Gardeners with experience know firsthand what pests are blackberries. Fighting them in the garden or in the country takes them a lot of time. It is interesting to note that blackberry and raspberry belong to the general form of the family - Rosaceae. Accordingly, they have a lot in common, including pests. Therefore, blackberry stands also need to be protected from them. What pests are dangerous for blackberries? How do they look? Photo of a blackberry pest. How to treat blackberries from pests in the spring?
May Western Khrushchev (Melolonthamelolontha L)
In spring, the spring begins a stormy period of growth, flowering. Khrushchev finds berry plants, affects them, which may cause violent fall of leaves, ovaries, flowers.
Even greater damage occurs from the larvae of the May beetle, which damage the roots of the plant, gnawing them.
For wintering, adults hide in the soil. And in spring, a favorable time begins for them, the massive years of the May beetle, especially when the plants bloom profusely. During this period, leaves become the main food source for blackberry pests. Large clutches of larvae can also be found in the soil, approximately at a depth of up to 40 cm.
Before the full development of the pest larvae, about three years should pass. All this time they eat humus, cause damage to the roots, which is why plants begin to wilt very quickly and then die. By the summer of the fourth year, the larvae of the beetle begin to pupate to a depth of 60 cm. And after another 40 days, beetles hatch from them, which will be in the soil until next spring.
Control measures:
- If you are only going to plant blackberry bushes, then a preventive measure for combating khrushch will be soaking for 30 minutes the roots of seedlings in a 0.65-ml solution of Aktara.
- Antichrushch, Confidor preparations are quite effective during the growing season. It is enough to process the soil around the bushes with solutions, water them.
- Some gardeners have been successful in using iodine against chafer. With a solution of iodine - 20-25 drops per bucket of water - water the plants under the root.
- Of great benefit is the sowing between the rows of blackberries such siderata as mustard. Allocating the roots of mustard is not to the liking of the beetles, they leave this place.
- Starlings help to fight the khrushchas well. Do not be lazy, hang birdhouses in the garden. Starlings will destroy all the May beetles, which means that there will be no grunts soon. True, starlings are not averse to feasting on cherries, but you should choose which is more expensive.
Raspberry Beetle (Byturustomentosus F)
This pest is capable of causing massive damage to the entire plant, damaging everything from leaves, inflorescences to stems, roots. The insect 4 cm in size has a grayish-black color, densely covered with yellow-rusty, dirty-gray hairs.
For wintering, the beetles go to the soil, and in the spring they go outside, begin to eat the flowers of gooseberries, blackberries, currants, many fruit trees. But these pests give preference to raspberries and blackberries.
Beetles can strongly eat out leaves, leaving holes on foliage, flowers, buds. Berries can also be affected, they quickly form rot.
Egg laying occurs in flowers or fresh ovary. This is an excellent breeding ground for pest larvae. As they develop, the larvae fall on the soil and remain there until pupation. In autumn, the pupae turn into beetles, which also prefer to winter in the soil, without appearing on the surface for a long time. Some of the larvae remain there until pupation until next spring.
Control measures:
- To prevent the spread of raspberry beetle, digging the soil under the bushes in late autumn or early spring is used. Gardeners advise to dust the dug up earth with tobacco dust or ash.
- Do not leave rotten berries on the bushes.
- When the buds appear, about a week before the blossoming of the flowers, the blackberry is sprayed with solutions of actellica, spark, kemifos, fufagon, kinmiksa. You can alternate these solutions.
Shaggy Deer or Shaggy Bronze (Epicometishirta Poda)
The beetle does not look very noticeable. The insect has a black color with white dots on the fenders. Beetle Olenka shaggy is covered with thick gray-yellow hairs.
The pest waits for winter in the soil, and comes out in early spring. The insect chooses flowers, blackberry petals as a source of nutrition.
The greatest activity of the pest is observed with the onset of sunny days, when the heat is from 10 to 16 hours. In damp, cloudy weather, at night the beetles do not remain on the plants, but go deep into the soil or burrow under a layer of plant environment.
Egg laying occurs in the soil to a depth of 4 cm. Humus and plant debris are sufficient for the nutrient medium of the larvae. Pupation occurs approximately in the middle of summer, and already in the 2nd-3rd decades of September all pupae go outside, becoming bugs.
Adults prefer to winter in the thickness of the soil; they can be found only next spring.
Control measures:
- An excellent tool against shaggy deer, according to gardeners, is the Calypso insecticide. The solution of this drug effectively destroys the pest on other plants, flowers.
