Every summer, gardeners are faced with a variety of pests, the control of which is an important component of plant care. The cherry mottled fly causes damage to the harvest of cherries, cherries, apricots, barberries, and honeysuckles. Distributed in Europe, Central Asia, Western Siberia and Altai. The fruits are infested by insect larvae that feed on the ripe pulp. Damaged by the cherry fly, they are unsuitable for either fresh consumption or canning.
Description of the pest
The cherry fly is a dipterous insect, the size of an adult individual is on average 3-5 mm. The body is black, shiny, shaggy, with stripes on the abdomen and a bright yellow shield on the back. On transparent wings with yellowish veins at the base there are dark transverse stripes. Most of the head is occupied by green compound eyes.
Reasons for appearance
The cherry fly can destroy from 30 to 100% of the fruit; sweet varieties of medium and late ripening are affected. The early harvest is harvested before the fly begins to reproduce. The appearance of the parasite is facilitated by dry, warm weather (from + 18 ˚C), and the predominance of mid-season and late varieties of stone fruit trees on the site. The cherry fly may migrate from a neighboring garden, expanding its habitat.
Season of activity
Depending on weather conditions, the garden pest appears from mid-May to the end of June. The female cherry fly feeds heavily before laying eggs. It collects the secretions of leaf flea beetles and aphids, as well as sap in the cracks of the trunk. The insect lives for about a month and is active in warm, dry sunny weather. Lays one egg at a time in green and beginning to ripen fruits. One individual can infect up to 150 fruits. In 10 days, larvae form, eat the pulp, grow, and after 20 days they move underground, where they pupate at a depth of 5-7 cm.
Cherry fly larvae are white or yellowish, legless, and reach 6 mm in length. During growth, they molt twice, after which they fall into the soil, where they remain until next spring. Under unfavorable climatic conditions, they can remain in the ground, stopping their life cycle.
Fighting methods
To protect your stone fruit crop, you should know how to reliably get rid of the cherry fly. The algorithm of actions is as follows:
- Timely detection of pests in the garden plot.
- Early insect control.
- Protection during fruit ripening and harvesting.
- Prevention.
The gardener's struggle with the cherry fly begins long before depressions and spots appear on the fruits, and the berries begin to fade and fall off. The earlier the pest is detected, the more effective the measures taken will be.
How to identify a pest
To quickly identify annoying insects in the garden, it is recommended to use sticky traps, which you can buy in a store or make yourself. For a homemade trap, you will need to paint a sheet of thin plywood or cardboard yellow and prepare a sticky composition according to the following recipe:
- Castor oil - 2 tbsp. l.
- Liquid rosin - 1 tbsp. l.
- Jam or honey - 1 tbsp. l.
Heat the oil and rosin in a water bath and mix until smooth, add aromatic sweetness to attract flies. Apply a thin, even layer to the prepared sheet and hang on the tree crown. More than 20 flies on a piece of cardboard - it’s time to sound the alarm. 3 traps are enough for a garden of up to 5 hectares.
If the cherry fly has already caused trouble in the previous year, you need to place inverted boxes on the ground in the spring, immediately after the trees bloom, in which the bottom part has been removed and replaced with gauze. They will catch flies emerging from the soil as the weather warms.
Some of the insects can be destroyed in this way, but this will not solve the problem as a whole.
Early insect control
If a harmful insect is detected, you should immediately begin to combat it.In order to scare away uninvited guests, it is recommended to spray the tree crown with decoctions of pine needles, tobacco, wormwood, garlic or onion peels. Usually they take half a kilo of plant material per 10 liters of water, but this ratio can be varied as desired. The pungent herbal odor can be enhanced by adding a solution of laundry soap.
We must not forget that aphids and ants are active participants in the life cycle of the cherry fly. Before you start fighting the main pest, you need to take action against the other two species. The destruction of the aphid population in the garden is often enough for the cherry fly to start looking for another habitat.
Protection during fruit ripening and harvesting
If damaged berries are found, they must be removed from the branches and destroyed. Timely and quick harvesting in one go will help save it from greater damage. The container for the berries is covered with burlap to make it easier to collect the fallen larvae. At the same time, you should not leave fruits on the branches and carrion on the ground. It is advisable to destroy the affected drupes or bury them to a depth of 50 cm.
It doesn’t matter what you have to spray the trees against parasites with - modern or folk remedies - you need to treat both the crown and the soil around it.
DIY traps
In addition to Velcro, bait traps are also made from plastic and glass jars. For a plastic bottle trap you will need:
- Bottle 1.5 or 2 l.
- Kvass or beer.
In the upper part of the eggplant - at the level of the hangers, you should cut out 3 windows, pour liquid inside, which will attract insects with its smell, and hang it on a branch.
A trap made from a glass jar is made like this: a spoiled product is placed in the jar - preferably fruit, covered with a funnel and secured along the neck with electrical tape. Insects, attracted by the smell of the fermented product, will enter through the funnel, but will no longer be able to get out. Baits need to be cleaned periodically - change the liquid and remove insects.
Treatment with chemicals
The most powerful remedies against cherry flies are insecticides. This is the “heavy artillery” in gardening. The drugs are toxic and should be used no later than 20 days before harvest. It is better to poison flies during the feeding period, preventing the laying of eggs. The most popular are “Aktellik”, “Phasis”, “Pyrethrum”, “Paris Green”, “Mospilan”, “Confidor”. They are recommended to be used 10 days after the fly leaves the ground and again after another 12 days. No less effective are “Spark”, “Karate” and “Lightning”. Insects tend to adapt to poisons, so the products must be alternated.
In addition to insecticides, biological products are used. They act more gently and have no waiting period. “Bikol”, “Bitoxibacillin”, “Lepidocid” are used in the phase of bud formation and after flowering, they help fight larvae and caterpillars.
"Gaupsin" acts against pests and diseases; treatment should be carried out every 2 weeks, and more often in the rainy season.
Early varieties are not processed. High results are achieved by a combination of insecticides and biological products. If you do not systematically destroy the pest throughout the season, its population will increase year by year, which will eventually lead to the death of plants. It is important that neighboring areas carry out the same pest control measures.
Prevention
Preventative measures are aimed at preventing the larvae from turning into flies, flying out of the ground and laying eggs. To do this, the ground under the trees is dug up several times a year and the pupae are removed manually. It is recommended to apply soil insecticides “Gromoboy”, “Medved-Tox”, “Prestige”.
In the fall, the tree trunk circles are filled with diluted clay, and in the spring they are covered with gauze or agrofibre to prevent flies from coming to the surface. After harvesting, the affected fruits must be burned and the row spaces sprayed with Hexachlorane. Be sure to regularly remove fallen leaves and dry branches from under the tree. It is recommended to hang birdhouses in the garden so that birds can help fight insects. It is recommended to plant calendula, marigolds, marigolds, mint, lemon balm in the rows, the smell of which repels aphids and cherry flies.
