Any summer resident who wants to reap a rich harvest in his garden needs to know about the most common pests of fruit trees. Today we will talk about coppers.

Copperheads, or psyllids (pictured) are one of the most dangerous garden pests. These small insects, up to several millimeters long, got their name from their ability to jump. The second nickname was given to the suckers because their waste products are transparent balls that, spreading, cover the leaves, buds and twigs in the habitats of insects with a sticky liquid (honeydew). Blowworms feed on plant sap, sucking it out of leaves and buds.

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Today, several types of copperfish are known.

apple sucker

In places where apple orchards are common, apple sucker is often found (pictured above).

1. Insect eggs overwinter on the bark near the bases of the kidneys.
2. With the onset of spring, the hatched larvae gather on the tops of the buds and wait for them to awaken.
3. As soon as the scales of the buds begin to open, the larvae of the sucker immediately climb inside, where they feed on petioles and peduncles until they mature.
4. The larvae take a month to develop into adults. The end of the period of insect development usually coincides with the end of flowering of apple trees.
5. Further, psyllids migrate to nearby meadows and feed on various meadow herbs.
6. In mid-August, adult suckers will return to the trees, where they will lay eggs, from which next year a new colony of pests will hatch again.

pear sucker

The apple tree leaf gives only one offspring per year, but its closest relative, the pear sucker (pictured), is much more prolific.

As you can see in the photo, this type of insect has a darker color.

1. Another difference between the pear psyllid is that it is not the eggs that remain overwintering, but fully developed individuals.
2. Insects hide in fallen leaves, in the folds of the bark, climb into the cracks on the branches.
3. As soon as the temperature rises to +3, psyllids begin to wake up from hibernation, and at +10 they are already able to lay eggs.
4. The pear sucker is capable of producing from 3 to 5 offspring per season, laying up to 1000 eggs at a time.

Carrot blotch

If your site is located in close proximity to a coniferous forest, you may have already come across another type of sucker - carrot psyllid.

1. This is a very small pale green insect, reaching only 1.5 mm in length.
2. The carrot psyllid hibernates in coniferous forests and for some time after the spring awakening it feeds on needles. In mid-May, the insect moves to grown carrots.
3. By the end of May, each female lays several hundred eggs, attaching them to the edges of the leaf blades or to the petioles and stems of the plant.
4. After three weeks, offspring appear, and after a month, the hatched larvae become adults.
5. Carrot psyllid, like apple trees, is capable of producing only one offspring per year.

Signs of damage to plants by psyllids

Bumblebees are very small insects, so they may not be immediately noticeable. And if you miss the moment that is most favorable for the destruction of pests, you can be left without a crop.

Turn in early spring Special attention on unopened buds - favorite places larval habitat. On pears, the buds can be attacked by an adult pear sucker.

1. Feeding on the juice of fruit trees, psyllids suck it out of young leaves, buds and ovaries.
2. As a result of the attack of insects, leaves grow deformed and stunted, buds, flowers and ovaries dry out, and fruits grow from those that manage to survive. irregular shape with hard, tasteless flesh.
3. Trees that have been invaded by suckers are weakened and highly susceptible to pathogens.

The main sign that an apple or pear sucker has settled in your garden is a sticky sweet liquid that covers the buds, shoots and leaves. It can completely cover the leaves, or it can be next to clusters of larvae in the form of transparent balls, as in the next photo.

This fluid, or honeydew, secreted by the larvae is also dangerous. It glues the buds, preventing the ovaries and leaves from developing freely.

Sweet honeydew is also a breeding ground for the development of various pathogenic fungi, such as soot fungus.

Fruits covered with black coating not only look unappetizing, but also have a not very pleasant taste.

Pest control methods

To protect the crop from psyllids, in early spring, before bud break, trees should be sprayed with one of the following solutions:

• infusion of yarrow or tobacco,
• soapy water or ash solution.

You can also destroy eggs with a 3% solution of nitrafen.

