young leaves, leaving only the outer shell. Without internal cells, leaves can not function, photosynthesis ceases, leaves dry, become brown and fall off. Then, under the spider web, insects continue to eat the crown of the tree, leaving the plant without a green cover. A plant that has lost its leaves can not develop further, it slows down its growth, it can not blossom and bear fruit. Subsequently, it may take more than a year to recover.

In cities, the reason for the struggle with the pest is not so much the likelihood of the death of the tree, as the aesthetically unsightly appearance of plants, which struck the ermine moth. Photo of such apple trees and bird cherry trees demonstrate how depressingly and inappropriately they look on city streets.

Methods of pest control

No matter how terrible was the ermine moth, the methods of combating it exist. If you make timely treatment of the affected tree, it will not die and will continue to bloom and bear fruit after the recovery period. The treatment can be carried out with chemical insecticides, biological preparations based on a specific type of bacteria. It is also possible to create pheromone traps, attracting female moths. If the tree is not affected severely, you can manually collect nests and browned leaves. After collection, they should be burned along with the caterpillars.

Features of chemical treatment

The struggle against the ermine moth can be carried out by the following insecticides: Paris greens, arsenic solution or Bordeaux liquid. If there are no more than two nests on the tree, you can use the drugs "Lepidocid", "Danadim", "Bitoxybacillin". For private gardening it is recommended to use the drug "Actellik", observing safety measures, since it is very toxic. Processing of trees is carried out strictly before or after flowering! The first processing is performed in early May. Then cocoons can be collected from flowering trees manually. In July, it is better to treat the tree again, since it is at this time that the grown-ups begin to lay eggs.

Folk remedies

Not only professional biologists are developing tools to combat insect pests. How to deal with ermine moths can be suggested by simple amateur gardeners. For example, some gardeners recommend spraying trees with the following composition: a bag of red pepper, a pack of makhorka, one bottle of potassium permanganate, and a peel of onions and garlic are added to the bucket of water. The resulting mixture must be insisted for three days. If there is no desire to prepare the composition, you can spray ordinary Coca-Cola on the trees.

Another popular way is not to pickle, but to catch pests. To do this, the trunk of the tree is wrapped around the sticky side with an adhesive tape. Scotch should be changed as it is filled with insects. In such a trap not only the ermine moth will fall. The methods of struggle mentioned above are suitable for other insects. Attack of pests on plants is a natural natural process, the same as prolonged rains or long heat. To save from any negative influences of the plant will help timely organized actions. It must be remembered that pest control should be constantly, until they completely disappear. If you do not do this, the infected tree may die. And after a mole will move to other, still healthy plants, leading subsequently to their death.