Sawfly insects and fighting them in the garden. Sawfly: control measures, remedies and preparations Slimy sawfly

The cherry slimy sawfly is a hymenopteran insect. Adults do not cause any harm to plantings, since they do not feed, but the larvae, on the contrary, are capable of destroying foliage in huge quantities.

They look a little like small slugs with a thick head, but do not have horns, but their body is also completely covered with dark transparent mucus. Their most favorite delicacy is stone fruit plantings - hawthorn, sweet cherry and cherry, but sometimes they are also found on rowan or quince. The cherry slimy sawfly produces 2 generations per season and has a cyclical development.

The parthenogenetic form of these insects is mainly widespread. The length of females varies from 4 to 6 mm, they have black limbs and transparent, slightly darkened wings that reach 9 mm in span.

The emergence of flies begins in early June, with the arrival of stable warm temperatures, and the second generation appears in late July - early August. After emergence, adult females live on average for a week, and manage to lay up to 65-70 eggs during this period.

By the end of summer, trees affected by sawflies risk losing their crown completely, so you need to know how to deal with the cherry slimy sawfly at all stages of its development.

Pest destruction methods

For help, you can attract insects to the site - natural enemies of the sawfly. These include soft beetles and trichograms, as well as lacewings - in order to lure them, you can plant fragrant flowers and plants in the garden.

Have you noticed strange black larvae on the leaves of stone fruit crops that vaguely resemble leeches? It’s good if you haven’t encountered this insidious insect, but still, if you have, you should know that this is not a harmless slug, but a dangerous garden pest - the cherry slimy sawfly (Caliroa limacina).

Description of the insect, development

The female cherry sawfly reaches 6 mm in length, the male a maximum of 5 mm. The body of the imago is black, the wings are almost invisible. The insect egg is pale green, translucent, elongated. The larva (which is called a false caterpillar) reaches a maximum of 11 cm in length, the color is yellowish green, upon closer examination, 10 pairs of abdominal legs are visible on the body of the larva, the color of the head is dark, the body is covered with black mucus, its anterior part is expanded. Doll white, in an oval cocoon.

The flight of insects begins around June-July, it all depends on climatic conditions: the milder the climate, the earlier the pest takes wing. Almost immediately after emerging from the pupa, females begin to lay eggs. Female cherry sawflies are not long-lived; they fly for only one week, during which time they can lay from 50 to 75 eggs. The place for masonry is the lower part of the sheet; they are clearly visible on its upper part - they resemble brown swellings. Each female lays no more than one egg per leaf.

The egg may take one to two weeks to fully develop. After hatching, the larvae move to the front side of the leaf and become covered with a black mucous membrane. The larvae go through up to 8 molts during the entire development period.

First generation─ larvae develop up to two to three weeks, feed top layer leaves, leaving eaten away islands on the leaf plate.
Second generation– development of larvae lasts from three to four weeks. They devour the leaf completely, leaving only veins behind.

The body of late-instar larvae changes color, they turn yellow and fall to the ground, one part of the larvae diapauses (remains to overwinter in the soil under the crown of a tree), the other part pupates. Using soil particles and mucus, glue the cocoon together. The pupae continue to feed until the end of September, then they burrow 10-20 cm deep into the soil near the tree and remain there for the winter.

Cherry slimy sawfly - garden pest

More often, the insect can be seen on cherries, peach, plums or apricots; less often, the pest affects pears, apple trees and rowan trees. When a tree is massively infested with sawfly, it appears dried out and burnt, and if drastic protective measures are not taken in time, then there will be no fruit on such a tree. If the number of insects is small, there is no need to worry too much; in this case, when fighting the pest, you can get by with preventive measures.

For the right choice measures to combat the cherry sawfly, you need to determine the number of individuals. To do this, you just need to inspect the foliage of the tree: by the number of swellings, eaten islands on the foliage, or black shiny false caterpillars, it will become clear what the scale of the problem is.

Always monitor the condition of the garden and the trees. The sooner a particular pest is detected, the easier it is to deal with it.

Cherry sawfly: folk methods of protection

Agrotechnical technique

Just like from, in the fall you can dilute clay and pour a 1-2 cm layer on the tree trunks of cherries and cherries. This will prevent insects from escaping from overwintered pupae.

