Gooseberry fire. Fire fighting

Among the most common gardens, it is impossible not to single out the gooseberry moth, which every year spoils a lot of the crop.

Damaged and cobwebbed fruits turn brown and dry out quickly. Thus, with the invasion of the moth, the entire crop is at risk.

Life cycle

Pupae of the pest spend the winter in cobweb cocoons placed in cracks or in the surface of the soil, not far from the bushes themselves and. The period of bud formation on the plant is characterized by a mass flight of butterflies, lasting almost a month.

At the end of the flowering period of the bushes, the pest lays eggs inside the flowers. Just one female can leave up to 200 eggs, distributing them two per flower. After 10 days, caterpillars appear from the masonry, which, in search of food, gnaw the buds and get to the fruits.
If there are several caterpillars in one bud at once, then one of them will soon move to the nearest empty bud. The affected parts of the plant are covered with cobwebs.

The development and active feeding of caterpillars lasts about 1 month, after which they will be completely ready for pupation: they sink into the ground and are covered with a gray dense cocoon right at the base of the bushes. This period usually coincides with the ripening of berries of plants affected by the pest.

Only those specimens to which the moth has nevertheless reached change color prematurely, and then rot or dry, continuing to hang in the web. For the whole season, only one generation of gooseberry moth develops.

Risk group

As the name implies, the gooseberry moth prefers it, but it feels good on or even.
In all these cases, they gnaw the ovaries and unripe fruits from the outside, and also eat out the seeds (on). Other crops in the garden or in the moth are not afraid.

Did you know? The moth is still considered the only organism that has the ability to digest wax, which is facilitated by the presence of a special enzyme in the caterpillar's body.

Signs of fire

This pest is easy to detect on, just look at the bush, Special attention giving berries on it. So, on the fruits you can find small holes, from which relatively thin cobwebs stretch to the neighboring ones.

It will take quite a bit of time, and there will be much more such spoiled fruits. If you take a closer look at a lump of cobwebs on, then inside it there may be up to six berries, some of which will be completely fresh, while others will be dried up and rotten. As for, in such a ball there are often up to 12 berries.
Having stirred up the discovered “nest” and opening the largest and healthiest-looking fruit, a surprise will await you inside: along with the half-eaten remnants of seeds, there is usually a fairly long (about 1 cm) bright green moth caterpillar with a black head.

Over time, a lump of such eaten fruits will only increase in size, and the caterpillars will gradually leave the berries and go down under the bush. Usually they do not crawl far and are placed 30 cm from the stem of the plant.

Read also about such gooseberry pests:

Gooseberry moth control

Of course, if you find a moth on the bushes or you will be interested in how you can effectively deal with it in order to save your crop.

There are several common methods, but it is best to perform timely prevention.

Prevention

Preventive measures to combat the described pest mainly consist in the timely mechanical collection of damaged berries and ovaries, on which traces of moth or codling moth are clearly visible.

With this action, you will save the rest of the crop from their persistent attention. All collected pests are usually destroyed with boiling water.

Important! You need to learn how to recognize damaged fruits in a timely manner: usually such berries turn red earlier, and their tops quickly begin to rot.

In addition, make it a rule to regularly inspect other plants adjacent to or, since the same can become a source of moth.
And of course, do not forget about the agricultural technology of growing plants, because being weakened, the bushes are more susceptible to pest attacks.

Will help and timely pruning shoots, as the thickening of plantings only attracts pests. Bushes should be well lit and ventilated. And with the advent of autumn, do not forget to remove all the fallen leaves from under the bushes.

Agricultural practices

In practice, it has been repeatedly proven that the most effective method the fight against gooseberry moth is digging around the bush. Despite the fact that this is a rather laborious process, hilling each bush with earth 10-15 cm at its base will protect the fruits from the appearance of butterflies. They simply will not be able to overcome such a layer of earth to get to the surface. However, do not forget that it is better to take the soil from row spacing and from a depth of at least 5 cm, where there are definitely no pupae. The earth under the bushes can be spudded with compost or peat (layer up to 8-10 cm). After the end of the flowering period, such mulch should be removed.

