The greatest threat to pear growth is pests. Insects can significantly affect both the development of the tree itself and its yield. Fruits become small and less commonly found on branches. One of the most dangerous pests is the pear leaflet (photo below).
General description of the insect
About ten thousand species of butterflies belong to leafworms. Their main feature is that insects fold their wings on the back in a horizontal position. People call them moths. Leafworm is a small insect that infects almost the entire terrestrial part of the plant.
Two-centimeter caterpillars are a great danger to trees. They live during almost the entire warm season. Sometimes you can find a leaflet in the spring. An insect can appear even on a young seedling. Caterpillars have a different color: from green-yellow to brown. With a light touch, they bend sharply and fall from the sheet, hanging on a thin cobweb-like thread. An adult is a butterfly. The insect has long gray wings with a unique pattern: in the middle there is a wide white stripe.
Pest Life Cycle
Caterpillars gnaw leaves (leaving only veins) and fold them in the form of a tube. They form a cocoon with the help of their web. They pupate in the middle of summer (usually the beginning of July). About two weeks later, adult insects appear. Pests can give several generations in one season.
Some species of butterflies (hawthorn, rose and frost) manage to lay eggs on the trunk and leaves of the pear during the summer during the next year. The caterpillars of the remaining leafworms are able to survive the winter. They leave their cocoons in the cracks of the tree bark or directly on the branches.
Insects emerge from hibernation in early spring and penetrate the pear buds, completely eating them from the inside. As a result, some of the young shoots of the tree die.
Leaflet distribution
Insects were widely distributed in the Non-Chernozem zone. There is a leaflet on a pear and apple tree. It has dark gray wings with a span of about 1 centimeter.
In the Moscow, Leningrad and Vladimir regions, a rosette leaflet lives. A butterfly of this species has a golden or brownish-yellow color. On the wings are wavy stripes and spots.
In almost every climatic zone there is a pest of this species. About 50 varieties of litterets live in our country.
Leaf pear on a pear: signs of a disease in a tree
An alarm to the gardener should be the detection of twisted leaves. They change their color and become dark (almost black). It is especially worth checking the young trees in the spring. With a massive damage to the plant by the pest, up to 80% of the fruits and buds can be lost. If you do not fight insects, then leaf caterpillars eat more than half of the leaves of the trees.
There is a leaflet on a pear, and not only. Individuals of this species also parasitize on other fruit trees. Some types of leafworms are multi-herbivores and can damage berry trees and forest species. At risk are also hawthorn, cherry, plum, bird cherry, mountain ash and a number of other trees and shrubs. Therefore, experts recommend a comprehensive treatment of the entire garden.
How to deal with a pear leaflet in the spring?
Pest control must begin in early spring. An increase in a sunny day and air temperature is a signal for the development of not only plants, but also insects. Processing of cultural plantings needs to be done before flowering.
How to process a pear from a leaflet? Overwintering pests are destroyed by spraying plants in early spring with a special compound "Preparation 30". Insecticides are recommended to be applied before the formation of buds. If leaflets that winter in the egg stage prevail, then special preparations are used after the formation of the green cone of the future inflorescence.
The experience of gardeners showed that if a pear leaflet appeared, the following insecticides are most effective: Atom, Binom, Desant, Zolon, Terradim. The concentration of the active substance in water should be low. It is recommended to add no more than one milliliter per 1 liter of liquid. The consumption of the composition for each tree is from 2 liters, depending on size.
When buds are formed, infusions of tomatoes, tobacco (shag), chamomile, wormwood or yarrow are sprayed on the branches. Re-treatment is carried out immediately after pear flowering.
Active Pest Management
If signs of plant damage by the leafworm were not immediately found, it is worth focusing on active measures to combat insects. Young caterpillars are destroyed with the help of such biological preparations: Lepidocide, Bitoxibacillin and Fitoverma. Recommended air temperature for work should be at least 10 degrees. Experts recommend the use of pyrethroids. The most famous of them are Aivengo, Accor, Qi-Alpha, Fastak and others.
In the summer, the struggle with pear leaflet is less effective. In addition, the use of potent drugs can destroy beneficial insects. Therefore, butterfly leaflets are caught on bait. To do this, at night at a small distance from the ground hang containers with fermenting liquid.
Ways to protect fruit trees
The pear and apple tree are threatened not only by caterpillars that eat the shoots, but also by a special type of leaf moths (codling moths). Pest butterflies lay eggs at night on the top or bottom of the leaf. The larvae emerging from these eggs actively eat the pulp of the fruit, so you can completely lose the crop.
Effective methods of struggle are:
- cleaning the bark on the trunks of plants;
- burning of fallen leaves;
- whitewashing trunks with a calcareous composition.
Some gardeners have noted the good action of pesticides to kill insects. By using Fury, Inta-Vir, Kinmix and Rovikurt, you can achieve a sustainable result. Experts recommend fighting the leaflet using the full range of measures.
Preventive measures
How to spray a pear from a leaflet? Trees are treated with a special compound in early spring, at an air temperature of at least + 4 degrees. Typically, gardeners use a 0.3% solution of malathion for this. Re-processing is carried out after the pear has bloomed. Also used the drug "Prophylactin". It is necessary to dilute half a liter of liquid in 10 liters of pure water. The consumption of the composition should not exceed 5 liters per tree.
If a small amount of pests is found on the plant, insects can be collected manually. You need to be as careful as possible and try to destroy all the tracks.