Contents
Caterpillars on currants completely eat leaves – many gardeners face such a problem. Parasites on the stems and leaves of the plant can completely destroy the crop, but there are many methods for controlling currant pests.
Types of currant caterpillars
First of all, you need to understand that there are a lot of currant pests – caterpillars can appear when a bush is damaged by a variety of insects. It is useful to know the main varieties of garden pests – this will help to recognize which caterpillars hit the shrub and choose the most suitable treatment agent.
Leaflet
You can recognize this pest by the appearance of green or brown caterpillars on the leaves of the shrub, first they actively eat the foliage and stems, and then entangle the leaves with cobwebs and feed on the juices of the plant until they hatch. An adult leafworm is a light brown butterfly with stripes on its wings.
kidney moth
The parasite lays its eggs in the ovaries and young buds of the shrub, and the hatched larvae of gray or yellow-brown color begin to eat away the plant from the inside. This leads to the fact that part of the ovaries of the shrub dries out, and the yield of the plant decreases sharply. The formed kidney moth is a small insect about 1,5-2 cm in wingspan with a rather beautiful white-brown color.
Pheidenitsa
The large yellow butterfly lays its eggs in early spring on the inside of currant leaves, mostly white and red. Moth larvae completely eat away the leaves of the plant and can lead to the complete death of the currant bush if they are not eliminated in time.
Glassmaker
An adult insect, outwardly similar to a wasp, arranges masonry in currant buds or in folds of bark on its trunk. The caterpillars hatched from the larvae first eat away the shoots from the inside, and then begin to move along the stems to the roots. This is precisely what the glass case is dangerous for, if the caterpillars eat the roots of the bush, then it will not be possible to save the plant from death. At the same time, glassware is extremely difficult to remove, and significant efforts have to be made to eliminate it.
Sawfly
Small black beetles lay their eggs on the leaves of the shrub, and the caterpillars eat the foliage down to the veins, if the sawfly breeds strongly on the bush, the currant may remain completely bare. At the same time, in one summer, the sawfly can produce up to 3 broods of caterpillars, which greatly complicates the fight against the pest.
Gallica
The parasite, outwardly resembling a mosquito, in the caterpillar phase eats mainly the tissues of currant stems, as a result of which black swellings appear under the bark. Mostly, the gall midge prefers to feast on black currants, but you can find the parasite on both red and white varieties.
Gooseberries
The parasite is a gray butterfly attacking currant flowers, as well as raspberry and gooseberry bushes. Caterpillars of the moth entangle the fruits of the berry bush with a thin cobweb and draw juices out of them, as a result, the berries dry out and become unsuitable for harvesting.
brushtail
Often, a caterpillar of a bug, or brushtail, another pest butterfly with a beautiful reddish-brown color, starts up in currants. The caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the plant and is especially dangerous for the reason that it lays up to 400 eggs at a time – currant infection with a bug can occur very quickly and abundantly.
Why do caterpillars start in currants
Buds, leaves, fruits and all other parts of the currant are a breeding ground for caterpillars – pests eat leaves to continue their life cycle. However, this does not clarify the question why parasites infest some bushes very often, while others are almost never affected by caterpillars.
As a rule, caterpillars start up on the bushes of a fruit plant if the rules for caring for the bush are not followed. If the gardener neglects regular sanitary pruning of bushes, does not remove broken and dried branches, and does not remove plant debris from the soil at the roots, then sooner or later pests can choose the shrub. Fallen leaves and small twigs near currant bushes provide caterpillar larvae with winter shelter – pests safely wait out frosts in the ground, and in spring they move to a currant bush and begin to eat fresh greens.
Why caterpillars are dangerous for currants
The presence of caterpillars on currant bushes not only worsens the appearance and decorativeness of the shrub. This becomes the least of the problems.
- Breeding caterpillars can completely eat currant foliage. Most pests begin to feed on the plant from the leaves, which contain a huge amount of nutrients. If parasites are not eliminated in time, currants may be eaten whole.
- Caterpillars eat not only green foliage, but also inflorescences, ovaries and rudiments of shrub berries. Thus, with a wide defeat of the bush, the currant either begins to bloom and bear fruit worse, or ceases to produce crops – the parasites destroy the fruits before they reach full maturity and become suitable for harvesting.
- Caterpillars feed on stems and even roots of shrubs. This is especially dangerous, since the skeleton of the plant itself is destroyed – if the pests are not destroyed in time, the shrub may die entirely, since it will remain without a root system and main shoots.
Pest-infected currants cease to bring a sufficient amount of tasty healthy berries. Its varietal characteristics are significantly deteriorating – the shrub becomes more sensitive to growing conditions and vulnerable, stops developing and eventually dies.
What to do with caterpillars on currants
If caterpillars of one or another pest are wound up on currant bushes, they definitely need to be removed. In gardening, both folk methods and specialized tools are used for this.
Mechanical methods of struggle
The most obvious and easiest way to deal with caterpillars on currants is the mechanical removal of insects. Practice the following methods:
- shaking off – paper or light dense fabric is spread under the currant bush, and then they take the branches and shake them properly, as a result of which the caterpillars simply crumble from the leaves onto the prepared litter;
- manual collection – currant leaves and stems are regularly inspected and manually removed from them for caterpillars and nests of pests, in order to then be taken out of the site and destroyed;
- сinsult – in case of damage to the trunk and shoots of currants, caterpillars and larvae can be removed with a hard bristled toothbrush or even a metal sponge dipped in soapy water.