Sawfly treatment

If the garden is only infested with cherry sawflies, we recommend preventative spraying with chamomile infusion. Spraying should be carried out a maximum of 3 times every 7 days and take a break between the set of procedures, the duration of which can be determined independently, just keep an eye on the tree and assess its condition.

Recipe: 800 g of crushed dry inflorescences, pour 10 liters of water, cover tightly and leave to infuse for a day, then strain and add another 15 liters of water, in ready solution add up to 30 g of laundry or tar soap.

The cherry slimy sawfly can cause irreparable damage, so when at least a few individuals appear, you need to start closely monitoring the foliage, monitoring the number of insects and taking timely measures to protect the garden from the uninvited guest.

Is the most dangerous pest of chokeberry and chokeberry. The harmful stage of the insect is the larva.

Adult cherry slimy sawfly is a small insect of shiny black color, body length 5-6 mm, wingspan 7-9 mm. The egg is light green, elongated. The larvae of the first instars are smaller, covered on top with dark mucus, often comma-shaped.

Adult larvae overwinter in the soil under bushes at a depth of 10-12 cm. At the end of May, the larvae pupate. Adult insects emerge from their pupae in June. The flight of sawflies lasts about two months. During this time, each female lays up to 75 eggs on the underside of the leaves. After one to two weeks from the eggs cherry slimy sawfly the larvae emerge. At the end of July - beginning of August, mass hatching of larvae occurs. They live on the upper side of the leaves. They feed on leaf pulp. With severe damage, when there are up to 40 caterpillars on each leaf, the pulp of the leaf is completely destroyed. Only the veins remain - the skeleton of the leaf. With a high infection density, the yield is significantly reduced.

The larvae feed for about a month, then go into the soil. They overwinter under plants, where they feed, at a depth of 10-12 cm.

The number of cherry slimy sawfly is largely reduced by egg-eating insects. In some years, Trichogramma infects up to 90% of sawfly eggs.

Measures to combat cherry mucous sawfly

Using Trichogramma to infect sawfly eggs.

There is the following methodology for differentiated measures control of cherry mucous sawfly. When there are more than 10 larvae (10-30) on 100 leaves, a 0.7% solution should be used against them soda ash or 0.5% suspension of entobacterin. If there are more than 30 pests per 100 leaves, then you need to spray the chokeberry bushes with a 0.2-0.3% solution of chlorophos or karbofos. One bush consumes 1-1.5 liters of solution.

Spraying should be carried out 2-3 times. The first after flowering, and the subsequent ones a week later. Spraying with poisons (except soda ash) should be stopped a month before harvest. Soda ash, killing hatched larvae, is harmless to humans and beneficial insects, and therefore treatment with soda can be carried out at a later date, as new larvae hatch.

Real sawflies- a family of sessile-bellied hymenopteran insects from the group of sawflies, which includes about 400 genera and more than 5000 species. Many species of sawflies are pests of forests and agricultural crops. Representatives of the family are distributed throughout the world, but more of them are in countries with temperate and cold climates: for example, in Finland there are more than 700 species, and in Russia - more than 2000. And very few species live in Australia and South America.

Sawfly pest - description

The sawfly beetle, depending on the species, can be from 2 to 32 mm long. The head of sawflies is not separated from the body, like that of a wasp or a bee, for which they are called sessile bellies. Sawfly heads are large, mobile, equipped with well-developed jaws, two large eyes and three simple eyes located in front. Sawfly whiskers are bristly or thread-like, and they have two pairs of transparent, non-folding wings. The females have a sawtooth-shaped ovipositor hidden in their abdomen, with which they damage plants. In males, the place where in females there is an opening for the exit of the ovipositor is covered with a plate.

In early spring sawflies mate, after which the females lay eggs, making an incision in the tissue of one or another part of the plant for each, after which the female seals the pocket with the egg with secretions that protect both the egg and part of the plant from rotting.

The sawfly larva, as soon as it emerges from the egg, begins to eat, causing significant damage to plants. In the larval stage, sawfly insects are similar to butterfly caterpillars, however, caterpillars have no more than 5 pairs of legs and six eyes, and sawfly larvae have 6 or 8 pairs of legs and only 2 eyes, which is why beetle larvae are called pseudocaterpillars. Having eaten enough, the sawfly caterpillars descend from the tree at the beginning of summer and build in the ground from own excrement, rot and saliva cocoons for pupation. In mid-summer, the second generation of pests emerges from the cocoons, and in one season the sawfly can produce up to 4 generations, which eat foliage from spring to autumn.

