2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The oaky silkworm, sometimes called the oaky cocoonworm, owes its interesting name solely to the fact that sitting pests with folded wings are very similar to dried oak leaves. Gluttonous caterpillars, which prefer to feast on the juicy leaves of apple trees, pears and some other fruit trees, are especially harmful to the trees. Moreover, most often they attack young plantations. The harmful caterpillars will not refuse to feast on leaves of rowan, alder, aspen or poplar. To preserve the long-awaited harvest, these villains must be actively fought
Meet the pest
Oaky silkworm is a rather large brown or reddish-brownish butterfly with a slight purple tint, endowed with wings serrated along the edges. The wingspan of males reaches an average of 75 mm, and of females - 88 mm. Three dark wavy transverse lines can be seen on the front serrated wings of harmful parasites. And on the hind wings, such lines are usually subtle.
Eggs of oak-leaved silkworms are distinguished by their oblong shape and are painted in grayish tones with green wavy hairs. Caterpillars growing up to 100 mm in length and up to 15 mm in thickness are characterized by a brownish or dark gray color. On the sides, they are densely covered with small red paired warts and tiny dark gray hairs, and their body is rather flattened. As for the backs of the pests, they have a pair of transverse blue stripes, hidden at rest. On the eleventh ring of caterpillars' bodies there are miniature spines, and on their abdominal rings one can notice a pair of lobed lateral outgrowths. And black-brown pupae, located in rather hard dark cocoons, are generously covered with a whitish bloom.
Wintering of harmful caterpillars takes place not only in cracks in the bark, but also in other secluded places in the dense crowns of pears and apple trees. In the case of wintering on branches, they are very tightly pressed against them. With the onset of June, they look for places in the tree crowns for subsequent cocooning and immediately become entangled in cobwebs, and by the end of July, funny butterflies fly out.
The female oak-leaved silkworms lay their eggs, gluing them one at a time to the leaves and twigs of trees. A couple of weeks later, miniature gray caterpillars are born, actively feeding on leaves. They are most active at night. And with the onset of autumn frosts, gluttonous caterpillars go to winter. Next year, in the spring, they continue to harm the leaves until the end of May or the beginning of June.
You can meet oak-leaved silkworms on the territory of various countries: these funny pests live in the countries of the former CIS, in the DPRK, in China, in Japan, in South Korea and in a number of countries in Western Europe.
How to fight
To identify the appearance of oak-leaved silkworms on the site, it is necessary to systematically examine berry bushes and fruit trees for the presence of these pests. All detected caterpillars of harmful silkworms are collected and immediately destroyed.
In the event of a massive invasion of enterprising parasites, fruit trees are treated with various insecticides before flowering. Such drugs as "Metaphos", "Zolon", "Dursban", "Fosfamid" and "Antio" help to cope with them especially well. Chlorophos with Karbofos, as well as Metathion, Gardona and Nexion have proven themselves quite well. Another rather effective remedy is the well-known "Entobacterin".
The measures taken against codling moths also help in the fight against oak-leaved silkworms.
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