Fighting caterpillars in the garden and vegetable garden - how to treat plants

Caterpillars are dangerous pests for agricultural land. Unlike the moth larva, which lives only a few days, the life cycle of the caterpillar larva is several months. During all this time, it eats a huge amount of vegetation and thereby harms the crop.

If you do not treat the plants with a special remedy for caterpillars in time, this insect will turn into a butterfly, and then lay eggs - and everything will start all over again. Therefore, gardeners and farmers strive to detect this pest as early as possible and neutralize it.

Description

How to get rid of caterpillars? Caterpillars are insect larvae from which butterflies, moths and moths subsequently emerge. They can cause enormous damage to fruit-bearing trees and vegetable crops located on the site. To keep your garden and vegetable garden well-groomed, you need to put in a lot of effort. But no one is safe from parasite attacks. Pests can appear suddenly and must be dealt with immediately to minimize damage. There are several ways to get rid of caterpillars, each of which has a number of advantages.

Biology guards your garden: birds and insects against aphids

To prevent aphids from annoying your garden, you need to call insects and birds, which are the main enemies of pests, as allies. The most harmful to aphids are:

• ladybugs, and especially their larvae;
• lacewings;
• ground beetles;
• hoverflies;
• predatory bugs;
• wasps;
• sparrows;
• kings;
• warblers;
• tits;
• wrens;
• linnets.

In order to attract insects that destroy aphids to your site, plant spicy and aromatic plants: dill, parsley, cloves, carrots, and nettles. Ladybug is very fond of calendula, which will also help decorate your garden.

Ladybug is one of the main enemies of aphids

Birds mainly feed captured aphids to their chicks. To attract birds to your site, install feeders, birdhouses and drinking bowls in accessible places.

Many plants have properties that either repel or attract aphids. This can also be used to kill pests.

Plant flowers such as petunia, begonia, mallow, cleome and nasturtium away from vegetables and trees - aphids will concentrate their attention on them and be distracted from garden plantings. Among the trees, such plants include bird cherry, linden and viburnum

Marigolds, garlic and onions, fennel, Dalmatian chamomile, mint and coriander, on the contrary, repel aphids with their sharp spicy odors, so it will be useful to plant them in beds and between rows in the garden.

Common types of pests

Some types of insects are rare, while others, being pests, attack plants frequently. Basically, caterpillars create nests in trees where they spend the winter. Such clutches contain from hundreds of eggs to several thousand. Then caterpillars appear, which should be gotten rid of before spring.

Pests vary in size and color. The most common ones are:

1. The leaf roller is perhaps the most common and dangerous species. Such caterpillars are very small, but this does not at all affect the fact that they are incredibly voracious. © https://ydoo.info/qa/kak-izbavitsya-ot-gusenic.html The leaf roller feeds on all parts of the plant: leaves, buds, flowers and even fruits. The caterpillars twist the leaves into tubes, settle inside, weave webs and feed there. Parasites multiply very quickly.
2. Hawthorn is the most visible species because these caterpillars are hairy. Their habitat is several leaves at once, which the parasites connect with a web and lay eggs on them. Hawthorn appears more often on trees. Plants in the greenhouse (cabbage, tomatoes, peppers) do not suffer from it. The caterpillars are found at the base or stem of the tree.
3. The goldtail lives on branches. Internodes, small branches and leaves are ideal places for the lacewing to weave webs. In this way, parasites create housing for themselves for the winter. If caterpillars are found, you should get rid of not only the pests, but also the parts of the plant on which they lived.
4. The gypsy moth, like the hawthorn, is hairy. He has approximately 500 eggs in his clutch. The parasites feed on the leaves, and after eating, only cuttings and veins are left. Thanks to the hairs, caterpillars fall from tree to tree - they are carried by gusts of wind. This is the main problem, because several plants suffer at once.

Other species are also found, but not in large numbers. They are not as dangerous as those listed. One way or another, you need to fight all species so that the plants in the garden and vegetable garden are healthy and bear fruit.