All sawflies are herbivorous. Each species lives on a specific wild or cultivated plant, damaging it and feeding on its tissues.

Measures to combat sawfly

Sawfly remedies (preparations)

Used in the fight against sawfly chemicals– insecticides. The best insecticides for sawflies are:

Karbofos is a broad-spectrum contact insecticide-acaricide, which is included in many preparations;
Benzophosphate is an organophosphorus insecticide, an acaricide with enteric contact action;
Metaphos is a contact insecticide with broad-spectrum acaricidal properties. The active ingredient of the drug is parathion methide;
Chlorophos is a contact-intestinal pesticide and insecticide widely used to control plant pests;
Phosfamide is an insecto-acaricide of contact and systemic action, non-toxic for warm-blooded animals;
Arrivo is a broad-spectrum contact-intestinal insecticide, the active ingredient of which is cypermethrin;
Virin-Diprion is a viral drug that destroys pests on trees and other plants;
Aktara is an insecticide of the neonicotinoid group, effective against many pests;
Karate is a pyrethroid insecto-acaricide of intestinal contact action, effective even with low consumption of the drug. Active ingredient: lambda-cyhalothrin;
Confidor is a contact-intestinal insecticide with systemic action against sucking and gnawing pests, the active ingredient of which is imidacloprid;
Mospilan is a systemic insecticide with contact-intestinal action;
Kinmiks is a highly effective broad-spectrum pyrethroid insecticide;
Decis is a garden insecticide of contact-intestinal action that blocks the digestive system of pests. The active ingredient is deltamethrin.

In addition to these drugs, others are also used to kill sawflies.

Sawfly: prevention

As a preventive measure against sawflies, it is necessary to dig up and loosen the soil in the tree trunks of trees and shrubs - this leads to the death of a significant part of the sawfly pupae and larvae. Do not leave diseased and dried out trees on the site, which pupated sawflies use for wintering. Ovaries damaged by the sawfly should be torn off and burned or buried to a depth of at least 50 cm. In early spring, hunting belts can be put on tree trunks. Pheromone traps are also effective against sawflies.

Fighting sawfly with folk remedies

To treat plants against sawflies at an early stage of development, you can use an infusion of 1 kg of aconite herb, collected during the flowering period, in 10 liters of water, to which 30 ml of alkali is added and left for two days. Before using for its intended purpose, add 40-50 g of liquid soap to the infusion.

Also used against sawfly larvae is an infusion of 1 kg of finely chopped chamomile flowers and leaves, collected during flowering, in 10 liters of water heated to a temperature of 60-70 ºC. Chamomile is infused for 12 hours, after which the infusion is filtered, diluted with the same amount of water and 80 g of soap are added (40 g for every 10 liters).

1200 g of dried wormwood herb is infused for three days in 10 liters of water, after which it is filtered and 50-100 g of baking soda is added to the infusion.

2 kg of pine needles are poured into a bucket of water and, stirring daily, left for a week in a dark place, then filtered. Before use, the resulting pine concentrate is diluted with water 1:3 or even 1:5.

70 g of soda ash and 20 g of liquid soap are dissolved in 10 liters of water and the plants are treated with this solution.

3 kg of sifted ash is poured into 10 liters hot water, leave for two days, filter through cheesecloth or a fine sieve and add 40 g of liquid soap.

1 kg of fresh tansy is poured into 10 liters of water, boiled for 2 hours, allowed to cool, filtered and added 40 g of soap.

However, it should be noted that coping with the sawfly folk remedies succeeded only in cases where there were few of them. Basically, herbal decoctions and infusions are used as a prophylactic agent.

Types of sawfly

Since the species of sawflies that damage cultivated plants, a lot, we will only talk about those that are more common than others.

Sawfly on roses

openly living on bushes and feeding on foliage, which include roseate, variable roseate, roseate mucous, common roseate, black and cherry slimy sawflies;
living hidden and feeding on shoots from the inside: roseate ascending and roseate descending sawflies, causing great harm to roses.

