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The cherry fly is one of the most “famous” pests of cherries and sweet cherries in domestic gardens. Apricot, honeysuckle, bird cherry and barberry also suffer from it. Its larvae develop in the berries of stone fruit crops, pollute them with their excrement and feed on the pulp. They are able to quickly damage and destroy from half to 90% of the seasonal crop – wormy fruits are deformed, fall off and rot, becoming unusable. Having identified this parasite, the gardener should not leave the situation unattended. Methods for controlling the cherry fly depend on the time of year, the mass character of the insect and the degree of damage to the trees. Given this, you can choose the most suitable method from proven folk recipes or use chemicals if the situation becomes critical. The fight against the cherry fly, started on time and correctly, will help get rid of the parasite in the garden and save the crop. And in order for the pest not to attack the trees again next season, preventive measures should be taken.
Why are cherries wormy
The wormy fruits of cherries and sweet cherries are usually the result of the mass distribution of the cherry fly in the garden. Adult insects themselves practically do not pose any harm to the crop. But the small white larvae laid by flies in the nutritious pulp of berries is the main reason why cherries become wormy and quickly disappear.
It is possible to determine the activity of this pest even at the stage of fruit ripening. The place on the skin of the berry, which the cherry fly pierced in order to lay an egg, is first clearly visible as a black dot. The pulp of the affected fruit, which the larva feeds on, decomposes under the influence of its excrement and begins to rot. Most of the wormy berries rapidly lose their shape and fall off, but even those that remain on the tree are still unsuitable for consumption.
However, if the owners of all areas bordering each other cooperate in this matter, then it is quite possible to completely get rid of this parasite, or at least minimize the damage caused to it.
What does a cherry fly look like
What an adult cherry fly looks like will allow you to imagine the photo below.
The cherry fly is a dangerous pest of many fruit and berry crops.
This is a small winged insect 3-5 cm long, resembling an ordinary housefly. Her body is glossy in appearance, it is dark brown or black. There are two long yellow stripes on the chest and abdomen. The front shield, tarsi and lower legs are dark yellow or pale orange in color. The shells of the compound eyes of the cherry fly are bright green. The wings are wide and transparent with characteristic four dark transverse stripes on the surface.
The life cycle of a pest
Having become acquainted with the stages of development of the organism of the cherry fly, it will be easier for the gardener to fight this pest. They can be briefly described as follows:
- Wintering. The cherry fly waits out the cold season in the form of a chrysalis, sheltered in a false cocoon. Usually it deepens into the surface layer of soil under the crowns of trees by 5-7 cm.
- Departure. It begins after the soil warms up, approximately from mid-May, during the period when the acacia begins to bloom. Adults (adults) emerge from pupae. Initially, they are underdeveloped, they need additional nutrition. During the first couple of weeks after emergence, cherry flies “eat off” sweet secretions of aphids and juices that form in the cracks of leaves and fruits.
- Mating and reproduction. Occurs in sunny warm weather (18 degrees and above), usually in June and partly in July. The female cherry fly usually lays 1-2 eggs under the skin of ripening and already ripened fruits. Within a month, she is able to produce from 80 to 150 eggs, after which she dies.
- development of the larva. After 6-10 days, a tiny white worm (about 0,5 mm long) emerges from the egg. Within 16-20 days spent in the berry, it grows up to 6-7 mm, actively feeding on the pulp. Then the larva leaves the wormy fruit, enters the soil and pupates.
- Pupation. After the transition and deepening of the larva into the ground, a false cocoon is formed around it in a few hours. After 5-6 days, a pupa is formed in it. In order to successfully complete development, the pupa needs low temperatures (less than 7 ° C), so the cherry fly hibernates in this form.
Then the cycle repeats again.
The pest larva feeds on the pulp of berries and pollutes them with their excrement.
Causes and signs of appearance
The flight of the cherry fly begins at the end of spring and lasts throughout June, sometimes even reaching the beginning of July. It is most active on sunny and warm days.
You can determine that a fruit tree has been attacked by this parasite by the following signs:
- black dots are clearly visible on berries that are just beginning to ripen – traces of skin punctures by a female cherry fly that laid an egg;
- the presence on the surface of the fruit of depressions, decaying areas;
- the skin of a ripe wormy berry loses its glossy sheen, darkens, and the flesh becomes soft to the touch;
- cutting or breaking the fruit of a cherry or sweet cherry, inside (usually near the stone) you can find a small white larva.
The pulp of the affected berries softens and rots, turning into gruel
What is the danger of the appearance of a cherry fly in the garden
In the event that, having found a cherry fly on the site, the agrarian does not actively fight it, its number will increase from year to year, as well as damage to the crop. The larvae of this pest pupate and overwinter in the soil, and in the next season they attack trees in even greater numbers. The parasite is especially active in the southern regions, it may happen that up to 90% of the collected berries turn out to be wormy.
How to deal with cherry fly
The sooner it was possible to detect worms in cherries, the sooner you should try to get rid of the cause of their appearance. Every year it is necessary to pay attention to preventive measures. If the cherry fly nevertheless appeared, but its number is small, you can start with the use of folk remedies.
