Bird cherry belongs to such plants, which grow almost everywhere. It can be found in the park, and in the forest, and in the garden. The bushes themselves are capable of reaching ten meters in height, but in most cases do not exceed 5-7 meters. The flowering of this plant can be observed in early May, when fragrant white flowers collected in so-called brushes appear on the crown.
When caring for a plant such as bird cherry, special attention must be paid to pest control. The main "lover" of this plant is bird cherry moth. Even despite the fact that the leaves of this plant contain a large number of phytoncides, an attack on bird cherry parasites is a common case.
The moth itself, the control measures of which are quite diverse, is a small insect whose wing length does not exceed 1.5 cm. The body has a silver-white color and 5 longitudinally arranged rows of small black dots. The small size of the moth, the photo of which is located below, allows it to be almost invisible.
The caterpillars of this pest are yellowish in color with small black spots. Just not bird cherry moth, namely its caterpillars cause great damage to the plant. They feed exclusively on the young shoots of the plant, and even braid it with cobwebs, thus creating a nest for themselves.
When a tree is hit by caterpillars very badly, it becomes silvery from a large number of cobwebs. She enveloped not only the branches, but even the trunk. This type of caterpillar is not eaten by birds, which allows pests to reproduce quite actively.
The formation of caterpillar pupae occurs in the crevices of the trunk. Larger and stronger pupate first. In the middle of the loose shell of the nest, they form a cocoon. As the leaves on the tree crown decrease, the number of cocoons formed increases. The nest is constantly expanding due to newly arrived tracks.
A few weeks later butterflies appear. It happens in the middle of summer, in July. Bird cherry moth, as mentioned above, has a white color with distinct black dots.
Meanwhile, the plant is gradually recovering, releasing new leaves. Due to the fact that the moth appears almost at the end of summer, when there are not so many other insects, the tree survives. There are cases when, with a large area of damage, the bird cherry loses its inflorescences, as a result of which the tree does not bear fruit.
In those years that are quite common in our time, when in April there are frosts and snow, young caterpillars, which at that moment were already active, die. As a result of this, there is not much damage to the crown of trees, and the leaves remain intact, and as a result, fruits appear on the tree. This phenomenon can be attributed to biological self-regulation.
The main way to deal with this pest is the chemical method. Bird cherry moth is very sensitive to chemicals such as kalbofos and kinmiks. After spraying them with plants twice, pests die.