How to deal with a cherry fly and is it possible to eat infected berries: all about the "winged sweet tooth"
The cherry fly causes many problems for gardeners and, with its appearance, spoils the beautiful flowering of cherries and cherries, as well as the further appearance of delicious berries. A seemingly harmless insect can quickly destroy the entire crop of fruit trees. The fight against cherry fly is a long and laborious process, which experienced gardeners are advised to start with preventive measures.
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Cherry fly: pest description
The cherry fly is a member of the variegated insect family, an insect with two wings that looks like an ordinary fly.
Looks like
The body length of an adult female cherry fly does not exceed 6 mm., Males are smaller in size - no more than 4 mm. The body is painted brown or black. There are yellow stripes along the back, and black transverse ones on the transparent wings. The eyes are large, faceted, green.
Life cycle and development
The insect goes through a full cycle of transformation. During one calendar year, one generation of flies is born and develops. If environmental conditions are unfavorable, then the cherry fly pupa can fall into suspended animation and continue to exist in this state for 2-3 years, after which it can continue its normal development.
Signs and causes of the appearance of a pest in the garden
What harm does the cherry fly
If measures are not taken in time, then over time the pest population will only grow and up to 80% of the crop may be affected. Flies lay their eggs in unripe and ripe fruits. In the first case, most likely, the berry will not ripen at all, in the second case, the berry will rot.
Is it possible to eat berries affected by a cherry fly
The larvae of the pest are inside the berry, so it is unlikely that anyone will want to eat them.
However, worms are safe for human health, and if you accidentally eat the affected fruit, there will be no harm to the body.
Moreover, if the fruits are fresh, you may not notice the larvae in it, since their taste does not change due to infection, the taste of ripe berries deteriorates, and bitter notes appear in it.
How to get rid of cherry fly
Gardeners know many effective methods of dealing with cherry fly: from folk remedies to chemicals.
When choosing one or another method, it is necessary to be guided by the scale of infection and the characteristics of the cultivated crops.
Agrotechnical measures
This method is more likely to be preventive and is as follows: in early May, it is necessary to close the soil around the trunks of fruit trees with agrofiber or gauze and carefully cover the edges with earth - so the pests will not be able to get out of the soil and will die.
Insekticidы
Chemical preparations are quite effective, but there are a number of limitations for their use:
- it is impossible to process berries during flowering - this will damage the future crop, flowers and bees that pollinate crops;
- the last treatment must be carried out at least 20 days before the expected harvest;
- it is not recommended to spray one tree 2 times with one insecticide - this will cause addiction to pests;
- such preparations are forbidden to be used for trees of early varieties.
Traps
Cherry fly traps can be made by hand: they come in 2 types - liquid and sticky.
Folk methods of struggle
Insects have a highly developed sense of smell. The principle of operation of all folk methods is based on this feature of pests - they are based on scaring off pests with a pungent odor.
The following recipes have shown the greatest effectiveness:
| Infusion of needles | Place pine or spruce needles in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil the needles for 30 minutes, then cool and strain the solution. Treat fruit trees with the resulting liquid. |
| Tobacco-soap solution | 0,4-1 kg. tobacco dust should be mixed in 10 liters of hot water. During the day, insist the solution, and then boil. Strain the resulting liquid and add shavings of laundry soap to it at the rate of 40 gr. for 10 l. solution. Dilute the solution with water in a ratio of 1/2 and spray the trees with it. |
When to spray cherries from cherry flies
The first spraying is carried out in early May, during the first flight of pests, the second - after 2 weeks, when the flies begin to lay eggs en masse.
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Prevention of pests in the garden
In order to preserve the future harvest of fruit and berry crops, it is recommended to carry out a number of preventive measures.
These include the following:
- use early varieties of crops - they are less susceptible to attack by the cherry fly;
- with the onset of spring, dig the trunk circle to a depth of 30-40 m - this will allow you to remove pests from the soil and they will die from the cold;
- it is useful to plant fragrant herbs next to fruit trees - wormwood, lemon balm, marigolds - their smell will scare away pests;
- during the harvest, all berries should be harvested, leaving nothing on the trees, and all fruits that have fallen to the ground should be removed in a timely manner.