Butterflies Any king of the world always wants to be famous for something. Some use their virtues, others - the beauty of their wives, others - the courage of their warriors. But once upon a time there lived King Denir, who was glorified by his jester. The jester had an amazing talent

Butterflies

Butterflies They were traveling from Murmansk to Vladivostok. Somewhere beyond the Urals there are endless birch forests. A wet snowstorm began, and the speed dropped along with visibility. The powerful beams of xenon headlights, reflected in the swarming clouds of snow, blinded the already red eyes. And suddenly

The butterflies, found from June to August, pose no danger to gardeners. Their sucking mouthparts do not allow them to feed on vegetative parts of plants. Nocturnal insects feed on nectar.

The fight must be waged against hungry, voracious caterpillars, born in May after a long winter. The adults were named after the plants that the caterpillars feed on.

Photo of moth barrels:

Sosnovaya

Like all types of these lepidopteran pests, it has a protective connotation, reminiscent of pine bark. The grayish-brown wings of males and females are strewn with dark broken lines and white, dark brown or black spots.

Green caterpillars feed on needles and fragile bark. At the peak of gluttony (from May to June) they capable of completely depriving entire hectares of young plants of needles.

Read more about pine moths in our section:

Birch

Gray or white-gray the color of a butterfly, with black spots scattered along the outer side of its wings. The inconspicuous moth sits tightly pressed against a birch trunk or wooden building, and becomes practically indistinguishable against their background.

Interesting. Scientists note that over the last century, the color of butterflies has changed due to the fact that soot settling on birch trunks makes the bark darker. To camouflage themselves in new conditions, moths have learned to produce a black pigment that allows them to be colored to match any birch trunk.

Caterpillar Green colour. She eats leaves birch trees, alders, hazel.

Read more about birch moths in our article:

Fir

Lives in the eastern part of Siberia And in the Far East. Butterfly coloring light gray or gray-white with transverse white or gray wavy lines.

A caterpillar that looks like a dry twig eats fir needles, larches.

Gooseberry

Adult has a bright color: on a white background in the area of ​​the abdomen and head, yellow hairs and black specks form the letter T, below there are merging large spots, wavy black and yellow lines.

The caterpillar looks similar, strewn with large dark dots.

The gooseberry moth causes damage to berry bushes and Rosaceae: gooseberries, plum, apple tree, apricot, red and black currant . Feeds berry seeds, buds, leaves. The caterpillar glues together damaged parts of plants with a web, forming a secluded place for pupation.

Ripped off

Brown, milky or greenish butterfly decorated with two wavy stripes. From May to June it larvae eat buds, buds And leaves and leave characteristic ragged bite marks on their edges, creating the impression that the leaves were not bitten, but rather ripped off.

The moth peeled off causes great damage to garden crops during the budding period: apple tree, cherry, cherry, cherry plum, blueberries, rowan. Wild trees: maple, lipa, oak, birch, rosehip.

Winter moth

Sexually mature individuals look inconspicuous: their gray wings are streaked with transverse dark lines. The caterpillar is a pest of stone fruits, pome crops, and wild deciduous trees. She eats leaves, buds, pulp, young pear seeds, cherries, apple trees, plums.

Butterflies lay eggs in the fall. Overwintering of eggs hidden in cracks in the bark occurs at a temperature of 0-7°. During bud break, the caterpillar completes its formation and is born.

Interesting. Low temperatures do not kill pest eggs; they are necessary for full development life cycle insect.

Photo of the winter moth:

Surveyor caterpillar

A moth larva is called a surveyor behind characteristic way"walking" in spans. Larvae have the ability to mimic: when in danger, they freeze, becoming indistinguishable from small green twigs and dry twigs.

They are very voracious and are polyphagous (they eat almost all parts of closely related garden and wild plants).

Read more about moth caterpillars in our section:

Do not neglect frequent encounters with inconspicuous butterflies or caterpillars. Familiarize yourself with the damage caused by larvae, their gluttony, the consequences of proximity to moths and methods of combating these pests in the relevant sections.

Moths (lat. Geometridae), or surveyors are a large family of butterflies, numbering more than 2,000 genera and about 23,000 species. For garden and vegetable plants, the greatest danger is from moth caterpillars, which eat both cultivated and wild plants. Most often, in our climate, we find such representatives of the family as the pine and winter moths, the skinned moth and the gooseberry moth, or gooseberry.

Moth butterfly - description

The moth butterfly has a wingspan from 9.5 to 51 mm, but in most insects it reaches 30 mm. The body of butterflies is weak, the wings are wide and tender, although among moths there are species with both a thick body and underdeveloped wings. Moths have no eyes, the proboscis is weak and spiral, and the legs are thin. The front wings are usually broadly triangular, and the hind wings are rounded and pinched. Moths fly mainly at night; their flight is weak and uneven. At rest, the wings are most often spread flat or folded into a house. In males they are well developed and have a protective coloring, and the antennae in males are feathery. Many female moths have shortened wings or no wings at all, and thread-like antennae.

