Every year, many pests annoy gardeners, destroying crops, fruit shrubs and trees. The affected plants become covered with spots, their leaves curl, the fruits fall. Apple trees and other horticultural crops are susceptible to damage by the apple bee-eater, whose population significantly reduces the yield and reduces its quality. What are the distinctive features of the bug and how to deal with it?
Appearance and Nutrition Features of Apple Blossom
Flower beetle - a small brown insect with a long proboscis bent down, on which antennae are located. The size of an adult is only about 4 mm. On the elytra there are two transverse stripes that distinguish the insect from other species. The beetle has wings that make it very mobile. This affects its distribution throughout the garden.
The nutritional characteristics of the apple flower beetle are that it devours inflorescences, which prevents the formation of the ovary. In addition to apple trees, weevil infects raspberries and pears.
With the onset of spring heat (approximately +5 degrees), the beetle beetle moves to the trees and waits for a flowering period. Before that, he hibernates in the folds of tree bark or fallen leaves. The insect makes depressions in the kidneys from which juice stands out. At the same time, it lays eggs for offspring. The larvae that hatched inside the flower begin to eat it from the inside, thereby causing the wilting and withering of the inflorescences.
Insect life cycle
In early spring, at a stable air temperature of about + 6-8 degrees, adult individuals of apple weevil wake up who hid in fallen leaves or tree bark. When the first buds and flower buds appear, the females begin to lay their eggs inside. After only a few days, larvae appear on them, which feed on the petals, pistils and stamens of the flower. At this point, the fruit can no longer form, and the inflorescence itself turns brown and becomes sticky from the secretions of the larva. The larva lives from 9 to 11 days, after which it turns into a sexually mature individual, ready for breeding. It has been established: only 20 female weevils are needed in order to almost completely destroy the harvest from a whole tree.
What does the affected tree look like
The first sign of damage to a tree by an apple-based bee-eater is unopened buds. Affected areas are easy to notice against the background of a green plant. They have an unpleasant brown color and an extremely painful appearance. Affected kidneys may also secrete juice, especially in sunny weather. At the same time, if you carefully look at the affected part of the tree, you will notice a small hole through which the beetle laid eggs.
At the end of the flowering period, weevil weevils can gnaw leaves, leaving characteristic openwork openings. If you ignore the defeat of the tree, you can be left without a crop, since insects breed quite quickly and fill the entire garden.
How to get rid of an insect
In a short period of time, the beetle can cause great harm to garden crops, so it is important to start a fight with it when it detects the first signs of damage. Unfortunately, without modern chemicals, this is quite difficult, but possible. How to deal with apple blossoms folk methods? You can try the following methods:
- Collect insects by hand. The technology resembles the collection of a Colorado potato beetle - in the early morning, before the beetles have time to hide inside the buds, they should be hand-picked in a bucket filled with salt water. This method takes place, however, it cannot significantly reduce the weevil population. Many of them hide in the bark or on the branches.
- Lubrication of the trunk and branches with lime mortar. Whitewashing on trees does not allow insects to climb a tree from the ground, however it is harmless to those who have already settled on the plant.
- Shaking is done with the help of wooden sticks wrapped with soft cloth, which you need to tap on the trunk so that the beetles detach from the bark. Previously, under the tree, you need to lay the fabric in order to collect them. An apple blossom beetle can pretend to be dead and lie still for some time, however, it is necessary to burn all the collected insects.
These methods are used quite often, but chemicals are considered the most effective.
Preparations against apple weevil
Chemical agents are used to kill the insect pest population. Spraying against apple blossoms is performed during budding or in the fall after harvest. The most commonly used drugs are:
- "Fufanon", instructions for use, reviews of which indicate its high efficiency. Used in an amount of 10 ml per 10 l of water.
- Calypso is completely safe for bees, wasps and bumblebees. It is diluted with water at the rate of 2 ml per 10 liters of liquid.
- "Kinmiks" is used not only from weevils, but also from other insects that feed on foliage. The concentration of the drug is 2.5 ml per 10 liters of water.
- "Tanrek" - is not washed off by water during a rain.
- Karbofos sprayed buds on a tree. It is used at the rate of 10% of the substance in 90% of the water.
- The drug "Decis", the instructions for use which recommends a concentration of 10 ml per 10 liters of water.
- Inta-Ts-M - 1 tablet per bucket of water.
These preparations from the apple bee-eater can destroy the pest population with minimal damage to the plant. Gardeners especially mention Fufanon in the reviews, the instructions for use are simple and affordable. In addition, it has a wide spectrum of action and destroys not only the apple bee-eater, but also other pests.
Preventative measures
As a prophylaxis of tree damage by weevil, the following popular methods are used:
- Imposition of a hunting belt - for this it is necessary to twist a tight tourniquet of fabric and lay around the trunk. Matter is coated with a special, sweet, sticky compound that attracts the insect. When the insect sticks, it is important to remove it and destroy it.
- Before applying a layer of whitewash, you can clean the tree from the old bark , in which beetles can hide. Thus, their population can be significantly reduced.
- In autumn, after the leaves fall, it is recommended to pile them in a pile and send them to a compost pit or burn them . The fact is that it is in the fallen foliage that flower beetle beetles can winter.
- After harvesting the leaves, you can dig the soil.
- It is necessary to notice and remove the affected buds and buds in time so that the pest does not spread further along the tree. This will significantly reduce the damage that the bug can do and preserve most of the crop.
Such prophylaxis is good for conducting in the spring, before budding, or in autumn, after the leaves fall. Unfortunately, most methods are ineffective in the midst of flowering.
How to spray a plant
Most chemicals against the flower beetle are designed for dilution with water in the proportions specified by the manufacturer, and spraying with a spray gun.
How to spray garden plants? The following recommendations must be observed:
- It is important to properly dilute the concentrate in water so as not to harm the tree. For this, it is recommended to use measuring dishes and instructions on the product label.
- Spraying is carried out after the buds open, in dry, warm weather so that wind and rain do not prevent the drug from getting into the affected areas of the tree.
- Some substances are toxic to humans, so the treatment of horticultural crops must be done with gloves and a protective mask. It is for this reason that it is important to spray at the flowering stage so that the insecticide does not fall on the emerging fetus.
- It is advisable to use a spray gun with a long hose to be able to process the top of the tree.
- It is advisable to spray the drug at a distance of not less than 70 cm and not more than 90 cm from the foliage.
- Not only foliage and branches are subject to spraying, but also the trunk, as well as the ground around the tree.
The right approach to spraying the insecticide into plants will help to destroy insect pests as much as possible.
Integrated struggle
In order to truly protect the orchard, you need to be responsible in controlling insects. The best effect can be achieved by applying a complex of methods, which consists of agrotechnical and chemical control, as well as prevention.
At the same time, in order to least injure the tree by spraying, experienced gardeners recommend choosing complex chemical agents that act not only on the apple bee-eater, but also on other harmful insects.
Selection of varieties of apple trees that are resistant to flower beetle
All varieties of apple trees can be divided into several types: weakly resistant, medium resistant, highly resistant, immune. Gardeners recommend paying attention to the last 2 species if there is no time, desire or ability to fight fruit pests.
Among them, the following varieties can be distinguished - Soyuz, Fairy, Rodnichok, Vasilisa, Palette, Talisman, Linda, Red Poppy, Prima, Aphrodite, Red Amber. They are highly resistant not only to beetles, but also to many common diseases of fruit trees.
Effectively combining the right varieties of apple trees with decent care and timely processing, you can get a large and tasty crop.