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The cherry slimy sawfly is a small hymenoptera insect, a pest of stone fruit crops. Cherry sawfly larvae, vaguely resembling tiny leeches, feed on the leaves of fruit trees, completely gnawing their pulp to the base from the veins. Thus, they are able to greatly weaken the plant, which negatively affects its yield. In Polesie and the northern forest-steppe zone, one generation of this pest usually appears per year, and in the southern steppe and forest-steppe regions, two, and sometimes even three generations per season manage to develop. The damage from this insect can be very widespread. It is necessary to carefully monitor the condition of the garden and, having found a cherry sawfly on the trees, take the necessary measures without delay to get rid of it. With a small lesion, sparing folk remedies, agrotechnical techniques and preventive measures will be effective, but if the number of pests is large, then it should be fought with the help of chemicals.
What does a cherry sawfly look like?
In order for the fight against the cherry sawfly to be effective, it is necessary to have a good idea of what this dangerous pest looks like at different stages of its development and by what signs it can be determined that the tree is attacked by it.
Cherry Slime Sawfly Harms Many Garden Trees and Shrubs
The adult cherry sawfly is a small winged fly. The length of the body of the female insect is 5-6 mm (the male is usually slightly smaller), and her wingspan is about 10 mm. The body is painted shiny black. Two pairs of transparent wings located on the sides are slightly darkened in the middle, but black veins are clearly visible on their surface. Three pairs of black cherry sawfly limbs, while the lower legs of the middle pair of legs are brown.
The cherry sawfly larva is a false caterpillar reaching 10 mm in length. The color of her body is yellow-green, the head is black. There are 10 pairs of legs. The front part of the body, covered with black shiny mucus, is greatly thickened.
Pest life cycle
The development of the cherry sawfly occurs cyclically. The full circle of development lasts 2-3 months. The following stages can be distinguished in it:
- Wintering. The cherry sawfly caterpillars spend the winter in a cocoon from the ground, burrowing into the soil under fruit trees to a depth of 2 to 10 cm, depending on the climate in the place of distribution. A certain number of larvae (sometimes up to half) enter a state of diapause and remain for the next wintering.
- Pupation. In the larvae of the first generation, it occurs in the fall, and they hibernate already in a transformed form. Younger larvae (of the second generation) form pupae in the spring.
- The emergence of adult insects. The first generation of cherry sawflies leaves the ground en masse at the turn of spring-summer. Years of the second generation, more numerous, begins at the end of July.
- Laying eggs. In our area, the partogenetic form of this pest is widespread: females lay unfertilized eggs, from which exclusively female individuals are born.However, in some areas, there are also populations consisting of bisexual insects. Mating is fast. Females of the cherry sawfly fly for only 1 week, during which they manage to lay 50-75 eggs. The place of attachment of the egg is the lower part of the leaf plate. Larvae usually take 1 to 2 weeks to hatch.
- Appearance and feeding of larvae. After hatching from the egg, the larvae move to the front of the leaf. Their bodies are covered with thick dark mucus that protects them from drying out. For the next three weeks, they feed on the pulp of the leaves. During this time, the larva has time to shed 5 times. At the end of the feeding period, the larvae turn yellow, fall to the ground and, having built a cocoon of soil particles and their own mucus, leave for the winter.
The danger to plants is a pest larva that devours the pulp of the leaves.
Causes and signs of damage to cherries by a sawfly
Favorite cultures of the cherry sawfly are cherry, sweet cherry, pear, hawthorn. A little less often it affects apple, plum, apricot, quince, cotoneaster, chokeberry, blackthorn, irgu.
Warning! The cherry sawfly loves the sun's rays, so most often it attacks trees and shrubs that are sparsely planted, and if the terrain is hilly, it prefers plantings located on the southern slopes.
The following signs will help to recognize the presence of a parasite:
- at the stage of laying eggs, well-noticeable swelling, brown tubercles appear on the leaves;
- holes appear in the pulp of the leaf in the form of small "islets": this is how the first generation of larvae usually feeds;
- the second generation, more harmful, is able to eat the leaves completely, leaving only the veins and the lower skin;
- a tree that suffers greatly from this pest looks withered, "burnt" in appearance.
Why is the appearance of a sawfly on a cherry dangerous?