The moth caterpillar is most often naked, long, thin, worm-shaped, usually colored to match the color of the leaves, stems or bark. The two front pairs of legs of caterpillars are undeveloped, and because of this they crawl strangely, as if measuring space with their body, like a measuring chain, or a span - hence the name of this family. The moth larva has such developed muscles that it can stand on its hind legs for a long time, with its body extended: at these moments the caterpillars look like leaf petioles or broken twigs.

In the photo: Moth caterpillar

Smooth, without a cocoon, red-brown, gray, green or yellow pupae overwinter in cracks in the bark, in spider nests in trees, in the ground or on its surface. After emerging from the pupa until mating, adult moths are nocturnal and feed on flower nectar, but there are species that do not need food. After mating, females lay eggs on seed pods, buds, branches, leaves or needles. The caterpillars that hatch from the eggs feed very intensively and then pupate.

Moths are leaf-eating and pine-eating pests that eat the generative and vegetative organs of plants and can cause serious damage to fruit trees and shrubs over large areas. As a result of their pest activity, the quality of fruits deteriorates, crop yields decrease, and the winter hardiness of plants and resistance to other unfavorable factors are weakened. Moths are characterized by periodic outbreaks of mass reproduction, the consequences of which can last for several years, and during such periods moths can completely destroy leaves on plants.

Types of moth

Pine moth , like all lepidopteran pests, has a protective coloring, making it invisible against the background of pine bark: gray-brown wings are decorated with zigzags and black, white and dark brown spots. Green pine moth caterpillars feed on pine needles and, at the peak of their gluttony, can deplete entire hectares of young pines or fir trees.

Birch moth over the past hundred years has changed its color. This is due to the fact that the soot settling on birch trunks made their bark darker, so the birch moth butterfly learned to produce a black pigment: the outer side of its wings is covered with black spots, and the butterfly sitting on the birch practically merges with the trunk. Birch moth caterpillars are green. They feed on the leaves of not only birch, but also alder and hazel.

Black moth – Eurasian forest species with a wingspan of 13-15 mm. Both the body and wings of the butterfly are black; a thin white border runs along the top of the front wings. The caterpillars of this species are velvety green; they prefer to feed on earth chestnuts and rosemary, although in the absence of these plants the pests may change their tastes.

Fir moth lives on Far East and in the eastern part of Siberia. Its grayish wings are decorated with gray or white wavy lines. The fir moth caterpillar looks like a piece of a dry branch. The larvae usually feed on larch and fir needles.

Gooseberry moth , or gooseberry has a bright color: on the back and head, yellow hairs and black spots form a T-shaped pattern, clearly visible on a white background, and lower on the wings there are large merging spots and black and yellow lines in a wavy line. The caterpillar of this moth, strewn with large dark spots, also has an elegant appearance. The caterpillar damages not only gooseberries, black and red currants, but also rosaceous plants: plum, apple, apricot. The caterpillar feeds on leaves, buds and seeds of berries, and glues the damaged areas with cobwebs and pupates in them.

Winter moth It looks discreet: there are transverse dark lines on the gray wings. Caterpillars of this species damage stone and pome crops, as well as wild plants. deciduous trees, eating away the buds and young seeds from the inside. Eggs laid in autumn overwinter in cracks in the bark at temperatures down to -7 ˚C. For the full course of the winter moth cycle low temperatures necessary.

Ripped off - under this crude name there is a brown, cream or greenish butterfly, the wings of which are decorated with two wavy stripes. Its larvae damage the leaves, buds and buds of not only apple trees, cherry plums, rowan berries, cherries and blueberries, but also wild maples, birches, lindens, oaks and rose hips, leaving characteristic ragged bite marks on them.

In the photo: Moth butterfly

Great green moth It is distinguished by its large size: its wingspan can reach 45-50 mm. Newly pupated butterflies are brightly colored green color, against the background of which transverse white stripes are clearly visible. This species lives in forests throughout Europe, feeding mainly on the leaves of hazel and birch, but this does not mean that it is not dangerous for other deciduous species. The brown caterpillar of the green moth reaches a length of 25-30 cm. The insect overwinters underground and in cracks in the bark, and in the spring it acquires a green color with brown spots.

Mulberry moth distributed mainly in Central Asia. The females of this species do not have wings, but the males have brownish-gray wings. Mulberry moth caterpillars eat the buds and leaves of mulberry, peach, apricot, quince, plum, apple, poplar and acacia trees.

How to get rid of moth

Fighting the moth

It is necessary to combat moths using a combination of agrotechnical, mechanical, chemical and biological methods. To agrotechnical methods struggles include:

• regular inspection of plants for pests;
• loosening the soil in the trunk circles of trees and shrubs with early spring until the end of April, and then from the first ten days of September until the start of frost;
• digging up the soil around trees in summer and autumn;
• mechanical removal of dead bark and moss from trees;
• whitewashing of trees in early March and October.

