How to deal with the winter moth: best practices

If winter moth settled in the garden, if you do not notice it in time and take measures to eliminate it, can cause serious damage to deciduous trees. It affects most fruit trees (apple trees, cherries, plums, pears), destroying the leaves almost completely. In the garden you can see them when the air temperature drops after a hot summer, from September to October.

Pest structure

Males and females have significant differences in appearance.

The males of the butterfly have short thin antennae and wings, the span of which reaches up to 3 cm. The front wings of a complex color are grayish-brown with dots, they are intersected across by wavy stripes of dark color. The rear is lighter, yellowish.

Female moths have a different structure: you can recognize a butterfly of this species by its inflated abdomen and short wings, the length of which does not exceed 3 mm. They have 1-2 transverse stripes. Underdeveloped wings do not allow females to fly. The body is grayish-brown in color and about 1 cm long. The antennae, unlike the male, have long butterflies.

The eggs are small, oblong, covered with a thick shell. When the female only lays eggs, they have a greenish color, and after a while they become brownish-red, imperceptible against the background of a tree bark.
Caterpillars hatch from the eggs with 5 pairs of legs (3 front, 2 rear). The head of the caterpillar is yellow or light brown, the body is greenish-yellow. A dark stripe runs through the center of the back, and 3 light ones are located on the sides. The body length reaches about 230 mm.

The pupa is brownish in color; bifurcated small spikes can be seen at the end of its abdomen.

What does the winter moth breathe? Butterflies and caterpillars do this with trachea. On the sides of the body are holes (stigma, spiracles) into which air enters. On each side there are 9 pieces, a total of 18. It turns out that the first pair is on 1 chest ring, the others are evenly distributed over the abdominal rings.

Along the edges of the stigma are hairs that protect the respiratory organs of the winter moth from dust and other objects.

Development phases

Adults begin years when the air temperature drops to 5–10 ° С. Short-term frosts (up to –15 ° С) do not harm them.

Butterflies are active only at night, in daylight they sit motionless on a tree trunk. Neither low temperatures nor bad weather conditions (including rain) do not stop them during the mating season.

Mating takes place on tree trunks. After the female lays eggs (each capable of producing 200–300) in small heaps on branches, as close as possible to the place of budding. For laying eggs moth selects irregularities and depressions in the bark of trees.

Important! Eggs survive the winter at the ends of branches, they are able to tolerate even severe (up to –20 ° С) frosts.

In spring, when warm weather sets in, about 2 weeks before flowering begins, larvae appear. The period of their nutrition lasts about 21-30 days, during which time they destroy the kidneys. After crawling down the web, they climb into the topsoil (to a depth of about 10 cm), pupate. From September or October begins the years of butterflies.

The optimum temperature for the life of the caterpillar and pupae is from 14 to 18 ° C, at higher values ​​they die. For eggs, a temperature of minus 35 ° C or lower is considered intolerable.

Food addictions

The winter moth (operophtera brumata) is found in the middle and northern parts of Europe, in the south, in the European part of Russia, in the Primorsky Territory, in the Caucasus.

The diet of the pest is quite extensive, it includes about 100 species of plants.

Important! Winter moth caterpillars destroy the buds, flowers and leaves of many trees: apple trees, cherries, pears, bird cherry trees, oak, maple, beech, hazel, birch and many others.

While feeding, the caterpillars make holes in the leaves and flowers, leaving a web in damaged areas.

By the end of the third week, nothing remains of the leaves, only a vein. Grown caterpillars can climb into the ovary of apple trees or pears, and damage to cherries or plums with bones that have not yet become hard. With a serious defeat of the tree by the winter moth, it does not bloom, the fruits are not tied.

Pest Management Methods

To get rid of the winter moth in your garden, you can choose both aggressive chemical and harmless mechanical methods.

Glue belt

To protect their garden and fruit trees from winter moth caterpillars, experienced gardeners install special glue belts on the trunks of apple and cherry trees, 2 pieces at a distance from each other on each tree.

Since females, due to the peculiarities of their structure, are not able to fly and move only along the trunk, such a trap will prevent its penetration into the crown of the tree, where the pest lays its eggs.

Belts are left until mid-spring, regularly checking their condition - whether they retain their properties, whether they can hold insects. Trapped insects and eggs are burned.

Manual collection

Detected caterpillars and their nests (cobwebs) can be collected manually, and then destroyed.

Spraying

If the pest managed to lay eggs, then even before the first buds bloom, the affected trees are sprayed with special preparations, such as “Call”, “Calypso”, “Aktara”, “Angio”, “Decis”. You can also use a mineral oil emulsion (liquid paraffin).

Plowing the soil

It is possible to exterminate the winter moth if the soil is plowed in the fall before butterflies begin to summer. To do this, the soil around fruit trees is cultivated and loosened earlier than usual.

Tree care

To prevent the appearance of winter moth caterpillars that feed on young leaves, you can carefully monitor the condition of fruit trees: remove moss, dead sections of the bark from the trunk, and whitewash the trunks.

The winter moth is a dangerous pest that prefers fruit trees and can affect future crops. However, you can even cope with it, if you approach the problem comprehensively, in a timely manner, starting the fight against discovered butterflies and caterpillars.