2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The chestnut miner moth attacks mainly chestnuts. Pests lay eggs on leaves, and caterpillars emerging from these eggs immediately begin to suck nutritious juices from plants. As they grow older, caterpillars gnaw through numerous passages in leaves and actively devour pliable woody tissues. On the leaves affected by pests, characteristic brownish specks can be seen. As a rule, several generations of these voracious parasites develop during the season, which in turn contributes to a significant weakening of trees
Meet the pest
The adults of the chestnut mining moth reach 7 mm in size, and their wingspan can be up to 1 cm. On the reddish-brownish wings of the pests, alternating white lines are clearly visible. The paws of the harmful moth are black and white, the abdomens are gray, and the breasts are brownish.
Miniature chestnut moth eggs are about 0.3 mm in size and are characterized by a light green color. And harmful caterpillars pass as many as six ages during their development - during this time their size changes from 0.8 to 5.5 mm, and their color - from translucent light green to pale yellow. In individuals of the youngest age, the skin is always smooth, and when they grow up, their skin begins to become covered with sparse bristles.
The dark brown pupae of the pests are covered with light short bristles and have small outgrowths like claws - with them harmful pupae cling not only to the leaves on which they sit, but also to their rather strong cocoons (by the way, the cocoons of the chestnut moth are called mines, hence the full name of the pests). The adult insects emerging from the cocoons break through the skin of the leaves, and already at the very beginning of the flowering of chestnuts, the appearance of adults can be noticed.
Experts noted that usually the invasion of the chestnut miner moth is observed for two years in a row, and then the harmful parasites disappear somewhere for several years. And you can literally meet these unpleasant pests throughout Europe.
How to fight
To get rid of the chestnut mining moth, holes are made in the tree trunks and insecticides are placed there that can make the chestnuts poisonous to pests even for several years. In short, trees are injected. True, in this case there is a risk that toxic substances will get into the nectar, which, in turn, can poison bees and some other beneficial insects. However, conventional insecticide spraying can be unsafe for humans, as chestnuts tend to grow in crowded areas. In addition, being conveniently located inside the leaf blades, pests are almost always reliably protected from the effects of any insecticides. Therefore, if the spraying method is nevertheless chosen, it is better to give preference to systemic insecticides - these drugs penetrate directly into the depths of plants and destroy pests from the inside. As a rule, the whole crown is sprayed with such preparations.
The harmful chestnut moth also has natural enemies. Birds are the most active fighters against these harmful parasites - starlings and sparrows with titmouses especially like to feast on miner moths. And adults and developing caterpillars are eagerly eaten by various beetles and tree bugs. Sometimes in places of mass accumulation of harmful parasites, trichogramma riders are released - these quick helpers lay their eggs in the bodies of chestnut moth larvae, which leads to their inevitable death. True, the latter method should be practiced with some caution.
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Chestnut
© sanse293 / Rusmediabank.ru Latin name: Castanea Family: Beech Categories: Ornamental trees and shrubs Chestnut (Latin Castanea) - a genus of trees and shrubs of the Beech family. Under natural conditions, chestnut grows in the Mediterranean, on the Atlantic coast of the United States, in the Caucasus and in East Asia.
Horse Chestnut
Horse chestnut is one of the plants of the family called horse chestnut, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Aesculus hippocastanum L. As for the name of the horse chestnut family itself, in Latin it will be like this: Aesculaceae.
Clover Dark Chestnut
Clover dark chestnut is one of the plants of a family called legumes, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Trifolium spadiceum L. As for the name of the dark chestnut clover family itself, in Latin it will be like this: Fabaceae Lindl.
Common Horse Chestnut
This long-lasting and powerful tree is beautiful all year round. Horse chestnut is the most beautiful garden and park decoration and enjoys well-deserved fame. It is not only decorative, but also generously shares its flowers, fruits, leaves and bark, from which people prepare all kinds of medicines
Harmful Mountain Ash Moth
The mountain ash moth harms not only mountain ash - it loves to feast on apple trees, especially in years of poor fruiting of mountain ash. The most active pest butterflies differ from eight to nine o'clock in the evening - during the day they hide in the tree foliage, so they can be seen only in the evening. And the voracious caterpillars of the mountain ash moth intensively eat away the pulp of the fruit. The fruits attacked by them acquire a bitter taste and very quickly deteriorate or shrivel and subsequently mum