How to get rid of cherry fly folk remedies
The advantage of folk methods of fighting the cherry fly is that they are gentle, harmless to humans, animals and the environment. However, their effectiveness is significantly lower than that of chemical preparations.
Among the proven folk recipes against this parasite are:
- Coniferous decoction. To cook it, you need to put a spruce or pine branch in a pot of cold water, bring to a boil and cool. After that, you can spray the trees with a decoction. After heavy rain, the treatment should be repeated.
- wood ash solution. It helps well against adults and larvae of the pest, and is also detrimental to aphids, the secretions of which feed on adults of the cherry fly. 1 shovel of ash should be stirred in a bucket of boiling water and boiled for 20 minutes. Next, strain the broth, add water to a volume of 10 liters and use it to treat crowns.
- To effectively combat the cherry fly, it is also advised to spray the affected trees with tobacco and soap infusion. It is prepared from 400 g of tobacco, which are poured into 10 liters of cold water and left for a day. After settling, the agent is boiled for an hour. Immediately before use, 40 g of grated laundry soap is added to the composition.
- The cherry fly senses smells extremely well, therefore, in the fight against it, infusions and decoctions with a sharp strong aroma are effective, frightening and disorienting adults. You can use onion peel, chopped garlic cloves, nightshade and wormwood grass. The preparations are prepared in the same way as the tobacco-soap infusion, only the main component is replaced.
Folk remedies help if there are few pests and the lesions are minor
Use of cherry fly traps
To fight the cherry fly, preventing the cherry from becoming wormy, home-made traps installed in the garden will help. They are of two types:
- Traps with sweet bait. They can be made from halves of plastic bottles or empty cans. Pour compote, juice, beer, kvass or sugar syrup inside and hang it on the branches. 4-5 such traps will be enough to protect one tree. Cherry flies, attracted by the smell, are trapped and die. The gardener should periodically clean the traps of dead insects and pour a new portion of the bait inside. It is worth hanging them when the flowering of the trees is over.
- Glue traps. They are made from cut sheets of bright yellow or red cardboard that attract cherry flies. A layer of special glue is applied over the sheets, which does not harden in air for a long time, and traps are carefully placed along the periphery of the tree crown. They are usually hung during the flowering period of the acacia, when the adult cherry fly is actively looking for additional food.
Effective and simple – glue and liquid traps
How to get rid of worms in cherries with chemicals
Modern science has developed a large list of cherry fly chemicals that are effective against adults and larvae. The most commonly used:
- “Aktellik” (50%) – emulsion or powder for solution preparation. Low toxicity to humans and domestic animals, but dangerous to bees and fish.
- “Calypso” as a concentrate to be diluted with water. Non-toxic to humans, animals, fish and bees.
- “Karate Zeon” in the form of microcapsules. When used correctly, it has low toxicity to humans.
- “Zolon” (35%) – concentrated emulsion. It is slightly toxic to humans, but highly toxic to bees and fish.
- «Fufanon-Nova» – water-based emulsion. It is necessary to work with this substance for no more than 3 hours in a row, using gloves and a respirator.
- “Spark Double Effect” – tablet preparation. Does not harm people, pets, earthworms, bees and fish. It is used to combat 60 types of harmful insects, including cherry fly.
Table of drugs against cherry fly
Features of the use of chemicals that help fight the cherry fly are most clearly presented in the form of a table:
Active substance | Name product | Preparation of the solution | Application rate | Feature of application |
Pirimiphos-methyl | Aktellik | 2 2 ml per liter of water | 2,5 l per 1 tree | At least 20 days must elapse between processing and picking berries |
Thiacloprid | Calypso | 2 10 ml per liter of water | 100 m2 garden | You can not spray the garden on a hot day, 2 hours before the rain or immediately after it |
lambda cyhalothrin | Karate Zeon | 4 10 ml per liter of water | 100 m2 garden | Process before flowering |
Phosalon | Zolon | 2 5 ml per liter of water | 10 m2 garden | Spray in dry weather. Processing is done twice a season |
Malathion | Fufanon-Nova | 11,5 1,5 ml per liter of water | 2-5 l per 1 tree | Harvesting is possible 3 weeks after spraying the trees with the preparation |
Cypermethrin, permethrin | Spark Double effect | 1 tablet per 10 liters of water | 10 l for 1-5 trees | Treat during flowering |
Useful information about the fight against the cherry fly and the prevention of the appearance of wormy berries contains the video: https://youtu.be/54am8TpQ95c
Cherry Fly Control Rules
Any measures to combat the cherry fly – both folk and biochemical – must be taken competently. It is necessary to take into account the time of the year, the current and expected weather in the near future, the phase of the growing season of the plant, the stage of the pest’s life cycle, and the degree of damage.
When working with chemicals, it is imperative to follow the instructions and adhere to the required safety measures.
When can cherries be treated for cherry fly
Treatment of trees with insecticidal preparations is carried out if the cherry fly massively attacked the garden.
