Gooseberry moth: control and prevention measures

Many gardeners growing gooseberries and other berry crops on their plots faced the need to eliminate damage to bushes caused by various insects in the process of care. Gooseberry moth is one of the most common pests and, with uncontrolled reproduction, can lead to a significant reduction in the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the crop.

What does gooseberry moth look like

A small gray butterfly, similar to a moth, with a wingspan of up to 3 cm, reaches a length of no more than 1,5 cm. The front wings are dark gray in color, with light stripes and a brown spot in the center. The second pair of wings is fringed, lighter, with dark edging.

Butterfly flight activity depends on the weather and the level of air temperature. As a rule, this period coincides with the beginning of the gooseberry flowering and lasts almost a month. Within a week after emergence, adult moths lay white oval-shaped eggs 0,7 mm in size, first in a bud, then in flowers, and later on an ovary. Each female moth is able to lay up to 200 eggs. The flight of moths in warm weather lasts several days, in cold weather 1-2 weeks. After 10 days, caterpillars 2 to 3 mm long with a small black head and 16 legs emerge from the eggs. Newborn caterpillars are painted white with a yellow tint, then, as they grow older, they become gray-green, with clearly visible dark blurry stripes. The maximum length of their body is 9 – 15 mm.

The offspring of moths begin to massively gnaw at the pulp and seeds of flowers and ovaries, wrapping them in cobwebs. In one ovary there is only 1 caterpillar, the rest occupy places in neighboring buds. Caterpillars actively feed and develop for about a month, after which they prepare for pupation. This period coincides with the full ripening of the berries. Having completed the development stage, in the 2nd – 3rd decade of June, future moth butterflies descend from the gooseberry to the ground with the help of cobwebs, deepen by 5 – 7 cm and pupate.

Brown moth pupae with 8 curved spines develop up to 9 mm in length. They overwinter in cocoons of grey-green cobwebs, 5-7 pieces in the upper layer of soil under debris and fallen leaves within a radius of no more than 40 cm from gooseberry bushes. In spring, the pupae turn into moths.

In the photo, an adult gooseberry moth:

What harm does gooseberry moth do?

Gooseberry moth is ubiquitous in the central and northern parts of Our Country and can destroy from 50 to 90% of the crop.

The main food of caterpillars are seeds and berry pulp. For a short period, 1 caterpillar is able to gnaw 5-7 gooseberries. Spoiled fruits turn brown and dry out.

Signs of gooseberry infection

To determine the cause of spoilage of berries and to find gooseberry moth on the bushes, it is enough to carefully examine the branches of the bushes. Violation of the integrity of the berries, the presence of holes in the peel, their entanglement in the web – all these signs indicate that the gooseberry has been exposed to pests. Every day the number of spoiled fruits will increase, and in the absence of timely protection measures, you can lose the entire crop.

Gooseberry moth quickly enough covers new areas of the plant, creating whole cobweb lumps, inside which there can be up to 6 berries. Some may appear intact, others look rotten or withered. The gooseberry moth does not touch the shell of the berries, eating only their pulp and seeds.

Having stirred up the spider nest and crushed the berry, which seems intact, inside you can see a rather long caterpillar, up to 1 cm in size. Gradually, the number of good fruits will be significantly reduced, and the caterpillars will leave the bushes, going down on the web. This process can also be seen with the naked eye.

How to deal with gooseberry moth

Having found the presence of gooseberry moth on the bushes, you should immediately take protective measures aimed at destroying the pest. The main common methods include:

1. People’s – using various natural and plant components.
2. chemical – the most effective, but unsafe for the plants themselves and humans. They involve the use of chemicals.
3. Agrotechnical – a set of activities that each gardener can independently carry out on his site.

When choosing the most appropriate method for treating bushes from the effects of gooseberry moth, it is necessary to take into account and take into account all the strengths and weaknesses of each method.

Folk remedies

For a long time, the owners of garden plots have not only been breeding, growing and harvesting berries, but also improving the well-known and common methods of dealing with gooseberry moth. Practical experience is passed down from generation to generation and includes the use of affordable, effective means:

1. Mustard infusion. 100 g of dry mustard is diluted in a bucket of water, infused for 2 days at room temperature, filtered and combined with water, 2 times the volume of the infusion.
2. Pine extract. Two liters of hot water pour 200 g of spruce or pine needles, cover and incubate for a week, stirring daily. The finished infusion is filtered and diluted in a ratio of 1:10. Plants for pest control are sprayed once a week during the entire flowering period.
3. Infusion of tomato leaves. To treat gooseberries from moths, 1 kg of tomato is left to soak in a bucket of water for a day. Bushes are sprayed with a strained composition once a day.
4. A solution of wood ash and soap. 1 kg of ash is infused in a bucket of water for 7 days. The liquid is filtered and soap is added so that the resulting infusion sticks to the leaves. Infected gooseberry bushes are sprayed during the formation of ovaries.
5. A solution of elderberry powder. In 1 liter of water, insist 10 g of powder, filter after 48 hours. It is recommended to process gooseberries in the evening, during the period of the greatest activity of butterflies – moths. To do this, 200 ml of the concentrate is diluted in 800 ml of water before spraying.
6. Infusion of pharmaceutical chamomile. 100 g of dried chamomile flowers are poured into 10 liters of hot water. Infuse for 2 days and treat gooseberry bushes 4 days after the flowers have fully bloomed.

As an alternative, you can use tansy grass, yarrow, onion.

