Caterpillars are dangerous pests for agricultural land. Unlike the moth larva, which lives only a few days, the life cycle of the caterpillar larva is several months. During all this time, it eats a huge amount of vegetation and thereby harms the crop.
If you do not treat the plants with a special remedy for caterpillars in time, this insect will turn into a butterfly, and then lay eggs - and everything will start all over again. Therefore, gardeners and farmers strive to detect this pest as early as possible and neutralize it.
What anti-caterpillar remedies exist?
As a rule, special chemicals (insecticides) are used to control pests. They are applied to those plants where insects live. Based on their effect on the caterpillar body, insecticides are divided into contact, systemic and intestinal.
Scientists also identify another subtype of pest control agents – translaminar. These drugs penetrate the leaves, which the caterpillar then eats.
In addition, there are insect control products aimed only at a specific type of caterpillar, and there are those that fight all garden and garden pests. These are drugs with continuous and selective effects.
Chemicals are also classified according to the main active ingredient they contain. For example, those working on pyrethrins, avermictins and other substances.
If you are choosing a remedy for caterpillars, carefully study their instructions. After all, on each preparation it is indicated in detail at what phase of the plant this preparation can be used, in what area, against what types of insects, in what weather, and so on. This way you will reduce the burden on the environment, which is very important.
Aphids on bell peppers
The pest can harm both pepper seedlings and adult plants. Aphids settle on the underside of leaves and ovaries of peppers. To combat aphids on peppers, infusions and decoctions of herbs are prepared that are safe for plants and humans.
Garlic infusion
Grind 100 g of garlic, add 1 liter of water and leave for 1 day. Strain and dilute in 9 liters of water. We spray the pepper bushes with the resulting infusion.
Dusting plants with tobacco dust or ash helps
. Before dusting, spray the bushes with warm water for better adhesion of the product.
Onion infusion
Grind 30 g of onion with peel, add 1 liter of water, leave for 5 hours. Add a few drops of liquid soap, strain and spray the plants.
Video – THE BEST REMEDY FOR APHIDS! THERE WILL BE NO MORE APHIES!
Contact drugs
Contact agents act on caterpillars very quickly. However, they can be used on just one part of the plant. At the same time, the effectiveness of the drug is significantly reduced if it rains: water reduces the concentration of the main active substance or simply washes it off the tree. Therefore, if it rains constantly in the summer, it is necessary to treat the plants with contact poison after each precipitation.
Intestinal poison
Intestinal agents enter the body of the caterpillar after it eats the leaf of the plant on which the drug was applied. There the poison begins to act and leads to death of the insect. Today, intestinal poison is the most effective against leaf-eating caterpillars.
System Tools
Systemic preparations are applied to flowers, trunks, leaves, and stems of plants and penetrate inside along with their juice. Due to this, massive destruction of caterpillars occurs. This method is quite effective, because its outcome is not affected by any external factors: when the poison is inside the plant, it will not be washed away by precipitation, will not be dried out by sunlight and will not be blown away by the wind.
Aphids on currants
When infested by aphids, blackcurrant shoots curl, and orange-red swellings appear on the leaves of white and red currants. Aphids appeared from fertilized eggs that overwintered in currant buds. It is necessary to begin an active fight against aphids.
Processing currant bushes
start in the spring, treating the plants with hot water even before the buds swell. Thus, you will destroy harmful insects and diseases that hibernate in the kidneys.
Next, watch for the appearance of ants so that they do not bring dangerous pests to the young currant shoots.
For minor damage, tear off the affected parts of the plants and burn them. Use folk remedies
when aphids appear.
Wood ash.
Sift 300 g of ash, pour 1 liter of boiling water, leave until completely cool. Strain the solution, add 40 g of soap, increase the amount of solution to 1 liter and spray the plants. After 7 days, repeat spraying.
Soda Ash.
Prepare the solution: 1 tbsp. l. dissolve soda in 1 liter of water, add a little liquid soap and spray the bushes.
There are plants whose smell cannot be tolerated by aphids, these are nasturtium, marigolds, mustard, peppermint, coriander
.
Also plants whose smell repels ants: wormwood, peppermint, tansy, angustifolia lavender
.
