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Cherry slimy sawfly is a small hymenopteran insect, a pest of stone fruit crops. The larvae of the cherry sawfly, remotely resembling tiny leeches, feed on the leaves of fruit trees, completely gnawing their flesh to the ground from the veins. Thus, they are able to greatly weaken the plant, which negatively affects its yield. In Polissya and the northern forest-steppe zone, one generation of this pest usually occurs per year, and in the southern steppe and forest-steppe regions two, and occasionally even three generations per season develop. The damage from this insect can be very extensive. It is necessary to carefully monitor the state of the garden and, having found a cherry sawfly on the trees, take the necessary measures without delay to get rid of it. With a small lesion, sparing folk remedies, agricultural practices and preventive measures will be effective, but if the number of pest individuals is large, then it should be controlled with the help of chemicals.
What does a cherry sawfly look like
In order for the fight against the cherry sawfly to be effective, it is necessary to have a good idea of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbwhat this dangerous pest looks like at different stages of its development and by what signs it can be determined that the tree is attacked by it.
The adult cherry sawfly is a small winged fly. The body length of the female insect is 5-6 mm (the male is usually slightly smaller), and its wingspan is about 10 mm. The body is painted in shiny black. Two pairs of transparent wings located on the sides are slightly darkened in the middle, but black veins are clearly visible on their surface. Three pairs of limbs of the cherry sawfly are black, while the lower legs of the middle pair of legs are brown in color.
The larva of the cherry sawfly is a caterpillar reaching 10 mm in length. The color of her body is yellow-green, the head is black. There are 10 pairs of legs. The anterior part of the body, covered with black shiny mucus, is strongly thickened.
The life cycle of a pest
The development of the cherry sawfly occurs cyclically. A full circle of development lasts 2-3 months. It includes the following stages:
- Wintering. Cherry sawfly caterpillars spend the winter in a cocoon from the ground, burrowing into the soil under fruit trees to a depth of 2 to 10 cm, depending on the climate in the place of distribution. A certain number of larvae (sometimes up to half) fall into a state of diapause and remain for the next wintering.
- Pupation. In the larvae of the first generation, it occurs in autumn, and they winter already in a transformed form. Younger larvae (second generation) form pupae in spring.
- Emergence of adult insects. The first generation of cherry sawflies massively flies out of the ground at the turn of spring-summer. Years of the second generation, more numerous, begin at the end of July.
- Laying eggs. In our area, the partogenetic form of this pest is common: females lay unfertilized eggs, from which only female individuals are born. However, in some areas there are also populations consisting of bisexual insects. Mating is fast. Females of the cherry sawfly fly only 1 week, during which they manage to lay 50-75 eggs. The place of attachment of the egg is the lower part of the leaf plate. Before hatching from it, the larvae usually take 1-2 weeks.
- Emergence and feeding of larvae. After hatching from the egg, the caterpillars move to the front of the leaf. Their little bodies are covered with a thick dark mucus that protects them from drying out. For the next three weeks, they feed on the pulp of the leaves. During this time, the larva manages to molt 5 times. At the end of the feeding period, the caterpillars turn yellow, fall to the ground and, having built a cocoon from soil particles and their own mucus, go to winter.
Causes and signs of cherry damage by sawfly
The favorite crops of the cherry sawfly are cherries, sweet cherries, pears, hawthorn. A little less often, it affects the apple tree, plum, apricot, quince, cotoneaster, chokeberry, blackthorn, shadberry.
Warning! The cherry sawfly loves the sun’s rays, so most often it attacks trees and shrubs planted sparsely, and if the area is hilly, it prefers plantings located on the southern slopes.
The following signs will help recognize the presence of a parasite:
- at the stage of laying eggs, clearly visible swellings, brown tubercles appear on the leaves;
- holes appear in the pulp of the leaf in the form of small areas – “islands”: this is how the first generation of larvae usually feeds;
- the second generation, more harmful, is able to eat the leaves completely, leaving only the veins and the lower skin;
- a tree that suffers greatly from this pest looks withered, “burnt” in appearance.
