The raspberry-strawberry weevil is a dangerous pest. This is a small beetle (up to 3 mm) of gray-black color of the weevil family. It hibernates under clods of soil and plant remains. In spring, when the temperature rises to 10 degrees Celsius, the beetles wake up and come to the surface.
Females start laying eggs in strawberry buds, later they will move into raspberry buds. One female can damage up to 50 buds, leaving one egg in each.
The weevil on strawberries leaves punctures that are only visible upon close inspection. The crippled specimens wilt, dry up. As the females gnaw the pedicels, they fall to the ground.
The eggs hatch into larvae (white caterpillars) that pupate to give rise to a new generation. Coming out, the young weevil on strawberries feeds on green berries and the pulp of the leaves, spoiling them, and then moves to raspberries. He spends the winter on the ground.
Gardeners, faced with this pest, are wondering how to deal with and how to process strawberries from weevil.
In early spring, beds with strawberries need to be watered with hot water(liquid temperature should be about 60 degrees). During the budding period (a week before flowering), strawberries and raspberries can be treated with a solution of laundry soap (200 g of soap is dissolved in 10 liters of water) or a solution of mustard (200 g of mustard is taken for 10 liters of water). Damaged buds must be collected and burned. In early May, you can use the following biological products: Iskra, Fitoverm, Akarin, Iskra-bio. These products are absorbed by the leaves in 3 hours, the protection lasts about three weeks.
If the weevil on strawberries has multiplied strongly, then after harvesting the site is better to treat with insecticidal solutions ("Corsair", "Aktellik", "Karbofos", "Vofatoks", "Ambush", "Gordon", "Metaphos" and etc.). It is advisable to carry out chemical treatment in the morning to reduce the harm done to beneficial beetles that destroy pests (1 beetle eats 20 weevils per day).
It is very important to follow the rules of agricultural technology, not to plant strawberries next to raspberries, as this makes it easier for the beetle to move from one plant to another. Crop rotation and digging the soil under the bushes in the fall will reduce the pest population.
Opponents of the use of chemistry in their garden can be recommended another way to solve this problem. Strawberry weevil can also be killed with a safe, natural remedy. To prepare it, a third-liter cylinder must be filled with onion peel and celandine grass in a ratio of 2: 1, then pour boiling water. Strain after coolingthe resulting solution and spray. The first time - when the first flowers bloom, the second - in two weeks. This will be enough. It should be noted that this remedy acts against almost all pests, and it does not scare away bees, so spraying will not affect pollination in any way. Moreover, it is also a prevention of fungal diseases, in particular, gray rot.
The fight against weevil on strawberries may not be carried out, since this pest does not cause severe damage to the crop, because something should remain for its offspring.
