Cherry fly: pest control methods, what to do and what to spray

Every summer, gardeners are faced with a variety of pests, the fight against which is an important part of plant care. The cherry variegated fly causes damage to the crop of cherries, sweet cherries, apricots, barberries, honeysuckle. Distributed in Europe, Central Asia, Western Siberia and Altai. The fruits are attacked by insect larvae that feed on ripe pulp. Damaged by a cherry fly, they are unsuitable for either fresh consumption or preservation.

Description of the pest

The cherry fly is a two-winged insect, the average size of an adult is 3-5 mm.The body is black, shiny, hairy, 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

Cherry fly can destroy from 30 to 100% of fruits, sweet varieties of medium and late ripening are affected. An early crop is harvested before the fly begins to reproduce. The appearance of the parasite is facilitated by dry warm weather (from + 18 ˚С), the predominance of stone fruits of mid-ripening and late varieties on the site. The cherry fly can migrate from a neighboring garden, expanding its habitat.

Activity season

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 fleas and aphids, as well as the juice in the cracks of the trunk. The insect lives for about a month, being 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 are formed that eat the pulp, grow, and after 20 days move underground, where they pupate at a depth of 5-7 cm.

Cherry fly larvae - white or yellowish, legless, reach 6 mm in length. During growth, they molt twice, after which they fall into the soil, where they remain until the next spring. Under adverse climatic conditions, they can be in the ground, suspending the life cycle.

Methods of struggle

In order to protect the harvest of stone fruit trees, you should know how to reliably get rid of the cherry fly. The algorithm of actions is as follows:

Timely detection of a pest in the garden.
Insect control early.
Protection during fruit ripening and harvest.
Prevention.

The gardener's fight against the cherry fly begins long before depressions and spots appeared on the fruits, and the berries began 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 an annoying insect in the garden, it is recommended to use sticky traps that you can buy at the store or make your own. 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 oil and rosin in a water bath and mix until smooth, add fragrant sweetness to attract flies. Apply a thin even layer on the prepared sheet and hang on the crown of the tree. More than 20 flies on a cardboard - it's time to sound the alarm. 3 traps are enough for a garden up to 5 hectares.

If in the previous year the cherry fly has already caused trouble, it is necessary in the spring, immediately after the flowering of the trees, to place inverted boxes on the ground, in which the bottom part has been removed, replaced with gauze. They will catch flies emerging from the soil with warming.

Some of the insects can be destroyed in this way, but this will not solve the problem as a whole.

Early control of insects

When a malicious insect is detected, you should immediately begin to fight it. In order to scare away uninvited guests, it is recommended to spray the tree crown with decoctions of needles, tobacco, wormwood, garlic or onion peel.Usually they take a pound of vegetable raw materials per 10 liters of water, but this ratio can be varied as desired. A strong vegetable smell can be enhanced by adding a solution of laundry soap.

Do 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 enough for the cherry fly to start looking for another habitat.

Protection during fruit ripening and harvesting

When damaged berries are found, they must be removed from the branches and destroyed. Timely and quick harvesting in one step will help save it from a greater defeat. The container for berries is covered with burlap in order to make it easier to collect the fallen larvae. At the same time, you can not leave fruits on the branches and carrion on the ground.Affected drupes should preferably be destroyed or buried to a depth of 50 cm.

It doesn't matter what you have to spray the trees against parasites - with modern means or folk - you need to process both the crown and the soil around.

DIY traps

In addition to Velcro, they also make bait traps from plastic and glass jars. For a plastic bottle trap you will need:

1.5 or 2 liter bottle.
Kvass or beer.

In the upper part of the eggplant - at the level of the shoulders, you should cut out 3 windows, pour a liquid inside that will attract insects by smell, and hang it on a branch.

A trap from a glass jar is made like this: a spoiled product is placed in the jar - preferably a fruit, covered with a funnel and fixed along the neck with electrical tape.Insects, attracted by the smell of a fermented product, will enter through the funnel, but they will not be able to get out. Baits need to be cleaned periodically - change the liquid and remove insects.

Chemical treatment

The most powerful means against the cherry fly are insecticides. This is the "heavy artillery" in gardening. The preparations are toxic and should be used no later than 20 days before harvest. It is better to poison flies during the feeding period, preventing egg laying. The most popular are Actellik, Phasis, Pyrethrum, Parisian Greens, Mospilan, Confidor. They are recommended to be applied 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 funds must be alternated.

In addition to insecticides, biological products are used. They act softer, do not have a waiting period. Bicol, Bitoxibacillin, Lepidocid are used in the bud formation phase and after flowering, they help fight larvae and caterpillars.

"Gaupsin" acts against pests and diseases, treatment should be done 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 engage in the systematic destruction of 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 sites carry out the same pest control measures.

Prevention

Precautionary measures are aimed at preventing the larvae from turning into flies, flying out of the ground and laying eggs. To do this, several times a year, the ground under the trees is dug up and the pupae are removed by hand. It is recommended to apply soil insecticides Gromoboy, Medved-toks, Prestige.

In the fall, trunk circles are poured with diluted clay, and in the spring they are covered with gauze or agrofibre to prevent flies from reaching the surface.After harvesting, the affected fruits must be burned, the aisles should be sprayed with Hexachloran. 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 the birds help to fight insects. In the aisles, it is recommended to plant calendula, marigolds, marigolds, mint, lemon balm, the smell of which repels aphids and cherry flies.