If the number of sawflies is not very high, their larvae are collected by hand and destroyed. It is better to do this in the morning, when the larvae are clearly visible on the leaves. But if there are a lot of openly living sawflies, you will have to resort to insecticides: Decis, Confidor, Aktar, Fastak or Karate. Digging the soil around the bushes will help reduce the number of sawfly cocoons. Measures to combat the roseate sawfly, which lives hidden, consist in the use of systemic insecticides: Mospilan, Aktara or Enzhio, and the bushes must be treated at least 2 times with an interval of 20 days, and damaged shoots must be cut out and burned.

pine sawfly

The pine sawfly pest lives wherever coniferous trees, because it feeds on pine needles. Russia, Caucasus and Asian countries, Japan, it was also brought to North America. It is not found only in the Arctic.

There are two species in the pine sawfly population: the common pine sawfly and the red pine sawfly, with the red pine sawfly being much less common than the common sawfly. At the beginning of spring, sawflies eat old needles, and then move on to young shoots and damage not only the needles, but also the branches. The trees most commonly affected by sawflies are Scots pine and Banks pine. Pine sawflies are especially voracious in dry, warm weather.

In addition to these pests, pine is also damaged by the weaver pine sawfly, which is common in Europe, Siberia and Kazakhstan. The star sawfly is 10 to 16 mm long, has a black head and chest covered with yellow and white streaks, and transparent wings. The olive-green larva of this species with four brown stripes, 18-26 mm long, moves with three pairs of thoracic legs and has no abdominal ones. This sawfly is called a weaver because its larvae form a hiding place in the form of a tube of cobwebs. The star sawfly feeds on young needles, and when it infests in large numbers, the tops of branches suffer, and sometimes entire trees die.

Pine sawflies are destroyed with glue belts and insecticides. If the pest is affected big square forest lands, then they resort to aviation services to process trees.

Spruce sawfly

Spruce needles are damaged by the spruce sawfly, eating young needles current year. The peak of its destructive activity occurs at the end of May and beginning of June, and outbreaks of its fertility occur after warm winter: The pest produces a huge number of caterpillars for another 5-7 years. Detecting the presence of a spruce sawfly is easy: as soon as you notice a lot of eaten or damaged needles on the spruce trees, know that this is the work of sawfly larvae.

Destroy the pest different ways: collected by hand, attracting birds, ants, rodents to the planting, installing adhesive plates on spruce trees, digging up the soil under the trees to get rid of pupae, collecting and burning fallen pine needles and treating the trees with Kinmiks or Karbofos when caterpillars appear.

Plum sawfly

Each sawfly larvae damages up to 6 fruits, and if there are a lot of pests on your plum tree, you can say goodbye to the harvest. The fight against plum sawfly begins before the plum blossoms: the tree is sprayed with Chlorophos, Rogor, Karbofos, Cyanox or Tsidial. After flowering, the treatment of the tree with insecticides is repeated.

In early spring, to repel sawflies, you can spray the plum tree before the beetles fly out of the cocoons with an infusion of wormwood or a diluted infusion of pine concentrate. Before flowering, choosing a cloudy day, adult individuals are shaken off onto the litter and then necessarily burned. Larvae overwintering in the soil are destroyed during the autumn digging of the soil in tree trunk circle tree.

Rapeseed sawfly

Cruciferous crops are damaged by the rapeseed sawfly, which is widespread in areas with temperate and cool climates. Greenish-gray larva of the rapeseed sawfly, covered with small warts and moving with 11 pairs of legs cylindrical, grows up to 20-25 mm, but during the process of pupation its length is reduced to 6-11 mm. The adult is only 6-8 mm in size with a black lacquered head and diamond-shaped spots on the back, colored yellow-orange.

Despite its small size, the rapeseed sawfly has a high threshold of harmfulness: 2-3 larvae per 1 m² can cause serious damage. It is especially dangerous in the forest-steppe zones of Moldova, Ukraine and the European part of Russia. The rapeseed sawfly feeds on shoots and leaves of cabbage, radish, turnip, rapeseed, mustard, rutabaga, daikon, turnip or radish. The main diet of the pest consists of buds, leaf pulp and young pods. As a result of damage caused by the sawfly, plants do not form fruits, which is why yield losses for crops such as turnips and rapeseed can amount to 80-95%.