Plant such plants next to currants
, you will partially protect your garden from the invasion of aphids and ants.
Rating of industrially produced anti-caterpillar drugs
The purpose of any poison is to destroy the pest insect. Below is a rating of drugs that cope with this task best. You need to choose them depending on the type of plants being grown.
"Intavir"
“Intavir” is a contact-intestinal insecticide. Its active ingredient is cypermethrin. The poison is suitable for garden crops, as well as indoor trees and flowers. “Intavir” dissolves in water and is available in the form of powder and tablets. 1 tablet is enough for 10 liters of water.
It is necessary to treat garden and vegetable crops with this preparation only in dry and windless weather. In addition, you should not spray trees and other plantings with this poison near rivers and lakes. It is also not recommended to spray plants while they are flowering, otherwise the bees will eat the poison and die.
“Intavir” is used when the degree of damage to plants by caterpillars is high. In other cases, it is better to use more gentle methods.
“Tanrek”
The drug for caterpillars “Tanrek” is a contact-intestinal drug and belongs to neonicotinoids. It can be used to process apple trees and currant bushes, as well as tomatoes, bell peppers and potatoes.
The product itself is available in the form of bottles and ampoules. The solution is prepared at the rate of 3 ml of product per 10 liters of water for trees, or 1 ml per 10 liters of water for other plants. The drug must be used immediately after dilution, otherwise the poison will lose its properties.
“Tanrek” can be used near bodies of water, but during the flowering period of plants it cannot be used, as it is dangerous for bees.
“Fufanon”
This poison is created on the basis of organophosphorus compounds. Previously, “Fufafon” was used everywhere. However, WHO has banned the use of this drug on food crops.
The poison is produced in ampoules and vials. This is a contact-intestinal drug that affects all types of insects, even those that can camouflage themselves well. It is diluted at the rate of 5 ml per 6 liters of water. It can also be used as a fumigation agent.
“Fufanon” can be used to treat shrubs, peppers and tomatoes. You can also spray it on trees - pear, quince, cherry and apple trees.
“Karbofos”
“Karbofos” is the most effective drug that has a strong effect on all living things. Its main active ingredient is malathion. This product is available in the form of powder, granules, tablets and emulsion.
“Karbofos” is a contact preparation that can be used to treat many fruit trees and flowers. The concentration of the poison is calculated based on the area of treatment and the type of crop.
Remember that when working with this drug it is important to exercise extreme caution, as it is very toxic!
“Iskra-M”
This product is also organophosphorus, so it is used to treat gardens, orchards and even forests. The product contains potassium fertilizer, which has a positive effect on green spaces.
“Iskra-M” is produced in the form of ampoules and diluted at the rate of 5 ml per 1 liter of water. It is better to spray plants with poison in the early morning or evening.
“Golden spark”
This drug is complex and destroys caterpillars on almost all types of plants. Its distinctive feature is that it does not lose its properties even in dry and hot weather. Therefore, the poison can be used in hot regions with arid climates.
“Spark of Gold” is not addictive to insects, so it does not need to be alternated with other means. It is available in bottles and ampoules. The poison should be diluted at the rate of 1 ml per 5 liters of water. This is enough to spray 1 hectare of land.
“Iskra-bio”
Another name for the drug is “Akarin”. It can be used 2-3 days before harvest. The dosage is indicated on the poison packaging depending on the type of crop. The product itself is universal.
“Spark Double Effect”
This drug contains two active ingredients – cypermethrin and permethrin. Like all products with this name, it contains potassium to fertilize plants.
The poison is available in the form of tablets that must be dissolved in water. 1 tablet is for 10 liters of water.
Fighting armyworm
- Forecasting . This is an important event, as there is a shift in timing and an increase in the summer period. Previous years were the time of dandelion color. Now you can set the parameters using pheromone traps.
- To fight using natural methods, you can try to attract the natural enemies of the butterfly - these are bracon and trichogramma .
- Folk remedies are a priority; they do not poison the crop with chemicals, like insecticides.
- Traps that attract armyworms should be placed throughout the area. These are fermenting liquids (kvass, beer, compote, molasses).
- Biological products are second only to traditional methods in terms of desirability of use.