In the event of a mass invasion of the cherry sawfly on fruit trees, biological processes (gas exchange, photosynthesis, moisture evaporation) slow down in them. Plants weaken, become more vulnerable to diseases, bear little fruit, cease to form shoots and shed their foliage before time. In case of severe damage, the trees will give a poor harvest the next year.
The first generation of larvae eats away the leaf flesh with "islands", while the second can leave only veins from it
How to deal with a cherry sawfly
Control measures for cherry sawfly depend on how large the scale of the lesion is. If, when examining the trees, it becomes clear that the number of insects is small, then you can take on board any folk remedy, carry out agrotechnical protective measures and carry out prevention. In the event that the garden is badly damaged, chemicals will have to be used to combat the pest.
A few tips on how to deal with a cherry sawfly contains a video:
How to get rid of the cherry sawfly with folk remedies
The most famous folk methods of dealing with cherry sawfly include:
- Spraying the leaves with an infusion of pharmacy chamomile. 800 g of dry flowers of this plant are advised to be poured with water (10 l) and kept for a day. Then strain, add another 15 liters of water, and before use add 30 g of finely grated laundry soap. This remedy is used three times a week - both for prophylaxis and at the stage of cherry fruiting, in order to destroy the first generation of larvae.
- Treatment of trees with wormwood infusion. 1.2 kg of fresh grass should be dried in the sun, and then pour 10 liters of water and stand for 3 days. After filtering the composition, dissolve 50-100 g of baking soda powder in it.
- Pollination of the crown with wood ash powder or tobacco dust. The procedure is carried out immediately after rain, before the foliage has time to dry. After two applications, a significant part of the larvae crumbles down.
Chemicals in the fight against sawfly on cherries
To save plants from the dominance of cherry sawfly larvae, chemical insecticides are used. The fight against this parasite is quite effective with the help of complex preparations used against pests of fruit crops. Among them:
- Confidor - low-toxic for humans and animals means of contact-intestinal action, providing long-term protection;
- Inta-Vir - a preparation based on cypermethrin, which has a detrimental effect on the nervous system of pests;
- Calypso - highly effective low-toxic contact insecticide, resistant to rain and sun rays;
- Aktara - a highly effective systemic agent of rapid action against a wide range of insect parasites;
- Mospilan - contact-intestinal preparation, effective against eggs, larvae and adult pests.
A tree heavily affected by a cherry sawfly looks "burnt"
Other ways to deal with cherry sawfly
There are other measures to combat cherry mucous sawfly:
- if the garden area is small, mechanical collection of pest larvae and their subsequent destruction is quite effective;
- the fight against cherry sawfly can be carried out using biological products - insecticides that are harmless to humans and animals, created on the basis of bacteria that are harmful to the pest (Akarin, Bitoxibacillin);
- in the fall, you can fill the tree trunks with clay diluted in water with a layer of 1-2 cm, this will prevent insects that have overwintered in pupae from under the ground in spring;
- attract or release entomophagous insects into the garden, in particular, trichogramma, which parasitize in the eggs of the cherry sawfly, significantly reducing its number.
These methods of dealing with a slimy sawfly on cherries and other fruit crops can be used both autonomously and in combination with the treatment of plants with compositions according to folk recipes or chemicals.
Prevention measures
To prevent cherry sawfly from infesting your garden, you should:
- with the onset of spring, in the middle of summer and in autumn, dig up and loosen the soil in the near-trunk circles under fruit crops - this will help to achieve the death of pupae and larvae wintering there;
- regularly inspect trees;
- remove and burn damaged leaves;
- do not leave fallen leaves in the trunk circles;
- whitewash the trunks of fruit crops in early spring;
- do not leave dried shrubs and trees in the garden.
In case of a massive invasion of cherry sawfly, chemical insecticides will have to be applied
Conclusion
The cherry slimy sawfly is a dangerous pest that feeds on the pulp of the leaves of a number of fruit and berry crops. If you do not start fighting with it in time, it can greatly weaken trees and shrubs, and cause a sharp decrease in their yield. In the case when the scale of damage to the garden by a cherry sawfly is small, agrotechnical methods and folk remedies can be used to combat it. If the damage from the pest is significant, then it is advisable to spray the crowns with potent chemical insecticides. Timely preventive measures will help prevent the parasite from re-attacking the garden.