How dangerous is the appearance of a sawfly on a cherry
In the event of a massive invasion of the cherry sawfly on fruit trees, biological processes slow down in them (gas exchange, photosynthesis, moisture evaporation). Plants weaken, become more vulnerable to diseases, bear little fruit, cease to form shoots, and shed their foliage prematurely. With a strong defeat, the trees will give a poor harvest the next year.
How to deal with a cherry sawfly
Measures to combat the cherry sawfly depend on how large the scale of the defeat is. If, when examining the trees, it becomes clear that the number of insects is small, then you can adopt any folk remedy, carry out agrotechnical protective measures and carry out prevention. In the event that the garden has been badly damaged, chemicals will have to be used to control the pest.
A few tips on how to fight the cherry sawfly, contains a video:
How to get rid of a sawfly on a cherry folk remedies
The most famous folk methods of dealing with the cherry sawfly include:
- Spraying the leaves with an infusion of chamomile. 800 g of dry flowers of this plant are advised to fill with water (10 l) and stand for a day. Then strain, add another 15 liters of water, and before use add 30 g of finely grated laundry soap. Apply this remedy three times during the week – both for prevention and at the fruiting stage of the cherry, in order to destroy the first generation of larvae.
- Treatment of trees with infusion of wormwood. 1,2 kg of fresh grass should be dried in the sun, and then pour 10 liters of water and stand for 3 days. After filtering the composition, dissolve 50-100 g of baking soda powder in it.
- Pollination of the crown with wood ash powder or tobacco dust. The procedure is carried out immediately after the rain, until the foliage has had time to dry. After a double application, a significant part of the larvae crumbles down.
Chemical preparations in the fight against sawfly on cherries
To save plants from the dominance of cherry sawfly larvae, chemical insecticides are used. The fight against this parasite is quite effective with the help of complex drugs used against pests of fruit crops. Among them:
- Confidor – low-toxic for humans and animals means of contact-intestinal action, providing long-term protection;
- Inta-Vir – a drug based on cypermethrin, which has a detrimental effect on the nervous system of pests;
- Calypso – highly effective low-toxic contact insecticide, resistant to rain and sunlight;
- Aktara – highly effective systemic agent of fast action against a wide range of parasitic insects;
- Mospilan – contact-intestinal drug, effective against eggs, larvae and adults of pests.
Other ways to deal with the cherry sawfly
There are other measures to combat the cherry slimy sawfly:
- if the garden area is small, the mechanical collection of pest larvae and their subsequent destruction is quite effective;
- the fight against the cherry sawfly can be carried out using biological products – insecticides that are harmless to humans and animals, created on the basis of bacteria that are harmful to the pest (Akarin, Bitoxibacillin);
- in autumn, it is possible to fill the near-trunk circles of trees with clay diluted in water with a layer of 1-2 cm, this will prevent insects that overwintered in pupae from flying out from under the ground in spring;
- to attract or release insects-entomophagous into the garden, in particular, trichograms, which parasitize in the eggs of the cherry sawfly, significantly reducing its number.
These methods of combating the slimy sawfly on cherries and other fruit crops can be used both independently and in combination with the treatment of plants with compositions according to folk recipes or chemicals.
Preventive measures
To prevent infection of the garden with a cherry sawfly, you should:
- with the onset of spring, in the middle of summer and autumn, dig and loosen the soil in tree trunks under fruit crops – this will help to achieve the death of pupae and larvae wintering there;
- regularly inspect trees;
- damaged leaves removed and burned;
- do not leave fallen leaves in tree trunks;
- whiten the trunks of fruit crops in early spring;
- do not leave dried shrubs and trees in the garden.
Conclusion
The cherry slimy sawfly is a dangerous pest that feeds on the pulp of the leaves of a number of fruit and berry crops. If you do not start a fight with him in time, he is able to greatly weaken trees and shrubs, and cause a sharp decrease in their productivity. In the case when the extent of damage to the garden by the cherry sawfly is small, agricultural practices and folk remedies can be used to combat it. If the damage from the pest is significant, then it is advisable to spray the crowns with potent chemical insecticides. Timely preventive measures taken will help to prevent a repeated attack of the parasite on the garden.