Aphids on raspberries

Aphids parasitize various plants, and raspberries are no exception. It causes massive damage throughout the summer. Insects not only damage tender shoots of plants by feeding on raspberry juice, but also lay larvae on them. Without appropriate treatment, they successfully overwinter and continue to parasitize the raspberry forest the following year.

Aphids settle on the underside of the leaves, after which they curl. Soon, insect companions of these malicious pests - ants - appear on the branches. If the owner discovers aphids in his area in time, then getting rid of them will be quite simple: you will need to wash the leaves with soapy water and treat the bushes with a solution of calendula or onion peels.

If the insect infestation is too large, you can treat the plants with insecticides. The most effective of them are Kemifos, Fitoverm and Novaktion. After this, it is advisable to find an anthill located somewhere nearby and destroy it. Otherwise, the aphid will settle in the raspberry field.

Getting rid of caterpillars using folk remedies

Folk remedies are a good way to get rid of caterpillars. They are quite effective, and, importantly, almost everyone always has the products necessary to prepare the drug. The following will help in pest control:

Chamomile infusion

This is a simple but effective remedy. 1 kg of dried chamomile flowers is added to 10 liters of water, then boiled. Afterwards, the product is infused for 12 hours and filtered. Next, the concentrate is mixed with water in a ratio of 1:3, respectively. The affected plants are sprayed with chamomile infusion. You can enhance the effect if you rub a piece of laundry soap into the liquid before use.

Red elderberry

The stems and leaves of the tree are used for the decoction. The raw materials (200 grams) are crushed and 10 liters of hot boiled water are poured. The mixture is infused for a day, then it is filtered. After this, you can spray the tree.

Henbane black

A decoction is prepared from the branches and leaves of whiteberry. The ingredients (2.5 kg) must be crushed, poured with a small amount of water and placed on the stove. Boil for 30 minutes, then turn off the heat and add water to make 10 liters of mixture. Leave for 12 hours, add grated laundry soap and spray the tree with pests.

Red pepper

A decoction of hot peppers will help get rid of caterpillars. You need to take 1 kg of vegetables and cut each product into two parts. Next, you need to fill the raw material with 10 liters of cold water and boil everything for an hour. Then leave for a day. The mixture is stored in the refrigerator, and the tree is sprayed with a non-concentrated liquid. 12 g of pepper broth is diluted in 10 liters of water. The plant is treated with this composition.

Vinegar solution

There is no need to boil anything. Dissolve 200 g of vinegar in 10 liters of water, mix thoroughly and treat plants affected by pests. This method works best for flowers.

Wormwood

Based on this plant, you can prepare both a tincture and a decoction. Both products will become reliable helpers against parasitic caterpillars. The infusion is easier to make. It is necessary to collect the flowering wormwood, chop it and place it in a bucket, filling the vessel exactly one third. Everything is poured with cold water and left for three days. After the specified time, the infusion should be filtered and then sprayed on the trees. In the case of a decoction, everything is like this: the bucket is half filled with flowering wormwood, filled to the top with water, infused for a day, and filtered. The resulting liquid must be boiled for 30 minutes. The composition is diluted with clean water in a ratio of 1:2, respectively. Plants should be sprayed with this mixture.

Onion peel

An infusion of onion peels is the best remedy for caterpillars on cabbage. A liter glass jar must be filled with husks, then transfer the ingredient to another vessel and fill with two liters of water. The composition should be infused for a day or two. After this, add enough water to make 4 liters of product in total. Finally, you need to strain, add grated laundry soap (25 g) and spray the plant.

Burdock leaves

The burdock leaves must first be chopped. Then they are transferred to a bucket to fill half the vessel and filled to the top with water. Everything is infused for 2-3 days. The mixture is filtered, and then you can proceed to spraying the affected tree. To enhance the effect, you can add laundry soap (25 g).

Tomato/potato tops

Potato or tomato tops are a simple and reliable means of fighting caterpillars. The ingredients are crushed, then they are placed in a bucket to fill it halfway. Next, the vessel is completely filled with water, everything is transferred to another container and boiled for one hour. After this, the composition must be filtered and diluted with clean water in a ratio of 1:5, respectively. Then you can spray the crops that have been attacked by the caterpillars.