The cultivation of the land with a 12% solution of dust is also considered an effective remedy, and 10 days before the opening of the buds, 50 g of the dust powder is poured under the bush itself.

Drug treatment

No matter how hard you try to prevent the appearance of the gooseberry moth or get rid of it using agricultural methods alone, the most effective control measures are based on the use of special preparations.

Yes, from chemicals excellent for fighting moth, "Etaphos" and. these compositions are performed immediately after flowering plants.

In addition, if this year and

Gooseberry moth, as the name implies, is a pest of gooseberries, but it can also affect other berry crops, such as raspberries and currants. And with uncontrolled reproduction and distribution, this small pest can significantly reduce the quantitative indicators of the yield of these plants.

Description of the pest

Adult gooseberry moths are butterflies with a wingspan of about 2.4-3.6 cm. The front wings are gray-brown or dark Brown color with a pattern consisting of brown stripes and light scales.

Gooseberry Moth Butterfly

The body length of the caterpillar is no more than 1.4 cm. The color of the covers is gray-green. Ring-like spots are visible on the sides of the body on the second segment. The pupae are colored brown and enclosed in a parchment-like cocoon.

Development Features

The gooseberry moth overwinters in the pupal stage, lying in the upper layers of the soil. With the arrival of spring warmth, when buds begin to tie on the gooseberry bushes and other berry crops, butterflies fly out of the pupae. Fertilized females make their clutches inside the buds and flowers, and then move to the ovary. Over time, caterpillars emerge from the eggs, which begin to mercilessly eat flowers, as well as fruit pulp and seeds.

On gooseberry moth-infected plants, a thin cobweb can be found. At the same time, damaged fruits are painted early, then rot, dry out and fall off, or remain hanging on the branches right in the web.

Approximately in the second or third decade of June, the larvae descend from the plant and go to the upper layers of the soil, where they pupate - usually this is the area right at the base of the shrub. There, pests entangle themselves in a dense cocoon and settle down for the winter.

Signs of infection

It is not difficult to find it on gooseberries - for this you just need to examine the bush and fruits. When infected, small holes will be visible on the berries, through which the thinnest threads of the cobweb stretch. Over time, the number of such fruits will increase markedly.

On a note! Moreover, a clump of cobwebs around them will also grow, and often in one such cocoon you can find several berries of varying degrees of ripeness and infection at once - some can be absolutely fresh, others - rotten and dried up.

The main source of food for gooseberry moth larvae is fruit pulp and seeds. Moreover, damaging the internal tissues of the fruit, the caterpillars will not touch the peel. And if you try to stir up a ball of entangled berries and crush the healthiest-looking one, then inside you will surely find a bright green caterpillar with a black head.

If you do not deal with the destruction of the pest population in time, then after a short period of time most of the berries will be in the web and the entire crop will be under serious threat. And the caterpillars, having gained enough strength, will descend into the soil and calmly leave for the winter.

A complex of agrotechnical measures to combat the gooseberry moth

• in autumn, after harvesting, clear the garden of plant residues and dig up the substrate - this will destroy the pupae that have settled there for the winter;
• shortly before the first frost, the gooseberry bushes are spudded to a height of about 10 cm - in this way, in the spring, the butterflies simply cannot fly out of the pupae remaining in the ground;
• ground under berry crops mulch, for this you can use peat or ordinary compost;
• all withered and darkened ovaries are harvested by hand, the cocoons braided with cobwebs are also removed and everything outside the site is destroyed.

Folk remedies

It is possible to fight gooseberry moth with the help of plant-based products, as well as by spraying with ash and dust solutions.

• wood ash solution. To prepare it, it is necessary to sift one and a half kilograms of ash and pour the resulting fine powder with five liters of water. The composition is left for two days at room temperature, then filtered and used for spraying infected berry bushes.
• Dust soap solution. Despite the fact that dust is a chemical preparation, it has already become so firmly established in the everyday life of many gardeners that it is considered a folk remedy that shows very good results in the fight against gooseberry moth. For spraying the affected plants and spilling the soil under them, a 12% dust-water solution is used.
  
