Bird cherry moth is a dangerous pest

Bird cherry refers to such plants, which grow almost everywhere. It can be found in the park, in the forest, and in the garden. The bushes themselves can reach a height of 10 meters, but in most cases do not exceed 5-7 meters. Flowering of this plant can be observed in early May, when on the crown appear fragrant white flowers, collected in the so-called brushes.

Taking care of such a plant as bird cherry, it is necessary to pay special attention to pest control. The main "lover" of this plant is the bird cherry moth. Even though the leaves of this plant contain a large number of phytoncides, an attack on bird cherry is an uncommon occurrence.

The mole itself, the measures of struggle against which are quite diverse, is a small insect, whose wings length does not exceed 1.5 cm. The body has a silvery-white color and 5 longitudinally arranged rows of small black dots. Small sizes of moths, whose photo is located below, allow it to be almost invisible.

The caterpillars of this pest have a yellowish color with fine black spots. Just not a bird cherry moth, namely its caterpillars cause great damage to the plant. They feed exclusively on the young shoots of the plant, and even then they braid it with a web, thus arranging a nest for themselves.

When a tree is hit by caterpillars very much, it becomes silvery from a large amount of cobwebs. Not only the branches are shrouded in it, but even the trunk. This species of caterpillars is not eaten by birds, which allows pests to multiply quite actively.

The formation of a pupa from caterpillars occurs in the trunk clefts. Larger and stronger pupate first. In the middle of a loose nest shell they form a cocoon. As the leaves decrease on the tree crown, the number of cocoons formed increases. The nest is constantly expanding due to newly arrived caterpillars.

A few weeks later there are butterflies. It happens in the middle of summer, in July. The bird cherry moth, as already mentioned above, has a white color with distinct black dots.

Meanwhile, the plant is gradually restored, releasing new leaves. Due to the fact that the moth appears almost at the end of summer, when there are not so many other insects, the tree survives. There are cases when, with a large area of damage, bird cherry loses its inflorescence, as a result of which the tree does not bear fruit.

In those years, often in our time, when there are frosts and snow in April, the young caterpillars, which were already active at that moment, are dying. As a consequence, there is no great damage to the tree crowns, and the leaves remain intact, and as a result, fruits appear on the tree. This phenomenon can be attributed to biological self-regulation.

The main method of fighting this pest is the chemical method. The bird cherry moth is very sensitive to such chemicals as carbofos and kinkmix. After a two-time spraying of plants, the pests die.