One of the most dangerous pests that can reduce the crop by almost half is the gooseberry moth. In order to effectively destroy the pest, you need to know what it is, and to know the conditions of its living. This is a small butterfly with gray front wings with brown stripes. In spring, butterfly females lay their eggs in flower buds, and then in the ovary itself. Caterpillars that subsequently appear first eat flowers, and then eat the flesh of the fruit. Berries prematurely begin to change their color and dry.
Caterpillars are green in color and slightly smaller than butterflies. By about mid-June, they climb into the topsoil and pupate right at the base of the bushes. That is why when a pest such as gooseberry mumps appears, control measures include in their list the item according to which it is necessary to dig the soil not only under the bushes, but also near them. Many of the pupae will be on the surface and freeze with the onset of cold weather. In addition, the bushes must be spud. Land should be taken away from the bush. This process is quite time-consuming, since the earthing up must be carried out by 10-15 cm. Even if one of the pupae remains in the ground, it simply cannot get out from under a layer of this thickness.
Those pupae that still managed to survive spend the winter in the uppermost layer of soil. In the spring, when buds appear on the bushes, butterflies begin to appear - gooseberry moth. Control measures during this period are quite significant. After all, if you use some chemicals, you need to catch it before flowering, otherwise the gooseberry moth will destroy some of the flowers. What to do during this period? It is necessary to spray the soil under the bushes with hexachlorane. Butterflies crawling on such soil will die. A weak solution of anabazine sulfate, nicotine sulfate has a similar effect. For greater effect, a small amount of soap can be added to the solution.
But this is not all the drugs that can destroy such a pest as gooseberry moth. Control measures include many procedures. During the years of the mass invasion of this pest, the soil surface was pollinated with a 12 percent dust solution. In addition, 50 grams of the drug was poured under the bush a week before flowering. During the formation of buds for spraying, it is recommended to use a drug such as Kinmix. In addition, immediately after flowering, you can use the biological drug "Lepidocide" or "Bitoxybacillin."
However, many gardeners try not to use chemicals. What to do in this case when a pest appears on a shrub called gooseberry moth? There are control measures without chemicals, and there are quite a few of them. Spraying the bushes can be done on the fifth day of flowering with infusions of chamomile, onion, mustard, tansy, yarrow, shag. To obtain the greatest effect, the treatment can be repeated 3-4 times with an interval of about a week. During the formation of the ovaries, spraying can be done with a soap-ash solution.
The fight against gooseberry moths includes in its list the mechanical collection of damaged berries. Using this method, you protect the rest of the fruits. Damaged fruits include not only wilted fruits, but also painted or braided with cobwebs. In addition, it is necessary to remove and destroy nests from the web, which gooseberry moths have woven in the bushes. One of the simple ways to deter this pest is a bed of tomatoes located in close proximity. If you do not know how to deal with gooseberry moths, you can turn to folk methods. If the area of the garden is small, set up a kind of trap - containers with fermenting juices. In addition, in specialized stores you can buy an electric trap or a light trap.