• Infusion tomato tops. In order to make a remedy, a kilogram of raw materials is soaked in a bucket of water, after a day of infusion it is filtered and the affected gooseberries are processed once a week.
• Pine extract. For 200 g of spruce or pine needles, you need to add a couple of liters hot water, cover with a lid and leave for a week in a warm place. The contents of the container are shaken daily. After the specified time, the agent is filtered and diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10.
• Mustard infusion. To prepare it, 100 g of dry mustard is diluted in a bucket of water and left for two days at room temperature. Before processing, the infusion is filtered and diluted with water in a ratio of 1:2.

chemical attack

If a popular measures the fight did not bring positive results in the destruction of the gooseberry moth or turned out to be ineffective, then you will have to turn to more toxic drugs for help.

Important! But just remember that after the last treatment with chemicals, at least 30 days must pass before harvesting!

Have a good harvest!

In nature, there is nothing accidental and unnecessary - a wise thought, but gardeners "shaking" over each berry bush does not find unequivocal approval. For example, hardly anyone thinks about the usefulness of such a garden dweller as the gooseberry moth, but the topic of how to destroy it does not lose its relevance.

Fire on the gooseberry: a description of the pest

We are talking about a butterfly insect, representing a squad of Lepidoptera. Wingspan from 24 to 36 mm. The color of the moth can be either brown-gray or dark brown. An oval white stripe runs along the costal margin. The forehead is slightly convex and covered with scales, which eventually forms a conical shape. The head of the butterfly is equipped with short ciliated, filiform antennae. At one time, a sexually mature female lays up to 200 eggs.

In one season, only one generation goes through full development. Although if external conditions favor - the summer is dry and hot, then another facultative generation may appear. The insect hibernates in the state of a pupa formed from brown parchment-like material.

The larva is a gray-green caterpillar in length reaching 8-14 mm with a black head. The sides are decorated with round black spots with a brilliant sheen.

Harm

Considering the question of how to spray gooseberries, it is necessary to pay attention to currant bushes. Ognevka will never miss these bushes. Harmful to plants is not a butterfly, but a caterpillar. It produces a web, which weaves around foliage, flower stalks and fruits of berry bushes. The diet of the moth larva consists of the core of the gooseberry fruit - it gnaws out all the internal contents. And currant berries are eaten directly from the outside. During its stay in the state of a caterpillar moth, about 6 gooseberries are damaged, and currants - about 15. Spoiled fruits rot and fall off. As the population develops, it is possible big losses harvest.

Control measures

Agricultural methods

• We have already indicated that the moth winters in a cocoon, which it builds in the surface layer of soil immediately under the bush. This fact is another reminder of the need for mandatory periodic digging of the earth under a bush throughout the season, and closer to autumn it needs to be spudded with 10-12 cm of earth. In the spring, the insect will not be able to overcome such a “bastion” and there will be no flight of butterflies, but in order for the bush to develop normally by summer, the land wall needs to be cleared.
• You definitely won’t get close to the gooseberry moth if you plant tomatoes or mint around the bushes.
• If damaged leaves or fruits appear, they must be manually removed and destroyed.
• Inviting ground beetles (natural enemies of the moth) to the site is also a smart decision. Create for these useful bugs favorable conditions it’s not difficult at all, it’s enough to cover the ground around the bushes with roofing material or roofing felt - they are very fond of such shelters.
• Bushes should not be planted close to each other - good air circulation and an abundance of sunlight are needed.