If for some reason you missed this opportunity, be sure to spray during the bud break period.

1. To do this, use a 2% solution of the drug No. 30.
2. Insecticides used to control aphids will also work.

You can try to destroy already winged adult psyllids with tobacco smoke.

To do this, it is necessary to prepare small piles of dried grass, pour two kilograms of tobacco waste on top and fumigate the garden for at least two to three hours. After fumigation, most insects will crumble. So that after a while the suckers do not climb the trees again, it is necessary to immediately dig the soil under them.

To prevent carrot leaf blotch from settling on your beds, it is necessary to isolate the crops of this vegetable crop from planting coniferous trees.

1. To do this, immediately after sowing, the beds with carrots are covered with non-woven material.
2. After a few leaves appear on the seedlings, sprinkle the bed with a mixture of ash and grated tobacco. To make the mixture stick to the leaves better, scatter it better in the morning until the dew has gone.

Check your crops from time to time.

When the larvae of the sucker appear, spray the carrots with tobacco infusion. You can prepare the infusion as follows:

• 1 kg of tobacco waste is poured with 5 liters of boiling water and insisted for a day,
• further, filter and dilute with water in a ratio of 1:9, for every 10 liters of water add 50 grams of grated laundry soap.

Copperhead is one of the most dangerous enemies of the crop in the garden and in the garden. To get rid of it, you need to apply in time folk methods or chemicals. Having carefully processed all the affected areas, you can safely count on a rich harvest of apples and pears.

What are plant protection products, you will learn from the video.

What is an apple sucker, the fight against leaf blotch (apple sucker) in the garden

Pest in the garden apple sucker, psyllid, appearance

It's a shame when the hope for a good harvest collapses. It seems that the season begins as usual, and then suddenly almost all the blossoming leaves, pedicels, buds begin to die right before our eyes due to the fact that they are enveloped in a nasty sticky liquid.

We usually with extraordinary ease shift the responsibility for troubles in the garden to plants, to the weather, and more often to harmful insects and their supposedly unpredictable and inappropriate behavior. Thus, it is very convenient to explain any phenomena inaccessible to our understanding. No, whatever you say, but you should not forget what our ancestors used to say: just like that, a pimple won't pop up", there is no smoke without fire", "there is no effect without a cause", etc. If they remembered, they would surely know that the master of the situation always and everywhere becomes from who has more information and who can successfully dispose of it.

Garden pests often seem to know much more about us than we do about them. That is why the score is often not in our favor. To influence the situation is not enough listen to the advice of knowledgeable and simply well-read people. We must begin by studying the biography of those creatures that upset us.

Among the inhabitants of the garden, there are not many who annoy more than blotches, nicknamed copperheads. These small (3 mm) insects are called psyllids because their adults jump, perhaps better than other fleas.

And they got their nickname due to the fact that the excrement of their larvae appears in the form of light sticky balls, which soon blur, and everything around turns out to be shrouded in a transparent sticky liquid - honeydew. Lazy, but very voracious larvae swarm in it, and continue to draw juices from leaves, pedicels, buds and turn them into honeydew, on which they settle. sooty fungus. And it turns out unimaginable sticky dirt.

Soon, where it was especially heavy pollution, leaves and flowers turn black, dry out, and in this place even sleeping buds do not start growing.

Adults do not emit honeydew, but they also feed on leaf juices with pleasure. At least when you scare them away, in a moment they will return to their original place or sit down somewhere nearby.

In our gardens live different types copperheads. Some feed on alder, poplar, ash, willow, others on vegetable plants and flowers. But the most disgusting are those who specialize in apple, pear, and hawthorn.

In the apple sucker, eggs hibernate on an apple tree (occasionally on a pear, mountain ash or hawthorn) at the base of the buds, in the folds of the bark on the fruitlets and annelids, and even, if there are a lot of them, just on the bark of the branches.

spring, when the buds begin to bloom (the green cone phase), the larvae emerge from the eggs. Their appetite is excellent. That is why, despite the fact that they do not move very quickly in space, each of them seeks to quickly get under the scales of the kidneys and get to the coveted food. And then whether leaves grow from the bud, whether flower stalks appear, the larvae equally willingly suck the juices out of them.