Tobacco + liquid soap

Using an infusion of tobacco and liquid soap, you can also eliminate caterpillars. To do this, you need to dissolve 100 g of tobacco in 1 liter of water and leave for 24 hours. After this, the composition must be filtered and liquid soap (20 g) added. Mix everything and proceed to spraying the plants.

Pepper Knotweed

For preparation you need 1 kg of flowering plant stems. First of all, they need to be crushed, then pour 10 liters of boiled water and leave for 24 hours, tightly covering the container with a lid. After the time has passed, the composition is filtered and is considered ready for spraying the tree.

Fighting with chemicals

It is also possible to fight caterpillars with the help of chemicals. Purchased products will bring the desired effect many times faster, but they should be used very carefully, strictly following the instructions on the packaging. Modern drugs defeat parasites very quickly, coping with large populations.

Chemicals are available in tablets, ampoules and powders. Usually, to treat a planted area of ​​50 square meters, one tablet, ampoule or pack of powder, which is diluted in 7-12 liters of water, is enough. It is not recommended to often use the same product in the fight against caterpillars, because the parasites develop immunity to it. To be effective, medications must be changed.

Chemicals have a limited shelf life. You can get rid of caterpillars with their help at least two weeks before the harvest. It is better to process crops a month before harvest. Otherwise, eating fruits (cabbage, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, etc.) is prohibited, since insecticides are dangerous to the human body.

Chemicals can be of three types:

• contact (they protect only those parts of the crop that have been processed; they act quite quickly, but a significant disadvantage is that they are washed off by rain);
• intestinal (the point is that such agents enter the insect’s body with food and destroy the parasite from the inside);
• systemic (affect pests differently).

The most popular insecticides are:

1. "Inta-Vir" is a broad-spectrum drug that is not recommended for use during plant flowering, since it destroys beneficial insects (as well as aquatic inhabitants).
2. Iskra M is not recommended for use near water sources. The effect will last for about two weeks.
3. “Monsoon” is a broad-spectrum product that will be equally effective at any time of the year, since it is resistant to temperature fluctuations. The effect of use lasts 15-30 days.
4. "Senpai" acts by contact and is dangerous for bees, so it should not be used during the flowering period of plants. Trees and other crops will be safe for two weeks.
5. "Lepidotsid" is a drug based on bacteria. With its help you can get rid of caterpillars both in the garden and in the garden. It should be applied at intervals of 7-8 days during the rainy season.
6. “Bitoxibacillin” is also made from bacteria. It will eliminate parasites from fruit, flower, vegetable and ornamental crops. It is necessary to treat the plants with the product once every 7-8 days, especially in the summer, since it is at this time that the parasites are most numerous. Valid for 2-3 weeks.

Also popular are “Aktara”, “Fufanon”, “Karate”, “Taran”, “Karbofos”, “Rovikurt”, “Fas”, “Molniya”. Chemicals will help eliminate the caterpillars, making the plants healthy and fertile.

Plant protection in spring: spray calendar in May

Here is a table showing how trees are treated against pests in the spring and what dates in May are best to do this:

Prevention against caterpillars

Caterpillars are pests that can be gotten rid of using various means, but it is better to take preventive measures so that parasites do not appear at all.

It is imperative to closely monitor crops and regularly check them for the presence of caterpillar clutches. It is recommended to do this all season.

You must not leave trash or fallen leaves on the site. Every autumn it is necessary to rake leaves and remove debris left over from crops. Thanks to this, you can significantly reduce the number of pests on the site. Foliage must be inspected from both sides: from the inside and from the outside. If eggs are found, you need to cut off or tear off the affected piece of the leaf and then throw it in the trash. It is the foliage that should be given a lot of attention, examining each leaf.

Before you start planting a vegetable garden or garden, you need to inspect the already planted plants. If masonry is detected on them, you should immediately begin eliminating the parasites. Only after this can you begin planting.