7. Tobacco decoction. 400 g of shag or tobacco dust are infused in 10 liters of water for 48 hours. Then diluted in the same amount of water. Sprayed during the flowering period with a frequency of 1 time per week.
8. On the advice of the famous breeder I.V. Michurin, the gooseberry moth, densely settled on the bushes, can be frightened off by sticking an elderberry branch into each.

Regardless of the chosen method of dealing with moths, gooseberries should be processed early in the morning or in the evening so that the leaves do not get sunburned.

How to get rid of moths on gooseberries with chemicals

If, when moth butterflies were found on gooseberries, all the measures taken to combat them did not give the proper result and it was not possible to defeat the pest, you will have to use more effective, but unsafe methods based on the use of chemicals.

The means of combating a strong degree of impact on pests include Actellik, Karbofos, Etaphos. Such treatment will not only protect the gooseberry from moth, but also serve as a preventive measure for the occurrence of a fungal disease – anthracnose. This disease is characterized by the appearance of small dark spots that merge over time. The disease can lead to almost complete denudation of bushes by the end of summer and a reduction in harvest. Spraying with chemical solutions is carried out after flowering is completed. If in the current year there is a mass defeat of the bushes by butterflies, then in the next year it is recommended to treat the bushes before flowering begins.

Here are some more tips that can help in the fight against gooseberry moth:

1. Treatment of branches with a 12% solution of dust. After a week after spraying the branches, about 50 g of dry dust should be scattered under each gooseberry bush.
2. The soil can be treated with hexachlorane. Poisoned mail will help in the fight against pests and lead to the death of butterflies crawling on it.
3. During the formation of buds, the branches are sprayed with Kinmiks, Gardona, Iskra, Karate, Fufanon preparations. Insecticides have a wide spectrum of action and effectively destroy the gooseberry moth at all stages of its development.
4. After flowering is completed, treatment with biological preparations Gomelin, Lepidocid, Bitoxibacillin, Agravertin is recommended.

From the completion of the treatment of gooseberry bushes with chemicals to the beginning of the collection of berries, a time interval of at least 1 month must be maintained.

If the invasion of gooseberry moths on the site did not have time to take on a mass character, it is better to fight them in ways that are safe for human health and the environment.

Mechanical methods of dealing with gooseberry moth

One of the most effective ways to deal with gooseberry moth, as the experience of gardeners shows, is digging the land surrounding the berry bush. The work will require the application of certain physical efforts, but the result will please with its efficiency. To protect the berries from the appearance of moths and destroy the pupae that have settled for the winter, it is necessary to spud all the bushes at the base by 10 – 15 cm.

Moth butterflies will not be able to get out from under such a layer of soil. To achieve the best result, it is necessary to take the soil in a layer of at least 5 cm, located between the rows, where the presence of moth pupae is unlikely. In autumn, after the leaves fall off the ground, the soil near the bushes is also recommended to be mulched with peat or compost with a layer of 8–10 cm. The resulting mulch can be covered with foil, roofing paper or mulch paper. In this state, the soil should be until spring. 2 weeks after the gooseberry blooms, the surface layer must be removed.

There are many simple proven and accessible to every gardener ways to deal with gooseberry moth using mechanical methods:

1. Setting traps with fermented juice.
2. Placement of electrical and light traps on the site.
3. Planting tomatoes and red elderberries near gooseberry bushes will scare away moths.
4. Watering shrubs with hot water in early spring before the snow cover melts.
5. Laying roofing material near the base of the bushes – from the root to the end of the branches. The method is best used in late autumn at a time when moth caterpillars have pupated for wintering. A tightly laid layer will not allow gooseberry moths to crawl out to the surface in spring. To consolidate the result for the second year, the procedure must be repeated.

How to protect gooseberries from moths

In order to prevent and control the pest, it is necessary to regularly bypass and inspect shrubs to detect moths on gooseberries and destroy caterpillars and berries spoiled by them, entangled in cobwebs. This will help to take protective measures in time and protect the rest of the crop from the rapid spread of gooseberry moth. It is necessary to inspect other plants located in the immediate vicinity of the gooseberry plantings. So, berry crops beloved by moths – currants or raspberries – can become the source of their appearance.

Natural factors and knowledge of the life features of moths will help gardeners in the destruction of their population. In the conditions of a dry hot summer, moth larvae die without having time to hide in the upper layers of the soil.

A parasitic fungus called pink muscardine develops in spring with heavy rainfall and has a detrimental effect on the development of butterflies. Various insects, for example, flies – tahini and riders of the braconid family, can also provide help to gardeners in the fight against moth.

Trichograms (pictured) are released on gooseberry bushes during the laying of eggs with moths. Small insects damage the shell and parasitize the hatched caterpillars. The presence of ground beetles in the garden also reduces the number of gooseberry moths.

In addition, shrubs need to provide good lighting and air circulation. Bushes should not be allowed to thicken; timely thinning and pruning of gooseberries should be carried out. And with the onset of autumn, it is recommended to clean the soil near the bushes from debris and fallen leaves.

Conclusion

Gooseberry moth, despite the outward harmless appearance, with mass reproduction is capable of destroying a significant part of the gooseberry crop. There are several ways to fight to protect the site from the invasion of these pests. Each gardener will be able to choose the most suitable method for dealing with moths, based on financial and physical capabilities. But do not forget that in order to obtain an environmentally friendly crop, pesticides should be used as a last resort, giving preference to safe biological and folk remedies.