- If it is impossible to achieve complete destruction of the armyworm using safe methods, you can use chemicals. For example, a tank mixture (half the dose per 10 liters of water with 100 g of dissolved urea).
- Once gardening work is completed, deep digging of the soil is required to prevent the pest from settling in the ground for the winter. Digging up the ground leads to the death of the bulk of the armyworm. You need to dig at least 25 cm deep.
Folk remedies for caterpillars
Of course, people began to grow fruit and berry crops and fight caterpillars much earlier than scientists invented chemical preparations for them. Therefore, people have found their own methods of pest control based on improvised means.
Today, folk remedies and chemicals can be combined together to achieve high efficiency. For example, soap or washing powder is added to many preparations when they are diluted to treat plants. This way the poison attaches more easily to the surface of the leaves and stems and does not flow down. In addition, caterpillars do not become addicted to folk remedies, so they can be used regularly.
Tobacco infusion
To treat plants against caterpillars, you can use both fresh tobacco leaves and crumbled industrial tobacco products. In order to dilute this product, you need to mix 1 kg of shag or fresh tobacco with 10 liters of boiling water. Next, the solution is infused for 24 hours, then filtered and diluted by half with water.
Chamomile from the pharmacy
A kilogram of chamomile should be diluted with 10 liters of water, boil the solution and leave for half a day. After this, the poison must be filtered, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:3, and then sprayed on the necessary plants.
Common yarrow herb
To prepare the solution, you need to take 800 g of yarrow herb and pour enough water into it so that it covers all the grass. Next, all this is boiled for 30 minutes and infused for 2 days.
Onion peel
A decoction of onion peels also shows a good effect. To prepare it, 200 g of purifications are diluted in 10 liters of warm water. Next, the mass is infused for 5 days, filtered and poured into a sprayer.
Tomato tops
Tomato greens are good protection against insect pests. To prepare a product based on tomato tops, 2 kg of these tops are finely chopped and poured with 10 liters of warm water. The product is infused for 4 hours and becomes ready for use.
Celandine
Celandine is simply dried and ground into powder. Then the necessary parts of the plants are powdered with this powder and scattered on the ground nearby.
Sagebrush
One kilogram of wormwood is poured with water so that it covers the entire part of it and this mass is boiled for 15 minutes. Next, the product is mixed in 10 liters of water and sprayed from a spray bottle. This poison is effective against leaf-eating insects.
Table soda
Dilute 2 tablespoons of soda in 10 liters of water and treat the desired plantings with the resulting solution. If it is expected to rain, you can simply sprinkle the cabbage with soda, because the rainwater will dissolve it.
Soap + birch tar
Birch resin is good at repelling caterpillars. In order to prepare a product based on it, you need to mix 4 tablespoons of tar with a third of a piece of grated soap. Next, the mass is mixed in a bucket of water and applied to the trees.
We identify a pest by appearance: how to understand the species
To choose the right drug or folk remedy against the caterpillar, you need to know the enemy by sight. There are a huge number of species of butterflies that lay eggs, and each caterpillar of its own species has characteristic features. For ease of understanding, we will conditionally divide pests by color.
Black
There are few species of black caterpillars that attack apple trees. The most notable and noticeable is the gypsy moth caterpillar . This is a large, hairy caterpillar about 7 cm long. The body is black with red dots and yellow longitudinal stripes. She eats foliage, flowers and ovaries.
Small black caterpillars with yellow longitudinal stripes on the body and white short hairs are the caterpillars of the hawthorn butterfly . They often weave webs. Damage to foliage is also typical - they eat only the flesh of the leaf, without affecting the veins.
Gray
Of the gray caterpillars, the most common raider on the apple tree is the ringed silkworm caterpillar . She has a bluish-gray body with narrow longitudinal stripes on her back - white in the center, then orange and black. The body is covered with short orange fluff. The activity of these pests is mainly nocturnal; during the day they sleep in spider cocoons.
Greens
Small, bright green moth caterpillars have thin white longitudinal stripes on their backs. They feed on leaves, flowers and ovaries, forming a sticky web as a waste product, which they use to twist the leaves.
