Web Trees: How to Help Garden Plants

Almost every gardener has ever seen a web on fruit trees. Branches and foliage entangled in cocoons of the finest silk threads, as well as fruits, gradually begin to wilt, which negatively affects the yield of infected plants. At the same time, some believe that such a picture is the result of the life of spiders. However, this is so, because such dense and dense web spiders are simply unable to weave. So, the trees are on the web: who weaves it and how to deal with it.

Who weaves a web in the trees?

Various insects are capable of creating cobwebs in the garden.

Summer pests

A spider mite is a very small insect whose body length is not more than 1 mm. The web, which he weaves, is a muddy translucent film with dark grains of sand inside - these are eggs.

The main food source for the spider mite is the juice of plants, which it sucks from young shoots, leaves and buds. For humans, this creature does not pose a direct danger, however, given the peculiarities of its existence, we can confidently say that it is a rather serious pest of fruit and berry crops. In the process of nutrition, the spider mite robs plants of important substances, because of which they lose their vitality and gradually dry out.
Having settled on a tree, the spider mite begins to entangle with its web, first the leaves, and then the whole branches. Females masonry right on it and after some time, voracious larvae emerge from the eggs. Young growth is attached to the plant and takes nutrient juices. At the same time, twisted leaves appear on the infected branches, which quickly dry and fall.

But the spider mite is far from the only pest of fruit trees that entangles them with its web. In addition to it, garden crops in the warm season are able to attack:

• apple moth;
• tinker;
• cocoon spiders;
• bagpipes;
• leaflets;
• scoops;
• moths;
• Corydalis.

The main harm is caused by caterpillars, and it is they who are the main creators of the dense and dense web on trees, which outwardly may look like lumps of cotton wool. Adult individuals of these insects are winged - they do not carry a special threat to plants, but at the same time they reproduce very actively and quickly increase the number of colonies.

On a note! The cobweb, which appears on trees as a result of the activity of sucking and leaf-eating parasites, is the main source of the development of pathogenic fungi!

Caterpillars themselves live in dense cobwebs formed on trees from cobwebs, and only in one can there be a fairly large colony of parasites. These pests include ermine moth, which at the end of the last century was able to kill a rather large amount of bird cherry in the Moscow region.

Winter pests

You can find cobwebs on fruit trees not only in the warm, but even in the cold season. The pest that weaves it is called hawthorn. When infected, dense white cocoons hang directly on the branches of various fruit trees. In this case, caterpillars are also harmful. They twist the leaves, entangle them with a dense layer of cobwebs and winter directly inside them.

How to get rid of cobwebs on trees?

Let's see what needs to be done if a web has appeared on the trees. First of all, you should take cocoons that you can reach. They are simply peeled by hand and burned off-site. Do the same with infected branches. They are cut with garden clippers or secateurs. If the infection is small, then the mechanical method of removing cocoons is quite capable of giving a positive result.

In autumn, all the trees in the garden must be carefully examined again, paying particular attention to those plants that have previously been attacked by parasites. And if the eggs are again found, they should be scraped off and burned. Before wintering, re-pruning of damaged shoots and dry branches is carried out. And before the onset of the first frosts, it is advisable to spray the trees with a solution of lime.

Chemical fight

Since the moment of infection can easily be missed, as a result of which a significant part of the tree, as well as the entire plant, appears in the web, it is often preferred to fight the pest with chemicals. In this case, drugs such as:

• "Aktara";
• "Actellik";
• Confidor
• Decis, etc.

The selected product is diluted with water according to the instructions and all infected trees are treated. Spraying is carried out very carefully several times a season at weekly intervals. Moreover, the number of treatments will directly depend on the intensity of infection of the trees - the insecticide should be used until all pests are destroyed.

In addition to the drugs presented above, you can also use Fitoverm biofeedback. It exhibits intestinal contact activity, paralyzes the insect and leads to its death. In addition, there are other biological agents that help very successfully deal with cobwebs in trees. These include Dendrobacillin and Entobacterin.

General recommendations

Having considered how to deal with cobwebs in trees, several important points should be noted:

• It is necessary to apply insecticides strictly according to the instructions, trying to choose a dry, windless day for this. Otherwise, the plant will not receive proper protection and will not be able to develop and bear fruit normally. Parasite larvae that have settled in cocoons will mercilessly destroy young buds and fruit ovaries, and in the future the web will grow throughout the crown. In addition, eggs and caterpillars will successfully survive the winter in their cozy warm cocoons and, with the advent of spring, will begin to bite into succulent foliage and destroy the fruit pulp.
• If this year you carried out several treatments, having done everything according to the rules, then next spring you need to carefully examine the trees again and remove the spider webs. Surviving caterpillars may be hiding in them, which with the arrival of heat will wake up and begin to multiply actively.
• If the infection is insignificant, but you are not able to reach the upper part of the crown, which the web has entangled, then here you also need to resort to the help of acaricidal drugs. It is possible that in this case only two treatments will be sufficient. Use one of the suggested remedies twice a season at weekly intervals.

And do not forget that with frequent treatment with the same drug, insects can develop resistance (immunity). And so that this does not happen, try to regularly change the insecticide, paying particular attention to the main active substance - it is it, and not the name of the product, that should be different. Have a good harvest!