"Grandfather" methods

Folk remedies will help fight fire, though in unopened cases and with the timely detection of the "enemy". We recommend that you pay attention to the following events:

Wood ash is the enemy of fire

• spraying wood ash. You need to take 3 kg of ash, sift it through a fine mesh sieve. The resulting powdered component is poured with a bucket (10 l) of water. This composition is left alone for 48 hours. Next, it must be filtered and applied for its intended purpose - spray gooseberry and currant bushes.
• Dust, although a chemical preparation, has been used for a very long time, as folk remedy. From it you need to make a 12% aqueous solution and cultivate the land around the bushes. And in order to consolidate the effect, after 8-10 days, you need to sprinkle more dust powder in the amount of 50 g under the bush.
• Infusions from tomato tops. It is necessary to spray three times with a frequency of 1 time in 7 days.
• The fight against moth on gooseberries can also be treated with coniferous extract. It is prepared according to this recipe: 200 g of spruce or coniferous needles are poured into 2 liters of hot (not boiling water) water. This composition is infused covered for 7 days, with daily stirring. Spraying is carried out several times, previously diluted in a ratio of 1:10 with an aqueous composition.
• Mustard tincture. Mustard powder is used. It is poured in a bucket of water in the amount of 100 g. The infusion period is 48 hours. Before processing berry bush the composition must be filtered and diluted in a ratio of 1: 2.

Recommendation of our reader: the biological product Bitoxibacillin

Elena Kondra, in a commentary on one of the articles (“We are fighting gall midge on currants”), recommends a drug against any pests. We agree that it is less aggressive than active chemicals and correct application capable of destroying, among other things, the moth on the gooseberry. This versatile bioinsecticide has a wide spectrum of action and a long period of protection. Fighting moth on gooseberries with its help ensures that harmful components do not accumulate either in the plant itself or in the soil. The manufacturer indicates that spraying it aqueous solution in the specified concentration can be produced even 5 days before harvest. It is important that it is compatible with growth and yield stimulants and does not cause addiction to pests. Having processed garden shrubs, you can not be afraid that bees and other beneficial insects will die.

Advice. For opponents of any chemistry in the garden, another tool is recommended for use - light traps. Making such a device yourself will not be difficult. It is necessary to take orange cardboard or yellow color and cover its surface with long-drying glue. After a while, the entire trap will be covered with a fire moth. And this means that the population will stop its development and distribution.

Fighting chemicals

If for some reason the above treatments have not been carried out and time has been lost in a sense, then more aggressive means will have to be applied. However, the use of fruits during this period is not recommended.

Popular insecticide - Karate

• . Broad spectrum insecticide. It is used in the fight against a variety of garden and garden pests. Shows good efficiency against both larvae and adults. Approved for use in individual farms. Affects nervous system insect, causing paralysis.
• SPARK. It is supplied to consumers in tablet form. One tablet is dissolved in a small amount of water and then diluted to 10 liters. Processing should be done in the evening or in cloudy weather. Refers to moderately hazardous substances - 3rd class of hazard.
• KARATE. A broad spectrum pyrethroid insecticide. Suitable for protecting agricultural crops and processing premises where grain is stored. Kills pests, including moths at all stages of development - from larva to adult. Moderately dangerous - class 2.

You know, more than spraying gooseberries from moths - we will be happy to talk in the comments to the article. We constantly conduct a lively dialogue with the readers of our blog and value every opinion and wish.

One of the most dangerous pests that can reduce the yield by almost half is the gooseberry moth. In order to effectively destroy the pest, you need to know what it is and know the conditions of its habitat. It is a small butterfly with gray front wings with brown stripes. Female butterflies in spring time lay eggs in flower buds, and then in the ovary itself. The caterpillars that appeared later eat the flowers first, and then eat the pulp of the fruit. Berries prematurely begin to change their color and dry out.

Caterpillars are green in color and slightly smaller than butterflies. Around the middle of June, they climb into and pupate right at the base of the bushes. That is why, when such a pest as the gooseberry moth appears, control measures include in their list and a point according to which it is necessary to carry out autumn digging soil not only under the bushes, but also near them. Many of the pupae will be on the surface and freeze with the onset of cold weather. In addition, the bushes need to spud. Land should be taken away from the bush. This process is quite laborious, since hilling must be carried out by 10-15 cm. Even if one of the pupae remains in the ground, it simply cannot get out from under a layer of such thickness.