By the end of flowering larvae develop into adults. These green insects with transparent wings first live on the apple tree, then fly over to the weeds and frolic there almost all summer. Toward the end of August, they again return to the apple tree (rarely to the pear or mountain ash) and lay their eggs.

It is good that the apple sucker produces only one generation each year. But the pear sucker is very prolific. It can give up to 5 generations per season. With such fertility, the situation could become catastrophic, but, fortunately, she feeds only on a pear.

By lifestyle and nutrition pear sucker is generally similar to apple, but there are also significant differences. So, in the pear sucker, not eggs hibernate, but adults under fallen leaves, in the crevices of trunks and branches. In early spring, they leave their wintering grounds and lay eggs, from which larvae soon emerge.

Protect your garden from honeydew when it is known where they hibernate, what they eat and how they breed, the matter is not so complicated. Everything must be done in a timely manner and carefully.

To kill larvae from bud break to flowering, spray plants with yarrow infusion, ash, tobacco, shag, soap solution, or one of the recommended chemicals. Fledged psyllids and those that have returned to lay eggs can be destroyed by tobacco smoke.

Pour 1.5-2 kg of tobacco waste on pre-prepared heaps of straw and fumigate for two hours for two plants inhabited by adult suckers. Blowguns, stupefied by smoke, fall to the ground. Now it is important to immediately dig up the soil under the plants, otherwise many will come to their senses and rise into the crown.

In the most extreme case with a strong colonization of plants by suckers in early spring (before bud break), sprinkle the plants with permitted biological or chemical (fufanon, fas) preparations. At the same time, strictly follow the recommendations for their use.

Keep in mind, however, that no treatments will help if the neighboring plots the copperheads will calmly and serenely go about their business.
And since a holy place is never empty, they will fly to you too.

R. Kudryavets, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences Sciences

If the pear has sticky leaves, then most likely you have a pear sucker (Psylla pyri) - a small jumping insect that is one of the very first to fly out after winter. Annual Observations experienced gardeners show that the pest population is rapidly increasing. They seem to adapt well to our winters. Let's figure it out, get to know the pear sucker closer, and consider the most effective measures fight with her.

Pear sucker: description

For the first time in the territory former USSR the pest of pear plantations was discussed back in 1950, and to this day the insect of the psyllid family (Psyllidae) causes significant damage to pear orchards. In more than 10 countries of the world, the pest is one of the main objects of phytosanitary control.

In our gardens, you can often find ordinary, spotted or red (large) pear psyllids, they are different in appearance, as well as in the development cycle. According to the literature, if pear trees grow next to an apple tree, plum tree or alder, then on a pear tree you can also find suckers who prefer these trees. The greatest damage is noticeable in the steppe and forest-steppe. An avalanche of reproduction of these jumping fleas is observed after warm winter.

Sweet juice drips from pear leaves - one of the signs of damage to the pear sucker

It harms the insect in the stages of adults and larvae. Young, developing pear trees and varieties of Pyrus communis pear are the favorite treats of suckers. The insect first settles on the upper part of the shoots, feeds on their juice, and also sucks the juice from the buds, foliage, pedicels and even fruits.

The tips of the pear leaves turn black and curl. Anatomical, physiological and biochemical changes occur in the pear, the plant lacks useful substances, photosynthesis weakens. About the normal growth of an exhausted tree, and even more so about good harvest there can be no speech.

The ovaries and foliage of the affected tree fall off, the pear fruits lose their presentation, and the pulp becomes woody. Naturally, such fruits are no longer suitable for consumption - a pear hangs, you can’t eat it. Nymphs (larvae) in the process of feeding secrete sticky excrement (honeydew), they spread and stick together the damaged parts of the plant, immediately develop sooty mushrooms.

