2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The hairy moth, which is most often found in the Far East and the European part of Russia, mainly damages forest and fruit species. Caterpillars are the most harmful - first they skeletonize young leaves, braiding them with a cobweb, and then older caterpillars begin to openly and roughly eat the foliage, often eating the leaves entirely. To preserve the harvest, these pests must be actively combated
Meet the pest
The hairy silkworm moth is a funny butterfly with wingspan ranging from 35 to 40 mm. The wings of these voracious scoundrels are most often painted in yellowish-grayish tones. Nevertheless, they can be grayish, decorated with numerous brownish stripes, as well as black crescent specks located between the veins of the outer edges of the wings. Along the anal edges, all the wings are terry yellow. As for the fringe on the wings of hairy silkworm moths, it is almost always brown. Another distinctive feature of these pests is that the antennae are feathery in males, and threadlike in females.
Eggs of hairy silkworm moths reach 0.7 mm in size. Recently laid eggs are colored greenish, and immediately before the revival of the caterpillars, their color changes to bluish-black and is characterized by a pronounced metallic sheen. Completed caterpillars reach a length of about 45-50 mm and are endowed with bright and well-visible yellow chairs, and the main color of their bodies is distinguished by bizarre multi-colored aberrations: grayish-brownish, brownish, gray or gray-violet. The abdominal plates of gluttonous pests are also quite bright, and the legs are painted in black-brown tones. In addition, on each segment they have a pair of medium-sized yellow spots, and on the eleventh segment, you can also notice a pair of black protruding outgrowths with light hairs. And dark brown pupae, growing up to 17 - 20 mm, are endowed with bifurcated thick processes that end with rather large cremasters.
Harmful pupae overwinter in earthen cradles in the soil, while being located under fallen leaves, in the surface soil layer, or at a depth of eight to fifteen centimeters. Butterflies start flying out in early spring, as soon as the average daily temperature reaches twelve to fifteen degrees. Most often this occurs in the first decade of April - in March, the emergence of butterflies can be observed exclusively in the steppe zone. By the way, in time their flight is always extended and lasts more than a month.
Sedentary females of hairy silkworm moths do not fly. After fertilization occurs, they begin to lay eggs - either in small groups or one at a time, placing them at the base of the kidneys in the folds of the cortex. The total fertility of females in this case reaches from six and a half to eight and a half hundred eggs, and the duration of the embryonic development of pests is from ten to fifteen to thirty to thirty five days.
The reborn caterpillars are distinguished by unprecedented mobility and live quite apart. After thirty to thirty-five days, their development ends, and the caterpillars gradually move to wintering places, where, having pupated in miniature earthen cradles, they continue to remain in them until next spring. Fortunately, a single generation of hairy silkworm moths has time to develop throughout the year.
How to fight
The most important preventive measure against hairy moths-silkworms is the autumn tillage in the near-trunk circles and aisles. And as soon as the caterpillars begin to slowly move into the soil for subsequent pupation, it should be thoroughly loosened. If more than four to six eggs are seen on each pair of square meters of shoots, then they begin to spray with insecticides.
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