Small dense green caterpillars, darker near the head section - these are leaf rollers . They also feed on all parts of the plant and roll the leaves into a tube before pupating. They easily damage young leaf buds and therefore require quick destruction.
White
White or yellowish-white, with black dots all over their bodies, dense caterpillars of the corrosive woodworm live in thin branches and bark of trees. Its presence can be determined by the large entrance on the bark and long corridors, inside of which the pests themselves can sometimes be found. They are dangerous because they are practically invisible to the eye.
Yellow
Yellow apple moth form nesting colonies. They reproduce several times per season. These are small yellowish worms that use a web to weave a nest of leaves.
Codling moth caterpillar
Codling moths are one of the most dangerous pests. They live in the soil and in the bark of a tree, and closer to fruiting they make their way inside the fruit and eat the pulp and seeds. They look like dense small caterpillars with an orange head, a dark head end and a light, almost white tail.
Apple glass caterpillar
Very small, up to 2 cm long, white worms with a bright red orange head. Only apple crops are affected. They live under the upper layer of the bark, making passages in it. The branches damaged by them quickly die, and black voids are found inside such branches.
We select the poison against caterpillars correctly
Before you start fighting caterpillars, you must first select the right drug for treatment. Modern agricultural enterprises are trying to create a poison that would be suitable for any conditions and crops. However, some products are designed exclusively for certain plants, terrain and weather conditions.
For open ground
All modern means can be used both in open ground and in greenhouses. But it is better to use products that do not depend in any way on weather conditions.
For garden crops
The drug for caterpillars on fruit trees is selected depending on the type of insect. However, the product can only be applied to trees by spraying. You also need to take into account the toxicity class of the drug so that bees are not harmed during processing.
For closed ground
For greenhouses and hotbeds, those preparations that quickly evaporate or are washed away by precipitation in open areas are suitable. However, it must be remembered that the space is closed and the concentration of dangerous chemical vapors will be higher.
For prevention
To avoid the invasion of insect pests, you need to do preventive treatment in a timely manner. This is best done before the season starts and after it ends. In this case, not only visible places are sprayed with poison, but also hard-to-reach places where caterpillar larvae can overwinter.
For prevention, it is better to use traditional methods. After all, they do not harm the environment and humans themselves.
Processing times
When treating trees for caterpillars, it is necessary to take into account the life stages of insects and the drugs used. Not all chemically active substances act on the eggs and larvae of pest butterflies. Some drugs have a contact-intestinal mechanism of action, so they work exclusively through the oral apparatus.
Before sap flow begins
In the spring, even before the start of sap flow, apple trees are inspected for cobweb formations and entrance holes in the bark. All cobwebs, ovipositions and cocoons are removed and burned. Treatment for treatment or prevention is carried out before the leaf buds open. For prevention, the soil around the tree trunk is additionally treated with copper sulfate of 3% concentration.
Before flowering
When the leaf buds have hatched, but flowering has not yet begun, the second stage of processing comes. It will destroy populations of caterpillars that feed on young ovaries, buds and parts of flowers. Organophosphorus preparations (Karbofos, Fufanon) are most often used.
During flowering
During the active generative period, it is not recommended to treat apple trees, as there is a risk of harming pollinating insects. At this time, it is better to pay attention to the mechanical collection of pests, if any. If there is a need for processing, it is better to give preference not to chemicals, but to folk remedies.
After flowering
After flowering and at the moment the ovary begins to form, treatment with insecticidal preparations is allowed. Most often, this is the last opportunity to protect the apple tree from attack by moths. Later treatment will have no effect, since the caterpillars will move into the ripening fruits.
During fruiting
During fruiting, treatment with chemically active substances is excluded, or it is carried out no later than 3 weeks before harvest. At this time, mechanical collection of caterpillars and damaged parts of the plant is used, and folk remedies are also used.
After fruiting
Prevention measures. Leaf litter from under the trees is removed and burned, as are fallen fruits, since they can carry pests that have fallen asleep until the next season. The soil around the tree trunk is carefully dug up and treated with copper sulfate. At the same time, sanitary pruning of the branches is carried out, carefully examining the sections for passages in the bark and wood. All cracks and wounds are carefully treated with garden varnish.