At first glance, caterpillars are not scary, but do not forget that they reproduce quite quickly. In large numbers, these insects can cause significant damage: not only plants will suffer, but also their fruits, and accordingly, the harvest will be smaller. Therefore, if detected, you must immediately begin to combat parasites. Fortunately, you can get rid of pests in a variety of ways at home. Prevention also needs to be done so that problems with voracious caterpillars do not arise at all.

Fighting caterpillars: the most effective methods and recommendations

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Caterpillar pests

The most common caterpillar pests

Methods of getting rid of caterpillars using chemicals

Traditional methods

Folk remedies against caterpillars on the site

Pest prevention

A beautiful, well-groomed plot with fruit-bearing trees and vegetable crops is the result of the long and painstaking work of each summer resident. But if you lose your vigilance even a little, caterpillars may appear and reduce all your efforts to zero.

The most common caterpillar pests

Most of the caterpillars create nests in trees where they overwinter. It is noteworthy that such clutches can contain from hundreds to several thousand eggs, which later turn into caterpillars. If you don't get rid of them before spring arrives, problems may arise.

• Hawthorn. Such caterpillars are very visible during winter. They create their clutches on several leaves at once and connect them using a web. The main parts to which they are attached are the base and petiole of the plant. Such parasites live mainly on trees, and in winter they are very clearly visible on bare trunks. One such nest can contain up to 3 thousand caterpillars.
• Goldentail. If the hawthorn's main habitats are leaves and cuttings, then the lacewing's main habitats are branches. Such a caterpillar weaves a web on internodes, small branches and leaves, creating housing there for the winter. If such accumulations are discovered, they must be immediately removed along with parts of the trees themselves.
• Gypsy moth. These caterpillars are a large group of pests, and the most common among them is the gypsy moth. Typically, such pests live in the forest, and enter the area only when they begin to multiply en masse. It is at this time that they can be noticed with the beginning of spring. First, clutches appear, consisting of approximately 500 eggs, which are covered with fine hairs. Afterwards, caterpillars begin to hatch from them, leaving veins and petioles from the leaves. Gypsy moths are easy to spot because they have a hairy surface that allows such pests to be easily carried from tree to tree by wind currents.
• Leaf roller. This pest is one of the most dangerous and widespread among caterpillars. Such caterpillars, having a very tiny size, are able to eat literally everything - buds, leaves, flowers and even fruits. Their characteristic feature is that they roll the leaves into a tube in a shape reminiscent of a cigar. Inside, the leaf roller spins a web and feeds. Such insects are able to reproduce quickly, producing up to three generations of the same parasitic caterpillars in one season.

other methods

Preventive treatment of old trees with active compounds is very effective. For young plantings, however, it is better to use other methods. Fruit trees are treated with a mixture of kerosene and mineral oil in a 1:1 ratio. The cocoons can be destroyed during flowering. Among all the methods used, however, the most effective is spraying with modern insecticidal preparations. In early spring, you can use the viral drug “Virin-ENZh”. At the beginning of flowering, the products “Phosfamide”, “Chlorophos”, “Metaphos” are effective. The drug “Nitrafen” has proven itself quite well. However, it can be used before buds appear on the trees.

This is a nocturnal butterfly belonging to the moth family.

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It is quite large in size, and the female differs significantly from the male in size, shape and color.

Thanks to this fact, the gypsy moth got its name.

The female's wingspan is about 8 cm. On her yellowish-white forewings, transverse wavy stripes of a dark brown color are clearly visible. The female's legs and antennae are black, and her thick abdomen is grayish-brown. Its tip is very pubescent.

The male gypsy moth can be identified by its unusual dark gray antennae, shaped like feathers. The span of its yellow-gray wings reaches no more than 4.5 cm. Wide stripes and spots of a darker color are visible on the front wings. The male's abdomen is thin with a brush of hairs at the tip.

Reference

– Thanks to the unusual structure of the antennae, a male gypsy moth butterfly is able to locate a female 11 km away!

