How To Deal With Mountain Ash Moth

2023 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 20:34

Rowan moth is a pest that affects not only rowan fruits, but also apple trees

Alas, you are not the only one affected by these pests last season. And the reason for this is the poor harvest of mountain ash near St. Petersburg and in the North-West. The fact is that the pest that damaged the apple harvest of many gardeners and summer residents is the mountain ash moth, or rather, its caterpillars.

Rowan moth- This is a small brown butterfly with silvery stripes along the edge of the wings, which span a little more than 1 cm. It hibernates as a pupa in the upper soil layer, its emergence to the surface coincides with the flowering of apple and mountain ash. Butterflies live a little over a month. After fertilization, the females of the mountain ash moth lay their eggs on young rowan ovaries, as well as near the calyx of the set apple-tree fruits, sometimes they do not ignore the hawthorn ovary. After about two weeks, small caterpillars hatch from the laid eggs, which penetrate the fruits and begin to feed on the pulp there, laying narrow winding passages in the apple in all directions. They seem to dive into the fruit, for which the people call the mountain ash moth a dive. In places of damage, the pulp acquires a bitter taste, dark spots appear. These caterpillars feed for almost a month. They leave rowan fruits at the end of August, and apples around the beginning of September.

In some years, caterpillars of this moth infect up to 20% of rowan fruits. And since there were almost no rowan trees last season, the apple orchards suffered. Several small caterpillars settled in the apples at once, and they pierced the whole fruit with their brown holes. Experts note that a drop of gum remains at the point where the caterpillar enters the fetus. On this basis, this pest can be easily distinguished from the moth caterpillar, which clogs the entrance to the apple with its excrement.

One generation of the mountain ash moth develops during the season. Having finished their development, the caterpillars gnaw holes in the fruits and, on silk threads, sink to the soil, where they pupate at a shallow depth. Everything will be repeated next year.

Therefore, one of the ways to combat the mountain ash moth is to regularly collect volunteers under the trees, and in the fall, it is necessary to dig the apple tree trunk circles, collect and remove fallen leaves and debris under the trees. These activities will help destroy pupated insects.

There are also chemical agents to combat the mountain ash moth. Experts recommend sprinkling the crowns of fruit trees and near-stem circles 7-10 days after flowering with insecticides, for example, Aktellik at a dosage of 15 ml per 10 liters of water. Two weeks later, re-treatment is carried out with the same preparation. You can use insecticides for treatment: fastak, kinmiks, fufanon-nova and others, which are also used to combat the codling moth. Apply according to the instructions.

Rowan blossomed well this year. There is a hope, if you dug up a tree-trunk circle of apple trees in your garden, that there will be fewer or no moths. In late June - early July, you can spray the crowns of apple trees and rowan bushes against this pest with a solution of chlorophos - 20 g of the drug per 10 liters of water. You just need to cover the ripening berries of garden strawberries, salads, sorrel and other vegetables, the harvest of which you will soon be harvesting, with a film or other covering material, from splashing this solution on them.

E. Valentinov