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Many gardeners who grow gooseberries and other berry crops on their plots have faced in the process of leaving with the need to eliminate damage to the bushes caused by various insects. Gooseberry moth is one of the most common pests and, with uncontrolled reproduction, can lead to a significant reduction in the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the crop.
What does a gooseberry moth look like?
A small gray moth-like butterfly with a wingspan of up to 3 cm, in length reaches no more than 1.5 cm. The front wings are dark gray in color, with light stripes and a brown spot in the center. The second pair of wings is fringed, lighter, with a dark edging.
The departure activity of butterflies depends on the weather and the level of air temperature. As a rule, this period coincides with the beginning of the gooseberry flowering and lasts almost a month. Within a week after departure, adult moths lay white oval eggs 0.7 mm in size, first in the bud, then in the flowers, and later on the ovary. Each female moth is able to lay up to 200 eggs. Years of moths in warm weather last several days, in cold weather 1 - 2 weeks. After 10 days, caterpillars 2 to 3 mm long emerge from the eggs with a small black head and 16 legs. Newborn caterpillars are white with a yellow tint, then, as they mature, they become gray-green, with well-visible dark blurred stripes. Their maximum body length is 9-15 mm.
The offspring of moths begins to massively gnaw the pulp and seeds of flowers and ovaries, enveloping them in cobwebs. In one ovary there is only 1 caterpillar, the rest take places in neighboring buds. Caterpillars actively feed and develop for about a month, after which they prepare for pupation. This period coincides with the full ripening of the berries. Having completed the stage of development, in the 2nd - 3rd decade of June, future moth butterflies, with the help of cobwebs, descend from the gooseberry to the ground, deepen by 5 - 7 cm and pupate.
Brown moth pupae with 8 curved spines develop up to 9 mm in length. They hibernate in cocoons made of gray-green cobwebs, 5 - 7 each in the upper soil layer under debris and fallen leaves within a radius of no more than 40 cm from gooseberry bushes. In spring, pupae turn into moths.
In the photo there is an adult gooseberry moth:
What harm does gooseberry moth do?
Gooseberry moth is ubiquitous in central and northern Russia and can destroy 50 to 90% of the crop.
The main food of caterpillars is seeds and berry pulp. For a short period, 1 caterpillar is able to gnaw 5 - 7 gooseberry berries. Spoiled fruits turn brown and dry out.
Signs of a gooseberry infection
To determine the cause of berry spoilage and find a gooseberry moth on the bushes, it is enough to carefully examine the branches of the bushes. Violation of the integrity of the berries, the presence of holes in the peel, entanglement in the web - all these signs indicate that the gooseberry has been exposed to pest butterflies.Every day the number of spoiled fruits will increase, and in the absence of timely protection measures, you can lose the entire crop.
The gooseberry moth quickly enough covers new parts of the plant, creating whole spiderweb clumps, inside which there can be up to 6 berries. Some may appear intact, while others may look rotten or withered. The gooseberry moth does not touch the shell of the berries, eating only their pulp and seeds.
Having pounded the spider's nest and crushed the berry, which seems to be intact, inside you can see a rather long caterpillar, up to 1 cm in size. Gradually, the number of good fruits will decrease significantly, and the caterpillars will leave the bushes, going down on the cobweb. This process can also be seen with the naked eye.
How to deal with a moth on a gooseberry
Having found the presence of gooseberry moths on the bushes, you should immediately take protective measures aimed at destroying the pest. The main common methods are:
- Folk - using various natural and plant components.
- Chemical - the most effective, but unsafe for the plants themselves and humans. They consist in the use of chemicals.
- Agrotechnical - a set of activities that each gardener can independently carry out on his site.
When choosing the most suitable method for treating bushes from the effects of gooseberry moth, it is necessary to take into account and take into account all the strengths and weaknesses of each method.
Folk remedies
For a long time, the owners of garden plots not only have been engaged in breeding, growing and harvesting berries, but also improving the well-known and common methods of combating moths on gooseberries. Practical experience is passed down from generation to generation and includes the use of affordable, effective tools:
- Mustard infusion. In a bucket of water, 100 g of dry mustard are diluted, insisted for 2 days at room temperature, filtered and combined with water that is 2 times the volume of the infusion.
- Needle extract. Two liters of hot water are poured over 200 g of spruce or pine needles, covered and kept for a week, stirring daily. The finished infusion is filtered and diluted in a ratio of 1:10. Plants for pest control are sprayed once a week during the entire flowering period.
- Infusion of tomato tops. To process gooseberries from moths, 1 kg of tomato is left to soak in a bucket of water for a day. The strained composition is sprayed with bushes once a day.
- A solution of wood ash and soap. 1 kg of ash is infused in a bucket of water for 7 days. The liquid is filtered and soap is added so that the resulting infusion adheres to the leaves. Infected gooseberry bushes are sprayed during the period of ovary formation.
- Elderberry powder solution. In 1 liter of water, 10 g of powder is insisted, after 48 hours it is filtered. It is recommended to process gooseberries in the evening, during the period of greatest activity of butterflies - moths. To do this, dilute 200 ml of the concentrate in 800 ml of water before spraying.
- Infusion of pharmacy chamomile. 100 g of chamomile dried flowers are poured into 10 liters of hot water. Insist 2 days and process the gooseberry bushes 4 days after the flowers bloom completely.
Alternatively, you can use tansy herb, yarrow, and onions.