The butterfly eggs are colored first yellow and then pinkish-white. Their shape is round and slightly flattened, and their diameter is no more than 1.2 mm. The hairy, brownish-gray caterpillars are distinguished by the fact that on their backs there are 11 pairs of red and blue warts, each of which is covered with a tuft of hair. The size of the caterpillars reaches 7.5 cm.

The gypsy moth overwinters in the egg stage

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In early spring, caterpillars are born from them, which, crawling through the trees, begin to actively feed on buds, leaves, buds and flowers. Thanks to their hairiness and with the help of the wind, caterpillars are able to cover distances of about 12 km in search of food. They feed intensively for two months, and then weave cocoons in cracks in the bark or between leaves
and pupate.

After two weeks in July-August, butterflies hatch from the cocoons. After mating, they lay eggs on the bark of tree trunks, stumps, among stones and at the bottom of fences.

The butterfly mixes the eggs with grayish fluff, as a result of which the clutches look like yellowish-gray pads up to 3 cm in diameter, completely covered with hairs.

Females are very fertile and are capable of laying up to 1200 eggs, several hundred in each clutch. It is worth saying that the eggs of the gypsy moth are very hardy and survive the winter well at low temperatures.

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Now you can look at the gypsy moth in the photo:

Ringed

This is a small beige butterfly from the cocoon moth family with a wingspan of no more than 4 cm. There is a dark stripe on the front wings. The eggs of the butterfly are lead-gray and cylindrical in shape. The color of the caterpillar's cover is gray-blue with a clearly defined white line along the middle of the back and orange and black-blue on the sides. The caterpillar is about 6 cm long. It is densely covered with short, velvety, as well as long, sparse hairs.

The female ringed silkworm lays up to 400 eggs around shoots, twigs or leaf petioles. The masonry looks like a wide ring

, engulfing the shoot. It is for this characteristic form of oviposition that the ringed silkworm gets its name.

Caterpillars emerge from the eggs remaining to overwinter in the spring when the buds swell. While actively feeding, they go through 5 stages of molting. Caterpillars usually eat at night and live in colonies

, during the day accumulating in the forks of thick branches and arranging nests there woven from cobwebs. After about 45 days in early June, the caterpillars move into the rolled leaves, entwine them into a strong cocoon, climb inside and turn into a pupa. After a couple of weeks, a butterfly flies out of the cocoon.

Methods of getting rid of caterpillars using chemicals

You can effectively fight caterpillars by using modern means that quickly defeat pests. They cope well with caterpillar populations and do not cause any harm to plants or humans.

The drugs are available in the form of powder, tablets or ampoules.

Usually, just one tablet or ampoule per 7-12 liters of water is enough to treat a planted area of ​​50 square meters. m. Summer residents should know that when choosing chemicals to combat caterpillars, they should remember that such products have a limited period of use, despite their effectiveness.

This means that the last spraying should be carried out no later than two weeks or a month before the crop is harvested. Otherwise, vegetables and fruits sprayed with such compounds cannot be eaten. Therefore, it is very important to comply with the deadlines described in the instructions for use. Another way to combat caterpillars using chemicals is to add fertilizer directly to the soil. They are able to repel such pests and prevent them from reproducing in the future.

Ground beetles

This is what a ground beetle looks like: the color of the insect can be black or metallic.

Ground beetles are constantly on the move, chasing pests every minute of their lives. Over the summer, each ground beetle eats more than 300 caterpillars.

And this is what a ground beetle larva looks like.

They are black, shiny, with chest legs, also very nimble, moving surprisingly quickly. Gardeners often mistake them for pests and destroy them, thereby causing great damage to their garden.

They hunt at night and try to hide during the day. During the day, each larva eats three times more pests than it weighs .

