Raspberry-strawberry weevil is a dangerous pest. This is a small bug (up to 3 mm) of gray-black color of the family of weevils. It hibernates under lumps of soil and plant debris. In the spring, when warming up to 10 degrees Celsius, beetles wake up and come to the surface.
Females begin to lay eggs in strawberry buds, later they will go to raspberry buds. One female can damage up to 50 buds, leaving one egg in each.
The weevil on the strawberries leaves punctures that are visible only upon careful examination. The crippled specimens wilt, dry out. Since the females gnaw the pedicels, they fall on the soil.
From the eggs appear larvae (white false caterpillars), which pupate, giving a new generation. Going out, a young weevil on a strawberry eats green berries and pulp of leaves, spoiling them, and then moves to raspberries. To hibernate, it leaves the soil.
Gardeners, faced with this pest, are wondering how to fight and how to treat strawberries from weevils.
In early spring, beds with strawberries must be watered with hot water (the temperature of the liquid should be about 60 degrees). During the budding period (a week before flowering), strawberries and raspberries can be treated with a solution of laundry soap (200 g of soap are dissolved in 10 liters of water) or a solution of mustard (200 g of mustard are taken per 10 liters of water). Damaged buds must be collected and burned. In early May, you can use the following biological products: Iskra, Fitoverm, Akarin, Iskra-bio. These funds are absorbed by the leaves in 3 hours, the protection lasts about three weeks.
If the weevil on the strawberries has multiplied greatly, then after harvesting the plot is best treated with insecticidal solutions (Corsair, Actellic, Karbofos, Wofatox, Ambush, Gordon, Metafos, etc.) . It is advisable to carry out chemical treatment in the morning to reduce the damage caused to useful ground beetles that destroy pests (1 ground beetle eats 20 weevils per day).
It is very important to follow the rules of agricultural technology, not to plant strawberries next to raspberries, as this makes it easier for the bug to relocate from one plant to another. Observing crop rotation and digging the soil under the bushes in the fall will reduce the number of pests.
Opponents of using chemistry in their garden can also recommend another way to solve this problem. Strawberry weevil can also be destroyed using a safe natural remedy. For its preparation, a three-liter cylinder should be filled by a third with onion husks and celandine grass in a ratio of 2: 1, then pour boiling water. After cooling, strain the resulting solution and spray. The first time - when the first flowers bloom, the second - after two weeks. This will be enough. It should be noted that this remedy acts against almost all pests, and it does not scare away the bees, so that spraying will not affect the pollination. Moreover, it is still the prevention of fungal diseases, in particular, gray rot.
The fight against weevils on strawberries may not be carried out, since this pest does not cause severe damage to the crop, because something must remain for its posterity.