- Tobacco broth. 400 g of tobacco or tobacco dust is infused in 10 liters of water for 48 hours. Then it is diluted in the same amount of water. It is sprayed during the flowering period once a week.
- On the advice of the well-known breeder I. V. Michurin, the gooseberry moth, which is densely settled on the bushes, can be frightened off by sticking an elderberry branch into each.
Regardless of the chosen method of combating moths, gooseberry treatment should be carried out early in the morning or in the evening so that the leaves do not get sunburn.
How to get rid of gooseberry moths with chemicals
If, when moth butterflies were found on the gooseberry, all the measures taken to combat them did not give the desired result and the pest could not be defeated, you will have to use more effective, but unsafe methods based on the use of chemicals.
Means for controlling a strong degree of exposure to pests include "Actellik", "Karbofos", "Etaphos". Such treatment will not only protect the gooseberries from moths, but will also prevent the occurrence of a fungal disease - anthracnose. This disease is characterized by the appearance of small dark spots that fade over time. The disease can lead to almost complete exposure of the bushes by the end of summer and a reduction in harvest. Spraying with chemical solutions is carried out after flowering is complete. If in the current year there is a massive defeat of the bushes by butterflies, then in the next year it is recommended to process the bushes before flowering.
Here are some more tips to help you fight gooseberry moth:
- Processing of branches with a 12% solution of dust. After a week after spraying the branches, scatter about 50 g of dry dust under each gooseberry bush.
- The soil can be treated with hexachlorane. Poisoned mail will help in the fight against pests and lead to the death of butterflies crawling on it.
- During the budding period, the branches are sprayed with Kinmix, Gardona, Iskra, Karate, Fufanon preparations. Insecticidal agents have a wide spectrum of action and effectively destroy the gooseberry moth at all stages of its development.
- After the end of flowering, treatment with biological preparations "Gomelin", "Lepidocid", "Bitoxibacillin", "Agravertin" is recommended.
From the end of the treatment of gooseberry bushes with chemicals until the start of berry picking, a time interval of at least 1 month must be maintained.
If the invasion of gooseberry moths on the site did not have time to take on a mass character, it is better to fight them using methods that are safe for human health and the environment.
Mechanical methods of dealing with gooseberry moth
One of the most effective ways to combat the gooseberry moth, as the experience of gardeners shows, is to dig up the land surrounding the berry bush. The work will require the application of certain physical efforts, but the result will please with its effectiveness. To protect the berries from the appearance of moths and to destroy the pupae that have settled for the winter, it is necessary to spud all the bushes at the base by 10 - 15 cm.
Moth butterflies will not be able to get out from under such a layer of soil. To achieve the best result, it is necessary to take the soil with a layer of at least 5 cm, located between the rows, where the presence of moth pupae is unlikely. In autumn, after the foliage has fallen off, the ground and the soil near the bushes are also recommended to be mulched with peat or compost with a layer of 8 - 10 cm. The resulting mulch can be covered with foil, tar paper or mulch paper. The soil should be in this state until spring. 2 weeks after the gooseberry has bloomed, the surface layer must be removed.
There are many simple, proven and accessible to every gardener ways to combat gooseberry moth with mechanical methods:
- Setting up traps with fermented juice.
- Placement of electric and light catchers on the site.
- Planting tomatoes and red elderberries near gooseberry bushes will scare away the moth.
- Watering shrubs with hot water in early spring before the snow cover melts.
- Laying roofing material near the base of the bushes - from the root to the end of the branches. The method is best used in late autumn, when the moth caterpillars pupated for wintering. A densely laid layer will not allow gooseberry moths to crawl out to the surface in the spring. To consolidate the result obtained for the second year, the procedure must be repeated.
How to protect gooseberries from moth
In order to prevent and combat the pest, it is necessary to regularly walk and inspect the shrubs to detect moths on the gooseberries and destroy the caterpillars and the berries they spoiled, entangled in cobwebs. This will help to take protective measures in time and save the rest of the crop from the rapid spread of the gooseberry moth. It is necessary to inspect other plants in the immediate vicinity of the gooseberry plantings. So, berry crops, beloved by the moth, - currants or raspberries - can become the source of their appearance.
Natural factors and knowledge of the characteristics of the life of fireflies will help gardeners in the destruction of their population. In a dry, hot summer, moth larvae die, not having time to hide in the upper layers of the soil.
A parasitic fungus called pink muscardine develops in the spring with heavy rainfall and has a detrimental effect on the development of butterflies. Various insects can also help gardeners in the fight against moths, for example, flies - tahinas and wasps of the poached family.
Trichograms (pictured) are released on gooseberry bushes during the laying of eggs by moths. Small insects damage the shell and parasitize on hatched caterpillars. The presence of ground beetles in the garden also reduces the number of gooseberry moths.
In addition, shrubs need good lighting and air circulation. The thickening of the bushes should not be allowed; timely thinning and pruning of gooseberries should be carried out. And with the onset of autumn, it is recommended to clean the soil around the bushes from debris and fallen leaves.
Conclusion
The gooseberry moth, despite its outwardly harmless appearance, during mass reproduction is capable of destroying a significant part of the gooseberry berry crop. There are several ways to combat to protect the site from the invasion of these pests. Each gardener will be able to choose the most suitable method of combating moths, based on financial and physical capabilities. But do not forget that in order to obtain an ecologically clean crop, pesticides should be used in the last place, giving preference to safe biological and folk remedies.