Traditional methods

The best folk recipes for fighting caterpillars on the site:

• Fumigation. This method requires any container that can withstand high temperatures. It should be filled with hot coal and sprinkled with tar and sulfur, taken in proportions of two to one. Next, with this container, you need to walk near the trees and fumigate all areas that can be reached. An important rule: there should be no wind outside while performing this procedure. After this, the caterpillars will begin to die and crumble to the ground.
• Chamomile infusion. For this recipe you will need field chamomile, which must be collected and dried. After this, the leaves and flowers are crushed. Next, the raw material is filled with water at the rate of one liter of liquid per 100 g of plant. The infusion should stand for a day in a dark place, after which it is filtered and diluted with water (proportions one to five). Add 40-50 g of liquid soap to the resulting mixture to make it easier to apply to the leaves.
• Glue for caterpillars. This method is one of the most popular among summer residents. The sticky mess attracts caterpillars, which easily stick to it and cannot get out of such glue. In order to prepare such a trap for pests, you need to take resin (100 ml), stearin (55 g) and pork fat (60 g). To obtain a homogeneous consistency, all components are heated. After this, mix, cool slightly and apply to areas of trees that are affected by caterpillars.
• Wormwood against caterpillars. An excellent remedy in the fight against such pests is wormwood. It works especially well against caterpillars that eat fruit on trees. This plant can be used as a decoction or tincture. In the first case, you need to collect flowering wormwood. Next, it should be crushed and the bucket should be filled exactly halfway with such raw materials. Pour water on top. It should be infused for 24 hours. After the allotted time, it must be put on fire and boiled for half an hour. After this, the broth is diluted with water in proportions of one to two and the plantings and fruit trees are sprayed against caterpillars. An infusion of wormwood is prepared as follows. Grind this plant and fill the bucket exactly one third. Next, the raw materials are poured to the very top. Insist for three days. After the required time has passed, the infusion is filtered and the future harvest is sprayed with it.

• Infusion of onion peels from caterpillars on cabbage. For this recipe you will need a glass liter jar, which needs to be filled to the top with onion peels. After this, it is poured with two liters of water at room temperature and left to infuse for 1.5 -2 days. After this time, the resulting infusion is filtered and poured into any container. Supplement the contents with water so that you get 4 liters of product. To make the infusion better stick to the leaves on the cabbage, you can add 25 g of laundry soap.
• Infusion based on burdock leaves. The plant is crushed and a bucket is filled with it so that it takes up exactly half of it. Fill to the top with water and leave for 2-3 days. Before spraying, the infusion is filtered. So that the plants are protected for a long time and so that the infusion can better adhere to the foliage, just as in previous cases, you can add laundry soap (35-45 in a ten-liter bucket). In exactly the same way, infusions are prepared from tomato leaves, potato tops, chamomile, aconite, yarrow, milkweed and dope. They have no less effect than a remedy prepared from burdock leaves.
• Tobacco against caterpillars. This method will help get rid of not only caterpillars, but also other types of pests in the garden (ants, aphids, moths, weevils and copperheads). You can make both an infusion and a decoction with tobacco. To obtain a decoction, you need to take 150 g of shag or tobacco and add 2.5 liters of water. After the product has stood for a day, it should be boiled for several hours. Next, the broth is filtered and diluted with 10 liters of water. Add 45-60 g of grated laundry soap (can be replaced with liquid soap). To prepare the infusion, you need to add water to the tobacco or shag. Recommended proportions are 1:10. The mixture should infuse for a day. After this, it is filtered and diluted with water. It shouldn't be hot. Next, add 35-50 g of liquid or grated laundry soap to a ten-liter bucket of water. Used for spraying.
• Ditch for caterpillars. To ensure that the garden area is reliably protected from caterpillars, some gardeners resort to the following method. They dig a ditch with not too much depth and width. But this method can only help against caterpillars that crawl. They will not be able to overcome such an obstacle. Parasites will gather in such trenches, and they will simply need to be destroyed. The only inconvenience will be that such a ditch will have to be checked daily.
• Tomato greens from caterpillars. This product is dangerous for garden and garden pests. To prepare it, you should collect the tops after the tomatoes have already grown and are not bearing fruit. After this, it is placed in the shade so that it can dry. After this, the raw materials are cut into small pieces and the bucket is filled almost to the very top. Fill with water and boil for an hour. All tops must be thoroughly boiled. After this, dilute the decoction with water in proportions of 2 to 10. To ensure that the solution is well applied to the trees and leaves, add a little soap (35-45 g).
• Pruning branches. There is no need to neglect such methods, because caterpillars, like other parasites in the garden, love to hide in dark, dense crowns, where the most optimal conditions are for them. If you prune branches in a timely and correct manner, the number of such parasites can be significantly reduced.

