The biggest threat to pear growth is pests. Insects can significantly affect both the development of the tree itself and its yield. The fruits become small and are less common on the branches. One of the most dangerous pests is the pear leafworm (photo below).
General description of the insect
About ten thousand varieties of butterflies belong to leaf rollers. Their main feature is that insects fold their wings on their backs in a horizontal position. People call them moths. The leaf roller is a small insect that infects almost the entire ground part of the plant.
Two centimeter caterpillars pose a great danger to trees. They live during almost the entire warm season. Sometimes you can find a leaflet in the spring. An insect can appear even on a young seedling. Caterpillars have a different color: from green-yellow to brown. With a light touch, they bend sharply and fall from the sheet, hangingon a thin cobweb-like thread. The adult is a butterfly. The insect has long gray wings with a unique pattern: a wide white stripe runs through the middle.
Pest life cycle
The caterpillars gnaw the leaves (leaving only the veins) and fold them into a tube. They form a cocoon with their web. They pupate in mid-summer (usually early July). Two weeks later, adults of the insect appear. Pests can give several generations during one season.
Butterflies of some species (hawthorn, rose and frost) have time to lay eggs on the trunk and leaves of the pear for the next year during the summer. The caterpillars of other leafworms are able to survive the winter. They leave their cocoons in the cracks in the bark of a tree or right on the branches.
Insects come out of hibernation in early spring and penetrate the pear buds, completely eating them from the inside. As a result, some of the young shoots of the tree die.
Distribution of leaf rollers
Insects have become widespread in the Non-Chernozem zone. There is a leaflet on a pear and an apple tree. It has dark gray wings with a span of about 1 centimeter.
In the Moscow, Leningrad and Vladimir regions, there is a rose leaf roller. Butterfly of this species has a golden or brown-yellow color. There are wavy stripes and spots on the wings.
Almost every climate zone has this type of pest. In our countrythere are about 50 varieties of lithovers.
Leaflet on a pear: signs of disease in a tree
An alarm signal for the gardener should be the detection of twisted leaves. They change their color and become dark (almost black). Especially carefully it is worth checking young trees in the spring. With a massive damage to the plant by a pest, up to 80% of the fruits and buds can be lost. If insect control is not carried out, then leafworm caterpillars eat more than half of the leaves of the tree crown.
There is a leaf roller on a pear, and not only. Individuals of this species also parasitize other fruit trees. Some types of leafworm are polyphagous and can damage berries and forest species. Hawthorn, cherry, plum, bird cherry, mountain ash and a number of other trees and shrubs are also at risk. Therefore, experts recommend a comprehensive treatment of the entire garden.
How to deal with leafworm on a pear in spring?
Pest control should start in early spring. An increase in sunny day and air temperature is a signal for the development of not only plants, but also insects. Processing of cultivated plantings must be done before flowering.
How to process a pear from a leaf roller? Wintering pests are destroyed by spraying plants in early spring with a special composition "Preparation 30". Insecticides are recommended to be applied before bud formation. If leafworms that overwinter in the egg stage predominate, then applyspecial preparations after the formation of the green cone of the future inflorescence.
The experience of gardeners has shown that if a leaf roller appeared on a pear, the following insecticides are the most effective: "Atom", "Binom", "Landing", "Zolon", "Terradim". The concentration of the active substance in the water should be low. It is recommended to add no more than one milliliter per 1 liter of liquid. The consumption of the composition for each tree is from 2 liters, depending on the size.
When the buds are formed, infusions of tomatoes, tobacco (shag), chamomile, wormwood or yarrow are sprayed onto the branches. Re-treatment is carried out immediately after the pear blossoms.
Active pest control
If signs of damage to plants by leafworms were not immediately detected, it is worth focusing on active insect control measures. Young caterpillars are destroyed with the help of such biological products: Lepidocide, Bitoxibacillin and Fitoverma. The recommended air temperature for work should be at least 10 degrees. Experts recommend the use of pyrethroids. The most famous of them are Ivanhoe, Accor, Qi-Alpha, Fastak and others.
In the summer, the fight against leafworm on pears is less effective. In addition, the use of potent drugs can kill beneficial insects. Therefore, leafworm butterflies are caught on bait. To do this, containers with fermenting liquid are hung at a small distance from the ground at night.
Ways to protect fruit trees
Pear and apple trees are threatened not only by caterpillars that eat shoots, but also by a special type of leafworms (codling moths). Pest butterflies lay their eggs at night on the upper or lower side of the leaf. The larvae that emerged from these eggs actively eat the pulp of the fruit, so you can completely lose the crop.
Effective ways to fight are:
- cleaning the bark on plant trunks;
- burning fallen leaves;- whitewashing trunks with lime composition.
Some gardeners report that pesticides work well for killing insects. Using "Fury", "Inta-vir", "Kinmiks" and "Rovikurt", you can achieve a sustainable result. Experts recommend fighting the leafworm using the full range of measures.
Prevention measures
How to spray a pear from a leaf roller? Trees are treated with a special composition in early spring, at an air temperature of at least plus 4 degrees. Typically, gardeners use a 0.3% solution of karbofos for this. Re-treatment is carried out after the flowering of the pear. Also use the drug "Prophylactin". It is necessary to dilute half a liter of liquid in 10 liters of clean water. The consumption of the composition should not exceed 5 liters per tree.
If a small number of pests are found on the plant, insects can be collected by hand. You need to be as careful as possible and try to destroy all the caterpillars.
