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Pests of fruit crops reduce and sometimes destroy crops, spoil products, which cause great damage to private and farm enterprises. But, most importantly, they harm plants. If pests are not controlled, they can cause the death of a fruit tree. The gall mite on a pear is so common that it has become a real scourge of this culture.
Description and distribution of the gall mite
The gall pear mite infects, in addition to pears, rowan, apple, hawthorn, quince, cotoneaster. It is a small insect reaching a length of 0,2-0,24 mm in the imago phase (ability to reproduce). The body of the gall mite is elongated, with two pairs of legs, the mouth apparatus is piercing-sucking.
Insects, most of which are females, begin life at 10 ° C, 3 generations appear during the growing season. The first two breed and parasitize on fruit trees, the last in the middle of summer is introduced into the buds for wintering. On this, the life cycle of the gall pear mite freezes until next spring.
A photo of a gall mite on a pear, magnified many times, will help to get an idea of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe insect.
What is dangerous pear gall mite
By itself, the gall mite cannot destroy a pear. It disfigures the leaves and fruits, reduces the yield, but does not pose a critical danger to the tree.
But the pest damages leaves, flowers and young shoots. Viruses, bacteria and spores of fungal diseases easily penetrate into the puncture sites, which can cause significant harm, cause the death of entire branches or the entire tree. In addition, cell sap released from damaged greens attracts other pests.
Female gall mites overwinter in the kidneys, they begin to feed on soft tissues even before they go outside. With a massive lesion, the leaves open already deformed and small, they cannot fully participate in photosynthesis. Over time, they dry up and fall off.
Most often, fruits do not form from damaged flower buds. Those that still start up turn out small and ugly, usually crumble before reaching maturity. Yield losses can be up to 95%.
Signs of a tick on pear leaves
Kidneys affected by gall mites are clearly visible in spring. They are much larger than healthy ones, but are delayed in development by about 2 weeks. If some of the leaf or flower buds burst, and some, larger ones, are not going to open, there is reason to suspect that a gall mite hibernated there. Especially carefully you need to inspect the lower and middle parts of the crown in the immediate vicinity of the trunk.
Having got out of the kidneys, the females begin to feed on young leaves. They make holes the size of a pinhead in them and lay their eggs.
- First, light green plaques up to 3 mm in diameter are formed at the sites of damage, which are located on the underside of the pear leaf along the central vein.
- The color of the galls gradually changes to dark brown, they cover a large area.
- Brown convex plaques blacken over time. If nothing is done, they merge and cover the entire surface of the ugly twisted leaf, and it falls off.
Nymphs hatched from pest eggs in the galls feed on leaves, turn into adults, and soon the next generation of insects appears.
Measures to combat the tick on the pear
The fight against gall mites on pears and other fruit crops is difficult. The pest is introduced into the soft tissues of the plant and it is problematic to deal with it only with contact preparations. To succeed, you need to combine different methods of protection. To do this, drugs should be alternated.
Chemical preparations for gall mite on a pear
A pear affected by a gall mite is treated with one of the preparations before the buds open along the green (before the leaves open) and white (before the buds appear) cone:
- Iskra M;
- Preparation 30 Plus.
During the growing season, once every two weeks, the pear is sprayed with preparations containing pyrethroids, organophosphorus compounds and other substances of contact, intestinal or systemic action. You can use both acaricides designed to control ticks and insecticides that destroy any insects.
Recommended preparations for the fight against gall mites:
- Apollo;
- Detox;
- Karate Zeon;
- Fufanon.
Biological preparations for the fight against gall mites
Pears are sprayed with biological preparations only during the growing season. In this case, agents made on the basis of avermectins are used.
In Our Country, enteric-contact biological preparations from a tick on a pear have become widespread:
- Fitoverm;
- Vertimek.
Folk remedies for the fight against pear gall mites
Pests such as ticks cannot be removed by gentle methods. In the fight against insects, folk remedies can help, but we should not forget that the most powerful poisons are of plant origin. And you will have to spray the pear with strong infusions or decoctions that can harm a person if precautions are not taken.
The most effective remedy recognized by pest control experts is a decoction of bitter pepper. To do this, 1 kg of fresh chopped pods is poured into 10 liters of water and boiled over low heat for 2 hours. The broth is allowed to cool, filtered, sprayed with a pear.
Often gardeners from gall mites use spraying:
- dandelions, 1 kg of leaves are mixed with 3 liters of water, insisted for three days;
- potato tops, 1 kg of fresh chopped greens is poured into 10 liters of warm water, insisted for 4 hours.
You can use garlic, chamomile, marigolds. But such measures against a tick on a pear in the spring can be applied only with a slight infection. With a strong need to immediately move on to chemicals.
Preventive measures
To prevent the appearance of pear gall mites on fruit trees, at the beginning of the season, preventive treatments are carried out on trees along the green and white cone with Preparation 30 Plus and Iskra M. Correct agricultural practices and standard sanitary measures are also needed:
- cleaning trunks and skeletal branches from old bark;
- removal of plant residues from the site in the fall;
- sanitary and brightening crown pruning;
- whiter print;
- excavation of the barrel circle.
Conclusion
A gall mite on a pear can destroy a crop and create favorable conditions for the occurrence of dangerous diseases. It is difficult to fight him, but possible. It is important to be patient, because at one time it will not work to remove the pest.