- One cannot ignore the physical way of destroying Fawn. Pests are shaken off from bushes, tree branches, flowers on a litter, filled with kerosene, burned.
Stem Raspberry Gall midge (Lasiopterarubi Heeg)
This pest of blackberries and raspberries has a small body - not more than 2 mm. Beetles with transparent wings are painted black, have a brown back, covered with yellowish hairs.
The massive years of insects begins in the middle of summer, just when the blackberries bloom profusely. Clutch of pest eggs can be found in young shoots. At first, tiny, legless larvae penetrate into the bark of the shoots to get a favorable nutrient medium there.
In affected plants, the stems are covered with galls - bloating formations. There, the larvae of the beetles remain wintery, and in the spring pupate, become beetles, which, with the onset of the flowering period, again lay eggs.
Due to the development of gall midges, plant growth is significantly stopped. An irreversible process begins, associated with the complete death of the plant.
Measures to combat gall midge are described in detail in the article “Gall midge on raspberries, how to fight”. Ways to combat galice on blackberries and raspberries are the same.
Raspberry Stem Fly (Chortophiladentiens Pand)
This is a fairly common pest of blackberries and raspberries. Appearing, insects begin to damage the stems of young plants. Pest - with a dark color, with a characteristic protruding “forehead”. Adult beetles can reach up to 7 mm in length. Pest larvae of white color, worm-like form up to 5 mm in size.
For wintering, beetles go into the soil to a depth of 6 cm, and they can also be found in dense grass or under bushes. For pupation, it is enough that the air warms up to +13 degrees. And ten days later, the massive years of adult insects begin.
Pests settle on the stems of plants, destroying the shoots. Egg laying occurs in the area of flowers, tops of young shoots, as well as in the sinuses of leaves that have not had time to open.
Larvae, getting into the nutrient medium, begin to actively develop, gnaw shoots. First, they make moves there for themselves, then they go down into the depths of the stem in order to stay there for the winter. A year cycle is enough for the appearance of one generation of pests.
Control measures:
- Chemicals to combat raspberry stem fly are ineffective. Experts advise cutting off the wilted blackberry shoots as soon as they wilt. This is the only way to prevent the fly from going down inside the shoot to pupate in the ground.
- Cut off shoots must be burned.
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Blackberry mite (Acalitus essigi)
The tick is so small that sometimes you can not immediately notice it. The insect has an elongated shape, like a worm.
For wintering, pests do not go under the soil, but remain inside the plant buds, choosing a blackberry. With the onset of heat, insects migrate to shoots, and then, during the flowering, to inflorescences, berries.
It is in the berries that the blackberry mite finds an excellent nutrient medium. He simultaneously eats and introduces substances that affect their quality into the berries. Because of this, blackberries cannot fully ripen. The appearance of the plant is worsening, the taste of berries, which can no longer be suitable for sale.
Blackberry berries affected by the tick do not darken when ripe, they either remain completely red or partially.
Blackberry mite can destroy up to 50 percent of the crop.
Control measures:
To prevent the introduction of ticks inside the flowers, the berries should be sprayed with blackberry shoots in the spring before the buds open up with solutions of Envidor, Tiovit Jet, Bi-58.
Common Spider Mite (Tetranychusurticae Koch)
The spider mite has a size of up to 0.4 mm. The pest chooses for itself as a nutrient medium flowers, leaves, stalks of blackberries, currants, and other fruit crops. For fertilization and wintering, the tick selects fallen leaves, plant debris, as well as the bark of the stump trees.
When the air heats up to 12 degrees in the spring, insects crawl out of the shelters, move to the foliage, remaining on their back side. The plant below begins to become covered with a thin web.
During the flowering period, the tick is able to bring up to 12 generations. At the same time, the leaves of plants begin to fade, turn yellow, fall off by the middle of summer.
The main damage mites inflict on the stems of plants - piercing the epidermis, sucking out the cellular juice of the leaves. This process can be detected by the appearance of the leaves, formations appear on them - white spots. Heavily damaged leaves stop photosynthesis, the green pigment and moisture disappear in them.
As a result of the defeat of the plant with an ordinary tick, the yield decreases, the ability of the blackberry to resist diseases is worsened.
Control measures:
- In early spring, you should collect all last year's leaves under the blackberry bushes, burn them, as wintering ticks can remain there.
- Spider mite treatment should begin when the buds hatch and the first green leaves appear. You can treat plants with drugs of biological origin (Fitoverm, Aktofit, others) or chemical - Tiovit Jet, Bi-58, etc. Drugs can be alternated.
- The number of treatments is at least 3, the frequency is 7-10 days.