2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
You can meet the apple blossom beetle almost everywhere. Its larvae and beetles are capable of quite badly damaging apple trees. The most dangerous is damage to vulnerable buds with the onset of early spring, when beetles gnaw deep enough pits into them with something resembling pricks. The harmful larvae feed on pistils and stamens and, gnawing out the receptacle, strongly glue the petals from the inside. The result of such an activity of the apple blossom beetle is unblown, brown and dried buds
Meet the pest
Apple blossom beetles are dark brown beetles covered with thin gray hairs ranging in size from 3.5 to 5 mm. In the lower parts of the elytra of the parasites, a light oblique transverse stripe with a dark and very clear border is observed. The legs and geniculate antennae of harmful apple blossom beetles are black-brown, and the rostrum is slightly concave, rather dark and long.
The oblong-shaped eggs of pests are painted in a watery-white color and reach a length of 0.5 - 0.8 mm. The legless, slightly curved, yellow-white larvae are endowed with a tiny dark brown head and are tapered towards the rear tip. Their length is about 5 - 6 mm. Pale yellow pupae 4 - 6 mm in size have a pair of spines at the tips of the abdomen.
Wintering of immature beetles takes place in cracks and crevices of the bark, as well as under fallen leaves and near the root necks in the soil (at a depth of two to three centimeters). Beetles begin to leave their wintering places when the average daily temperature reaches 6 degrees. And when the mark of 8-10 degrees is reached, the parasites already populate the trees en masse and begin active feeding. They mate when the fruit buds begin to bloom, actively laying eggs at the stage of exposing the inflorescences and until the buds are loosened. During the egg-laying period, females prefer the buds of the peripheral parts of tree crowns. Gnawing holes in them, they place eggs among the stamens, and then plug these holes with peculiar plugs consisting of excrement. In general, laying eggs takes from ten to twenty days - it depends on the rate of development of the buds and on weather conditions. The total fecundity of female apple blossom beetles is from 50 to 100 eggs.
The larvae revive after 4 - 8 days, and after 15 - 20 days they complete their development, having gone through three stages of development. Larvae pupate inside damaged buds.
At a temperature of 15 to 18 degrees, the duration of development of pupae is from 9 to 11 days, and at a temperature of 20 to 22 degrees, they fit in eight days. The beetles stay in the depths of the buds until their integuments harden, and only after that they get out. Their mass release is usually noted in 8 - 12 days after the apple trees have faded (approximately this is the third decade of May). Then, within twenty - twenty-five days, harmful beetles begin to gnaw small ulcers on the fruits. With the onset of hot and rather dry weather at the height of summer, they begin to hide in the branches of branches and in cracks and cracks in the bark, and in the fall they go to their secluded wintering places. The development of pests, as a rule, is observed in one generation.
The apple blossom beetle inflicts the most damage during periods differing in cold spring, when the duration of the budding stage reaches twenty days - this allows the parasites to lay a huge number of eggs. The apple blossom beetle is no less dangerous also in years with rather weak flowering.
How to fight
In the fall, you should clean off the dead bark from the trees, followed by its burning, and also be sure to cultivate the soil in the near-trunk circles and, of course, in the aisles.
In small areas, when the temperature drops to ten degrees, early in the morning, you can shake off bugs on prepared beddings, and then destroy them.
If the number of beetles reaches forty individuals per tree or more, they switch to spraying with insecticides (Vofatox, Aktellik, Karbofos, Novaktion, Fufanon, Fastak, etc.), which is important to have time to carry out before how the buds begin to form.
Also, for spraying, it is allowed to use herbal infusions: pharmacy chamomile or ordinary tansy. Of course, compared to insecticides, these agents are less effective, but they are much safer. And before the beetles emerge into the crown, trapping belts are often installed on tree trunks. It was also found that apple blossom beetles rarely populate the crowns whitewashed with lime, only the crowns need to be whitewashed before the buds bloom.
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