Spray cherries should be twice:
- at the very beginning of the summer of insects (during the flowering of acacia);
- after 10-14 days, when adults begin to lay eggs.
How to choose a cherry fly remedy depending on the lesion
As a rule, if the degree of damage to trees by a cherry fly is insignificant, gardeners prefer to use agrotechnical and folk remedies to combat this pest. If the threshold of harmfulness is exceeded (for every 100 cherries or sweet cherries there are 1-2 wormy berries), then they get rid of the parasite with the help of chemistry.
Insecticides treat trees of medium and late ripening. It is important that at least 20 days separate the day when the last spraying was carried out and the day of harvesting – during this time the toxic components of most drugs usually have time to decompose.
Safety Precautions
Work with chemical insecticides should be extremely careful, not forgetting the main safety rules:
- when spraying the garden, it is necessary to protect the nose and mouth with a respirator, put on goggles over the eyes, and gloves on the hands;
- it is advisable to have special clothing designed only for work with chemicals, which after use must be ventilated and washed in a soap and soda solution;
- utensils used for the preparation and storage of preparations must not be used for other purposes, as well as left in places accessible to children, next to food or animal feed;
- it is forbidden to eat, drink or smoke directly during the treatment of the site;
- at the end of the procedures, you need to thoroughly wash your hands with soap and rinse your mouth;
- do not allow children, pregnant and lactating women to work with insecticides.
When choosing a drug, they are guided by the threshold of harmfulness of the cherry fly (1-2 spoiled berries per 100 pieces)
Cherry fly spraying
Spraying the crowns of fruit trees with tinctures and decoctions prepared according to folk recipes, or insecticidal preparations, is one of the key measures to combat the cherry fly in the spring. Here are some tips to help you carry out this procedure correctly and safely:
- processing of trees should be carried out with a spray gun in dry, calm weather, preferably in the evening or early morning;
- when spraying the crown, one should take into account the strength and direction of the wind, make sure that the spray of the agent used does not fall on people, animals and crops growing nearby;
- it is necessary to process not only the branches of “wormy” trees, but also the soil in the trunk circles;
- using a chemical preparation, it is imperative to withstand the period specified in the instructions, which must pass from the last spraying to harvesting.
Features of processing during the fruiting period
It must be remembered that fruits from a tree previously treated with any preparations must be thoroughly washed before eating.
If the time for re-treatment with chemicals is missed, since harvest time is approaching, you can use biological preparations (Akarin or Fitoverm) for spraying. The waiting time after using them is shorter.
Harvesting is required completely and as quickly as possible, without dividing the procedure into several stages. Wormy cherries should never be left on a tree next to healthy ones. Having recognized those, it is imperative to collect and destroy them.
What to do with berries if the cherry is wormy
An active fight against the cherry fly, seen on the site in large numbers, does not exclude the possibility that the cherry may already turn out to be wormy.
Soft, wrinkled and tarnished fruits, of course, are unsuitable for food – they should only be destroyed. However, if there are few wormy berries in the total mass, they are still strong, dense and poured in appearance, and at first glance they do not differ from healthy ones, then you can try to get rid of the larvae. To do this, 1 kg of cherries or sweet cherries are poured with cool water with table salt (2 tsp per 2 l) and allowed to stand for half an hour. Then the floating worms are removed, and the berries are washed.
Fallen wormy fruits must be destroyed, in no case should they be left in trunk circles under the trees. It is advisable to collect and burn them, in extreme cases, to keep them in a container filled with water, and then bury them in the ground at a great distance from the orchard. The depth of the pit should be at least 0,5 m.
It is impossible to bury wormy berries directly on the site, since cherry flies have every chance of overwintering in the soil and will begin to harm again next year.
Cherry Fly Prevention Measures
The fight against the cherry fly is a very difficult and time-consuming task. It is best to think in advance about the protection of shrubs and trees susceptible to its attacks in order to prevent the appearance of wormy fruits.
An effective preventive measure is digging tree trunks three times a year
Preventive measures against cherry fly include:
- thorough digging and loosening of soil in tree trunks to a depth of 25-30 cm three times a year – in early spring, summer and autumn;
- planting marigolds, marigolds, lemon balm under berry trees – plants that help fight cherry aphids that provide food for adult flies;
- quick and careful collection of ripe berries, regular destruction of carrion and fallen leaves;
- covering the soil under the trees with a film or agrofiber during the emergence of adult flies and pupation of larvae;
- fight against other parasites and diseases of berry trees.
Conclusion
Methods for controlling the cherry fly, a very common and dangerous pest of stone fruit crops, must be selected depending on many factors. If there are few insects and the lesions are insignificant, home-made traps and the treatment of trees with folk remedies that are safe for humans and animals can be effective. However, in the case when the invasion of the cherry fly is massive, only complex measures to protect the garden, including agrotechnical measures and spraying with potent insecticides, can help. It is very important to follow the safety rules when working with chemicals. Prevention of cherry fly damage to fruit and berry crops will help prevent the spread of the pest and save the crop.