Mechanical control measures- the most labor-intensive, but also the safest - include:

• morning collection of caterpillars by hand or shaking them onto the litter and subsequent destruction;
• use of adhesive belts against insects;
• collection and destruction of spider nests on bushes and trees and plant debris in their tree trunks.

Chemical method involves treating fruit storage facilities, plants, and containers with pyrethroids, organophosphorus compounds and neonicotinoids. And under biologically fighting moths means attracting them to the garden natural enemies, which are parasites and tahina flies, for which phacelia, clover, ornamental onions and sunflowers are planted on the site, as well as spraying trees and shrubs with biological pesticides.

On the picture: Garden pest moth

Remedies for moths (drugs)

It is advisable to use insecticidal preparations against moths for preventive spraying of the garden in spring time. If there is a need to treat plants during the season, then in the case of even a very large number of pests, only preparations of biological origin are used. Preventive spraying fruit trees and berry bushes are carried out before flowering begins. The following drugs are used for treatment:

• Akarin is an insectoacaricide, a biological preparation of contact-intestinal action, effective against a complex of pests;
• Karbofos is a broad-spectrum insecticide and acaricide belonging to the class of organophosphorus compounds and used for the rapid and complete destruction of sucking and leaf-eating insect pests;
• Zolon is a contact-intestinal insecticide and acaricide that remains highly effective even at low air temperatures. However, the drug is highly toxic to warm-blooded animals;
• Kinmiks is a contact-intestinal insecticide for the control of gnawing and sucking pests;
• Decis is a contact-intestinal insecticide, part of the group of synthetic peritroids and used to control sucking and leaf-eating pests;
• Fitoverm is an insectoacaricide of biological origin with enteric contact action to protect plants from pests in open and closed ground;
• Bitoxibacillin is a biological insectoacaricide for protecting plants from pests. The period for the last treatment with the drug is five days before harvesting any crops and 10 days before harvesting medicinal plants;
• Lepidocide is a highly effective insecticidal biological preparation with intestinal action that can be used at any stage of plant development;
• Dendrobacillin is an insecticide recommended for spraying plants during the growing season against leaf-boring and other pests. The last treatment period is five days before harvesting any crops and 10 days before harvesting medicinal plants.

Fighting moth with folk remedies

Chemicals are the most strong weapon against any pest, however, they contain poisons that can accumulate in the fruits. If the pest situation does not look threatening, then it is better not to use potent insecticides, but to make do with time-tested ones folk remedies. The effectiveness of herbal decoctions and infusions compared to the effect of pesticides does not exceed 30-40%, and you may have to carry out several treatments instead of one, but as a result you will not only destroy moths, but also preserve the quality of the fruit. The following folk remedies are used to control pests:

• decoction of tomato tops: in 10 liters of water you need to infuse 1 kg of chopped tomato tops for 4-5 hours, then boil the infusion over low heat for 2-3 hours, let it cool, strain and add the same amount of water;
• infusion of burdock leaves: the crushed leaves are placed in a bucket, filling it to a third of its volume, water is added to the brim and left for three days, after which it is filtered and used to treat plants;
• milkweed decoction: 4 kg of crushed stems of milkweed need to be poured into 5 liters of water, boiled for 2.5-3 hours, cooled, strained and filled with water to the brim of the bucket. This amount is enough for two sprayings, the first of which is carried out as soon as the caterpillars are detected, and the second - 4 days after the first;
• hot pepper decoction: 100 g of finely chopped bitter pepper fruits should be poured into 1 liter of water, boiled for an hour, then left for two days, then crush the pepper into a pulp directly in the broth, strain the mixture and use in parts, adding half a glass of broth to 10 liters of water. For better adhesion, you need to pour 50 g of liquid soap into the solution;
• wormwood decoction: Boil 1 kg of wilted wormwood in 2 liters of water for 10-15 minutes, let the broth cool, strain and add enough water to make 10 liters. Use for weekly treatments;
• infusion of yarrow: Steam 800 g of dried herb collected during flowering with boiling water, leave for 30-40 minutes, then add water to make 10 liters and leave for another 40 minutes. Before processing the plants, filter the infusion and add 50 ml of liquid soap to it;
• tansy powder: Grind dry stems, flowers and leaves of tansy into powder and dust the plants with it.

Prevention of moths

To prevent the moth from ruining your harvest, you need to start fighting it in the fall: collect fallen leaves under the plants and burn them, then dig up the soil in the trunk circles of bushes and trees. From the beginning of the season, carry out two preventive treatments of the garden with a solution of Karbofos or another preparation of a similar effect: the first - before the buds begin to bloom, the second - after flowering. When fruits appear on the plant, it is advisable to carry out treatments only with folk remedies.