To combat rapeseed sawfly, when 10 percent or more of the shoots are infected, plants are treated with insecticides. As preventive measures carry out deep loosening of the soil, removal of weeds, destruction plant residues after harvesting, compliance with crop rotation and the formation of bait crops with the subsequent destruction of pests on them.

Slimy cherry sawfly

The sawfly attacks crops such as cherries, sweet cherries, quinces, plums, pears, and hawthorns. This insect is black in color and medium in size. It has a pair of membranous wings, the span of which averages 8–9 mm. Pest larvae overwinter at a depth of 2–5 cm. Pupation occurs at the end of May, and adult insects appear in June. The female lays eggs in the pulp of the leaves. Sawfly larvae are yellowish-green in color. They eat the pulp of the leaves, which leads to their death. In the southern regions of Russia, two generations of the pest develop per season.

From the book The Garden is the Breadwinner author Dubrovin Ivan

CHERRY COMPOTE Sort out the ripe cherries, remove stems, rinse cold water, let the water drain. Make syrup from water and sugar. Place the berries in jars, pour hot syrup and sterilize in boiling water for 5 minutes. You will need: cherries - 3 kg, water

From the book Garden without pests author Fatyanov Vladislav Ivanovich

CHERRY CRUCHON Mix cherry puree with juice and fruit drink and cool to a temperature of 12–15 degrees. Add a chilled cherry-based carbonated drink to the mixture and stir everything thoroughly. Place cherries on top. You will need: cherry puree - 30 g, apple juice -

From the book Pest Control author Ivanova Natalya Vladimirovna

CHERRY KVASS Wash and sort the cherries, remove the stems and pits. Pour a full bottle of cherries, put the pits there, fill them with cold boiled water and place them in a cold place until the water acquires a cherry flavor. Drain the water and replace it with new one.

From the book Gooseberry. We plant, grow, harvest author Zvonarev Nikolai Mikhailovich

Mucous bacteriosis Mucous bacteriosis, like vascular bacteriosis, is caused by bacteria, but of a different type. It also has other symptoms. When cabbage heads are just beginning to form, mucous bacteriosis affects the junction of the petioles and stalks. First they get dark

From the book Handbook of a Skilled Gardener author

Rapeseed sawfly The adult individual has a very bright color: the head of the insect is black, the chest is red-yellow with a black pattern. Has a pair of transparent wings. Body length does not exceed 7–8 mm. The sawfly larva has 11 pairs of legs. Color dirty green, body

From the book The Skilled Gardener's Handbook author Ganichkin Alexander Vladimirovich

Plum sawfly Larvae of the plum sawfly infect almost the same crops as the cherry sawfly. The larvae overwinter in the soil at a depth of 5-10 cm. Adults begin to fly 5-6 days before the plum blossoms. Each female lays up to 30 eggs in half-open buds.

From the book Protection of Fruit and berry crops from diseases and pests author Kolesova D. A.

Leaf Sawfly There are two main types of this insect: the yellow gooseberry and the pale-legged sawfly. Leaf sawfly larvae attack red and white currant leaves. Their activity leads to curling and drying out

From book Big Book gardener and gardener author Mironov Anatoly N.

Yellow gooseberry sawfly Gooseberries are damaged by sawfly larvae of several species. The greatest damage is caused by the yellow and pale-legged sawflies. The development cycle and the nature of the damage caused are similar. In adulthood, the gooseberry sawfly looks like a fly

From the book 1001 answers to important questions gardener and gardener author

From the book Canning and the Best culinary recipes experienced gardeners and gardeners author Kizima Galina Alexandrovna

Cherry slimy sawfly Cherry slimy sawfly - damages the leaves of stone fruit crops: cherries, sweet cherries, less often plums, pears and chokeberries. The adult hymenoptera insect is black, small in size (5 mm). In June they pupate, and soon

From book New encyclopedia gardener and gardener [edition expanded and revised] author Ganichkin Alexander Vladimirovich

Apple fruit sawfly Damages only the apple tree. The pest larvae feed inside the fruit ovary, completely destroying the seed chamber, filling them with wet excrement, from round holes rusty red liquid leaks out. Disturbed larvae emit

From the author's book

3.1. Cherry Orchard As many people know, cherries are a perennial tree crop. Exist different varieties cherries, for example, growing as a tall tree in the form of a bush. Tree-like trees form a single trunk and they grow up to five meters in height. Bush forms