Treatment of trees and shrubs - what to use?

With the onset of warmth and snow melting, you can begin the spring inspection of fruit trees and shrubs with a view to further processing them. First of all, it is necessary to trim off excess diseased branches and twigs, clean the trunk of dead bark and lichen present on it. The cleaned areas should be treated with garden varnish or other special means.

Next you should follow the following sequence:

Whitewashing of plants. Typically, a slaked lime solution is used for whitewashing, which is applied in two layers to enhance the effect. Currently, products for whitewashing trees and shrubs containing copper sulfate and PVA glue have appeared on the market. This composition is more stable than lime mortar, and protects against pests and disinfects the bark.

Digging up soil. 3-4 days before spraying the trees, you need to dig up the soil around them in order to bring the pests to the surface, where they will be destroyed.

Spraying. You can start spraying all trees and shrubs from the end of March. It is better to carry out the treatment in the evening.

Various preparations are used to treat trees and shrubs. The following types of chemicals are most often used.

• Even before the buds swell (preferably at the end of March), you should spray all the trees and bushes on the site with a solution of copper sulfate (take 100 grams per bucket of water). This will help avoid fungal diseases, the formation of mosses and lichens, black cancer, and scab. Bordeaux mixture also helps a lot. These are the most popular and proven means.
• To protect grapes from spotty necrosis, anthracnose and bacterial cancer, they need to be treated with an aqueous solution of iron sulfate (200 grams of product per bucket of water), spraying the vine and the soil under the plant. The procedure must be carried out before the kidneys swell, until mid-April.
• Pears and apple trees must be treated before flowering with Iskra-M, Fufanon, and Karbofos. They are able to prevent the appearance of ticks, weevils, flower beetles, and copperheads. If the pests have already settled on the plants, then the treatment must be carried out twice. The second time - after flowering.
• To destroy insects that have overwintered in the bark of plants from all fruit trees and bushes, spraying with a solution of colloidal sulfur or its analogue “Neoron” helps well.

But often, summer residents use traditional methods to process garden crops. For example, to get rid of spider mites, use an infusion of onion peels. Against caterpillars and aphids - garlic infusion. Laundry soap and ash diluted in hot water help cope with aphids, copperhead, and powdery mildew.

In order to properly process trees and shrubs, they usually use a hand pump or sprayer, holding it during the procedure at a distance of 80 - 100 centimeters from the plants. From this distance, the solution will fall on the leaves and branches in the form of small drops. When spraying, to protect yourself from toxic chemicals, you should use a respirator (or gauze bandage), goggles, a hat and gloves. Spraying of trees is done from top to bottom, first the upper branches and then the lower ones. After the branches, the trunk and area under the tree are treated.

So, now you know how to treat trees and bushes in the garden against pests in the spring? But it must be remembered that the treatment should be carried out only with a newly prepared preparation.

Pest prevention

In order not to fight caterpillars in your summer cottage using chemicals or folk remedies, you need to use preventive measures. To do this, it is necessary to constantly check all plantings for the presence of clutches of such parasites.

This should be done all season. In addition, every autumn you need to rake and remove all the leaves that have fallen and debris remaining from the plants. This method will help reduce the number of pests on the site.

Mechanical impact

Mechanical impact is the simplest available and safest control method, which includes not only dropping pests from trees and collecting them manually, but also removing overwintered nests and oviposition. Collecting caterpillars by hand must be done with protective gloves, as many larvae have bristles that protect them from enemies.

You can also influence butterfly larvae through hunting belts, which are placed on a tree trunk to protect its crown. No less effective are traps in the form of jars, which are filled with aromatic bait liquids.