Those pupae that nevertheless managed to survive spend the winter in the very top layer soil. AT spring period during the appearance of buds, butterflies begin to appear on the bushes - gooseberry moth. Control measures during this period are quite great importance. After all, if you use some kind of chemicals, you need to have time before flowering, otherwise the gooseberry moth will destroy some of the flowers. What to do during this period? It is necessary to spray the soil under the bushes with hexachloran. Butterflies, crawling on such soil, will die. A weak solution of anabazine sulfate, nicotine sulfate has a similar effect. For greater effect, you can add to the solution a small amount of soap.

But this is not all the drugs that can destroy such a pest as gooseberry moth. Control measures include many procedures. During the years of the mass invasion of this pest, the soil surface was dusted with a 12% dust solution. Plus, 50 grams of the drug was poured under the bush a week before flowering. During the formation of buds for spraying, it is recommended to use a preparation such as Kinmiks. In addition, immediately after flowering, you can use the biological preparation Lepidocid or Bitoxibacillin.

However, many gardeners try not to use chemicals. What to do in this case when a pest called gooseberry moth appears on a shrub? Control measures without chemicals there are, and quite a few of them. Spraying of bushes can be done on the fifth day of flowering with infusions of chamomile, onion, mustard, tansy, yarrow, shag. To obtain the greatest effect, the treatment can be repeated 3-4 times with an interval of about a week. During the formation of ovaries, spraying can be done with a soap-ash solution.

The fight against gooseberry moth includes in its list the mechanical collection of damaged berries. Using this method, you will protect the rest of the fruit. Damaged fruits include not only withered fruits, but also painted or braided with cobwebs. In addition, it is necessary to remove and destroy the nests from the cobwebs that the gooseberry moth wove in the bushes. One of simple ways repelling this pest is a bed of tomatoes located in close proximity. If you do not know how to deal with gooseberry moth, you can refer to folk ways. If area garden plot small, install a kind of traps - containers with fermenting juices. In addition, an electric trap or light trap can be purchased from specialized stores.

Now, when the moth is still on the gooseberries and currants, go around the bushes, collect all the "wormy" berries and destroy them. The occupation is not pleasant, but it will bring benefits. Visit your gardening neighbors and encourage them to do the same.

When viewed on the berries, you can find a small hole, from which thin cobwebs stretch to two or three neighboring ones. Over time, such spoiled fruits became more and more. On a gooseberry, in a lump braided with cobwebs, there may be 4-6 berries, among them there are quite fresh, and rotten, and even dried up, and there are more of them on currants, 8-12 each.

It is worth stirring up such a "nest", opening the most healthy-looking fruit, and there will be a surprise in it: among the half-eaten remnants of the seeds, a rather long (about a centimeter) bright green gooseberry moth caterpillar with a black head sits.

And there are more and more such eaten fruits. The caterpillars gradually leave the berries and descend under the bush. Far they usually do not crawl away and settle about 30 cm from the base of the plant. In the soil, at a depth of 3-4 cm, a cobweb cocoon is woven and, turning into a chrysalis, remain for the winter. How to deal with them now?

How to deal with moth on gooseberries, currants

Firstly, do not neglect such an elementary way of fighting as picking damaged berries. Late varieties of gooseberries and currants are already ripening, reddened, cobwebbed fruits should be removed from these bushes as quickly as possible.

Secondly, you can fight the moth, even when it is in the ground. It is known, for example, that pupae are not afraid of freezing, but do not tolerate drying.

The butterflies flying out of the pupae are also completely helpless, since they are only able to get out of the surface layers of the soil, and they can no longer overcome the 6-10-cm depth. These features of the moth also tell us how to fight.

In autumn, after leaf fall, under the bushes, you should dig up the soil. It is worth spudding currants and gooseberries with a 6-12 cm layer of earth (it is best to take it from row spacing).

Keep the bushes hilled until spring, but as soon as the flowering of the berries is over, immediately unwind them.
Such tillage allows you to destroy up to 80% of the pupae and butterflies of the pest.
Irina Bodrova