8 effective ways to deal with caterpillars on trees and vegetables
Caterpillars are small inconspicuous worms. They seem helpless and tiny, but the impression is deceptive. Most caterpillars are pests and enemies of gardeners. It is necessary to arm yourself with the knowledge of how to get rid of caterpillars in order to preserve the crop.
Content
What caterpillars can be found in the garden
There are many types of caterpillars. But in our latitudes on the territory of Russia, several main species are most often found. Let's take a closer look at these garden pests.
A small caterpillar with a large number of dense hairs on the body. Along are three black and two brown-orange stripes.
Small caterpillar, covered with tufts of coarse red hair. Narrow red and white stripes along the body. There are red spots on each segment of the tip of the body.
Very small greenish-brown caterpillars that settle in colonies on the leaves of plants. They do not disdain both buds and buds. The leaves are folded with cobwebs - the first sign.
The caterpillars are long, may be gray or brownish, the stripes on the body are dark brown. The segments have purple or red warts.
The first symptoms of the appearance of pests on trees - coiled leaves and covered with cobwebs. on shrubs and vegetables, they are easy to detect visually. They need to be cut off or collected and destroyed.
Caterpillar Prevention
As you know, it is easier to carry out prevention than to get rid of the consequences.
Here are my prevention tips:
- Check bushes and trees. Twisted leaves cut off and burn.
- In autumn and spring, whitewash to prevent the appearance of pests.
- The grooves in the near-stem circle are not only for irrigation. The caterpillars will be inconvenient to get to the tree.
- Trapping belts will also help catch caterpillars before they cause colossal damage.
- Autumn procedures - cleaning of plant residues and digging the soil. Especially if the site is next to wild grass.
How to get rid of caterpillars
If the prevention did not help or was not used, you need to begin to actively protect the garden from parasites.
I will share with you effective folk methods that I use from year to year. But in advanced situations, chemistry will help - we will also mention it.
Folk methods
These are ways that act effectively, but not lightning fast. But they are safe, and, importantly, very low in cost. Here are some proven recipes over the years.
- Laundry soap solution. The simplest will do, but to make it less harmful, you can use a plant-based biodegradable one. Just spray on the tracks.
Tops of tomatoes in the aisles.
- Infusions: black henbane, hemlock, field chamomile or pepper knotweed. They are sprayed with all plants that suffer from caterpillars.
- Broths. Red elderberry, tobacco, nightshade tops, hot peppers.
- Fumigation mixture of ash and sulfur.
- Handmade. A small number of insects are harvested by hand from vegetables and trees. Then they are drowned or burned.
Engaging Allies
Birds and wild wasps use caterpillars for food. The first ones will fly to the site if they are equipped with comfortable houses and food. The second will be guests on the site if sweet water is poured on it. Of course, they will not eat all the caterpillars with a strong infection, but they can help in the fight.
You can attract to the site:
- swallows;
- tits;
- rooks;
- cuckoos.
Preparations for caterpillars
When the degree of damage is already very large, one cannot do without special means. There are two options - biologics or insecticides. They act in several ways:
- contact, act directly externally, make those parts of plants that have been sprayed unsuitable for caterpillars;
- intestinal, which get inside when eating and poison the insect from the inside;
- systemic - all other methods of influence.
Ammunition
Ammunition are not toxic, because these are actually pathogenic organisms that infect caterpillars. Effective, do not accumulate in plants, low toxicity.
The peculiarity of this kind of drugs is that the effect does not last long. Therefore, treatments will need to be carried out quite often.
Insekticidы
Chemicals are dangerous, but among them there are those that are "the best of evils."
Instead of a conclusion
Caterpillars in the garden are a real problem. Advice from it happened - at the first appearance of twisted leaves on trees, you need to immediately cut them off and carry out prevention. The same is true in the area. One or two is a harbinger of trouble.
