2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Plum pollinated aphids, found literally everywhere, are not indifferent not only to plums, but also to peaches, apricots and cherry plums. During the spring-summer season, these pests have time to develop in eight to ten generations. Colonies of plum pollinated aphids are most often found on the undersides of the leaves. Damaged leaves are discolored along the veins, and their edges are bent. In addition, gluttonous parasites can colonize fruits. Leaves and fruits that have been contaminated with pest secretions and to which their molar skins have adhered are often covered with a black coating of a harmful sooty fungus
Meet the pest
The size of light oval females of plum pollinated aphids reaches 2.5 mm. Three stripes of dark green color run along their backs. The antennae, heads and finger-like tails of these pests are light, and the slightly protruding tubules are painted in brownish shades.
Wingless parthenogenetic females reach 2, 8 mm in size. They are also light-colored, and on their dorsal side, you can see three dark stripes with a slight whitish dusting. The length of the tails of these females is twice the length of the tubes, and their antennae are endowed with six segments each.
As for the winged parthenogenetic females, they grow up to 2, 2 mm in length and are endowed with black tubes and antennae. Their abdomens are light, and the breasts and heads are brownish with a pronounced gray dusting.
Amphigon females are characterized by an oval shape and the absence of wings, reach 1, 7 mm in size and are painted in light colors with a slight powder of white.
Winged males about 2, 2 mm long are endowed with yellow abdomens with green spots and dark brown breasts and heads. And their pronotum is bordered by transverse green stripes.
The size of the eggs of plum pollinated aphids is about 0.4 mm. Initially, the eggs are light in color, and after three or four days they turn black.
Fertilized eggs overwinter near the buds or on their surfaces. The revival of harmful larvae is noted at a temperature of about eight degrees. As a rule, it occurs when the scales of the fruit buds become distinguishable. Closer to the end of flowering, parthenogenetic females reviving from forty to sixty larvae appear. And by mid-May, some individuals move to the reeds, giving rise to the development of new generations there. In a similar situation, the pollinated plum aphid develops throughout the season both on reeds and on fruit trees. Approximately in September and October, the appearance of both wingless and winged females is observed. Winged individuals migrate to stone fruit trees and revive there within a month up to a dozen larvae, which later turn into amphigonic females.
Wingless individuals, in turn, revive larvae on the reeds, turning into winged males. Males mate with females, as a result of which the latter lay five to seven eggs. In this case, the females scrape off the waxy substance from their abdomens, which cover the surface of the eggs.
Damage caused by pollinated plum aphids leads to a decrease in winter hardiness of trees and retardation of shoot growth. Also, the volume of the harvest and its quality are significantly reduced.
How to fight
Fat shoots and root shoots should be systematically cut out, since the plum pollinated aphid populates them especially intensively. Also, on the territory of the gardens and near them, it is necessary to actively combat weeds.
In the event that for every ten centimeters of shoots there are ten to twenty eggs or more, it is necessary to spray with ovicides in early spring in the breeding centers of gluttonous parasites. The main thing is to have time to keep within with them before bud break, and the air temperature should not drop below four degrees.
If the population density of growing crops of plum pollinated aphids exceeds five colonies for every hundred leaves, they switch to insecticide treatments.
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