Despite their simplicity, mechanical methods have a serious drawback. They do not give one hundred percent efficiency, in such ways it is impossible to remove absolutely all caterpillars and larvae from a currant bush. Meanwhile, even a few parasites remaining on the shrub continue to negatively affect the state of the plant, and over time increase the population again.
Chemicals
A more noticeable and high-quality effect against caterpillars is given by proven chemicals. Namely:
- Karbofos 10% – it is used against the kidney moth twice during the summer, for the first time it is necessary to apply the remedy after the buds open on the shrub;
- Karbofos 0,3% – currants are treated for moths, spraying is carried out in April, during the active development of the kidneys, and in June, when garden pest butterflies hatch;
- Iskra-Bio and Fufanon – currants are sprayed with solutions against the sawfly and moth, the procedure is carried out before the flowering of the shrub and immediately after it;
- Phytoverm – currants are sprayed with the product immediately after the appearance of fresh leaves, this helps prevent infection of the shrub with a glass case.
Also, currant bushes from glass caterpillars can be sprayed with a 10% solution of Karbofos; this is usually done in the fall, after harvesting for preventive purposes.
Biological preparations
In addition to chemical insecticides, biological preparations are in demand among gardeners. The difference lies in the fact that the active substances in biological products are toxic to caterpillars, but do not harm currant fruits and do not affect the benefits of berries. The effect is achieved due to the fact that the attack on pests is carried out through viruses and pathogenic fungi that are detrimental to garden caterpillars.
Among the biological drugs can be listed:
- Lepidocide and Nembakt;
- Endobacterin;
- Bitoxibacillin.
Folk methods
Some gardeners are afraid to treat currants from caterpillars with insecticidal preparations and prefer to use folk remedies. Among the most popular are the following.
- Laundry soap solution. A bar of natural soap with a volume of about 50 g must be dissolved in 1 liter of water until a homogeneous soap solution is obtained. After that, the shrub is sprayed with soapy water, and if necessary, the leaves that are particularly affected are wiped by hand.
- Mustard. About 50 g of the powder must be diluted in 3 liters of water, and then spray the currant bush with the resulting solution. Mustard has a detrimental effect on insect caterpillars and allows you to quickly get rid of pests on leaves and stems.
- Garlic infusion. A few large cloves of fresh garlic should be poured into 1 liter of water and insisted for a week in closed form. When the infusion is ready, it will need to be diluted with fresh water in a ratio of 1 to 10 before use. Otherwise, a sharp infusion can not only eliminate caterpillars, but also harm currants, as it will leave burns on the leaves and stems of the plant.
- Pepper infusion. The folk remedy acts similarly to garlic tincture and is prepared in much the same way – 100 g of hot pepper is poured into 1 liter of boiling water and insisted for several days. Before use, the infusion can be diluted in a ratio of 1 to 10 with ordinary clean water, or you can prefer a soapy solution, in which case the efficiency will only increase.
Folk remedies bring a fairly good effect in the fight against caterpillars of garden pests. However, they may not act as quickly as insecticides and biologics, it is likely that several treatments will have to be carried out for a heavily affected currant bush.
Preventive measures
If caterpillars on currant bushes are noticed in a timely manner, then getting rid of them is quite easy. But it is even better, in principle, to prevent the appearance of pests on the fruit bush. Preventive measures help protect the plant from caterpillars.
- Currant bushes need to be trimmed regularly. Sanitary pruning allows you to get rid of dry and diseased branches, from excess shoots that thicken the bush, from broken branches. Statistics show that unkempt currants are affected by garden pests much more often, and curing such a shrub is much more difficult.
- It is necessary to carefully monitor the cleanliness of the soil around the plantings of currants. Every spring and autumn, all fallen leaves and broken branches from the ground must be removed so that they do not form an ideal winter shelter for pest larvae.
- In autumn, the soil around the currants needs to be dug up, in the process adding wood ash or tobacco powder to it, these funds prevent the vital activity of the larvae and prevent them from developing. It is also recommended to mulch the soil around the shrub in autumn with a layer of 5-10 cm, in which case it will be more difficult for the caterpillars to get to the surface of the soil and switch to currants in the spring.
- For the purpose of prevention, next to the currant bushes, it is recommended to plant plants such as garlic, yarrow, wormwood and chamomile, as well as other herbs with medicinal properties and a pungent odor. Such currant neighbors will scare away harmful insects with their aroma and protect the shrub from being damaged by caterpillars.
Even if the currant has never been sick or affected by garden pests for several years of cultivation, its leaves and stems should be inspected annually for nests and insect larvae. Quickly noticed caterpillars are much easier to remove with both folk and specialized means.
Conclusion
Currant caterpillars completely eat the leaves, however, harmful insects can be quickly removed at once in several effective ways. The main thing is not to forget about prevention and inspect the bush more often so as not to miss the moment when harmful caterpillars appear on the leaves.