However, such manipulations will have a positive effect in case of minor infestation of trees or other plantings by caterpillars. If there are already too many insects, fighting caterpillars in the garden will not give the desired results. This method is not suitable for tall trees either.

Biological method

When caterpillars appear on trees, you can also use a biological method to destroy pests. It consists of attracting natural enemies. These are predatory insects (spiders or ticks) and birds (swifts, swallows, tits). To do this, in early spring, feeders, birdhouses, etc. are hung on trees. In the summer, it is not advisable to install such devices.

A biological control method is the use of bacteriological preparations (Bitoxibacillin or Lepidocide), which, when butterfly larvae enter the body, cause their death.

The disadvantage of such products is the need to spray trees repeatedly. Moreover, the composition does not have a negative effect on beneficial insects, and therefore it can be used for preventive purposes. In addition, this kind of product is “active” at a temperature of at least 18 degrees.

Terms of work

There are several main stages in the processing of apple trees.

Before sap flow begins

Spring work begins before the apple trees begin to bud. To carry out spraying and work with wood, it is necessary that the air temperature does not fall below -5 degrees .

The first step is to inspect the apple trees after winter .

1. It is necessary to cut off and burn the cobwebs and oviposition;
2. Open the trunks if there are signs of damage by hidden caterpillars under the bark;
3. If the apple tree is affected by glassware, it’s time to treat the trunks with insecticides;
4. Apple trees and tree trunks are treated with copper sulfate to destroy those pests that have overwintered in the soil and bark.

These procedures will prevent pests from damaging the flower buds.

Before flowering

When the buds woke up , but the apple tree had not yet bloomed , the second period of treating apple trees for pests began.

At this time, copper or iron sulfate and organophosphorus insecticides are sprayed.

The treatment will destroy the populations of those caterpillars that are aimed at damaging flowers, ovaries and young growth.

During flowering

During flowering, spraying apple trees is not recommended. During this period, it is better to focus your attention on mechanical collection and destruction of pests.

If no preventive measures have been taken before, you can spray the apple trees with Bordeaux mixture according to the instructions. In case of special need, for example, large damage to trees, it is possible to treat the apple tree against codling moths, leaf rollers and other types of caterpillars with karbofos .

IMPORTANT! Spraying with insecticides can greatly reduce the number of ovaries formed.

Most effective pest control chemicals are harmful to pollinating insects . If the harm from caterpillars during this period is not too obvious, it is better to use folk remedies.

After flowering

Immediately upon completion of flowering, the following treatment is carried out against caterpillars. This is the last opportunity to treat apple trees against codling moths. Folk remedies and insecticides such as karbofos, funanon, intavir , etc. From the moment of processing until the fruit ripens, at least a month should pass.

During fruiting

Something bad happened and caterpillars appeared on the apple tree: how to deal with it during fruiting? At this time, chemicals cannot be used ; only manual collection is allowed. Of course, there are drugs that decompose quickly. But is it worth the risk and checking this information for yourself?

After fruiting

After the harvest has ripened and been harvested, it is necessary to prepare the apple tree for winter. Fallen leaves must be collected and burned . Dig up the soil in the tree trunk circle and treat it with insecticidal preparations. Carry out sanitary pruning of the tree , if necessary, treat the wounds well . be whitened for the winter .

Use of chemicals

Insecticide-based chemicals are the most effective in combating voracious butterfly larvae. You can poison caterpillars in your garden using the following drugs:

• Spark and Karate;
• Aktara and Taran;
• Inta-Vir and Fufanon;
• Rovikurt and Karbofos;
• Lightning and Fas.

When used correctly, caterpillar poison can destroy a large number of pests. However, with constant use, the poison becomes addictive to parasites. Therefore, it is not advisable to use the same remedy for caterpillars all the time.

The use of chemicals can cause intoxication of the human body after consuming processed fruits, so it is necessary to strictly adhere to the manufacturer’s recommendations. The fight against caterpillars on flowers through the use of pesticides is carried out only in cases of the most advanced stage of infection.