As a result, the foliage, fruits and all branches of the pear are covered with a continuous dirty black coating. Passing under such trees without a headdress, you will receive a free hairspray for your hair - all hair sticks together from honeydew. Black coating on pear leaves and sticky juice is washed off the branches in a good thunderstorm. This is where the processing should be carried out, but more on that below, but for now let's deal with the signs of damage and the stages of development of psyllids.

Damaged trees due to lack of photosynthesis and poor development are not prepared for winter, they can hardly endure even a slight frost, a significant part of the branches freezes out, and some sources report the death of the entire tree. In addition, pear sucker is a carrier of phytoplasmic, viral diseases.

Some varieties of pears show good resistance to the pest, but the taste of these varieties is not of particular value.

The development of the pear leaf

Pear psyllids are so small that many gardeners think that the whitefly has settled in the garden. But when you approach the trees, you can hear the crackling from their jumps, as if grasshoppers are jumping.

This is a small insect from the Homoptera family with developed wings, which, at rest, are folded roof-like along the calf. A triangular, compacted head with two large eyes and three small ones, there is also a proboscis on the head, with the help of which the insect sucks the juice of plants. When the pest is not feeding, it is pressed against the thighs of the front legs. Body length about 3 mm, color - green, brown or red. The insect can fly and jump, the hind limbs are jumping.

The egg of the sucker is approximately 0.3 mm in length, slightly tapering towards leading edge, at the first stages of development it has a white tint, later - orange. First instar larva up to 0.5 mm in size orange color in brownish spots on the back, and later - green with a brown tint up to 2 mm in length.

Wintering of adults takes place on skeletal branches, in tree bark, foliage and cracks on boles. The flight of the common sucker begins immediately, as soon as the temperature warms up to 3 ° C, but the large pear psyllid flies out when the warm temperature reaches 10 ° C. Mating of individuals begins at a temperature of +5°C, and oviposition at +10°C.

Adults do not live long: the male dies immediately after mating, and the female a little more - 45 days, during this period she lays eggs, placing them in a chain, with a frequency of about once a week for 200-900 eggs.

Bark, pedicels, buds and foliage can serve as clutch sites. The full development of the insect lasts from 2.5 to 4 weeks, the sucker goes through 5 molts, therefore, under favorable conditions for the insect, pests can be found on the pear at all stages of development. In total, a maximum of 6 generations can develop in a season.

The larvae of the first generation hatch during the period of pear fruit buds, they make their way inside and feed on the juice, leaving behind a considerable amount of honeydew. BUT adult insect The first generation hatches when the pears begin to bloom.

The insect adheres to a colonial way of life, it is especially active in the evening and at night. Loves heat and drought, in cloudy or cool weather, the sucker hides in warmer places. Before wintering, eggs and larvae die, unable to withstand the cold.

According to our observations, foraging ants also fuss around their colonies. In this summer of 2016, on one pear tree, at the same time, part of the branches was inhabited by aphids, and part was occupied by the sucker. The heat was 3 weeks, and even the water was turned off. It seems that ants help the sucker to hibernate, as well as leafhoppers and aphids. But this is not a final conclusion, we must continue to observe further.

In addition to pears and apple trees, the sucker attacked black currants, but the leaves on it do not become glossy, they became piebald from their bites. And when they picked berries, all the hands were black, apparently, the sooty fungus appeared here too.

Pear sucker: control measures and prevention of infection

The main thing is proper care behind the trees, which will avoid the mass appearance of the pest. Moss, lichen and dead bark are not needed by the tree, everything should be cleaned off. And on dwarf pears, the bark exfoliates, oh yes, by the way.

Folk ways of fighting

• As soon as the pears fade, a session of tobacco fumigation is carried out. The weather must be calm. In the garden, small heaps of damp straw should be folded, tobacco dust (about 2 kg) should be added to them, and set on fire. The straw will smolder, and to slow down the process, the piles need to be turned over periodically. The smoke will poison the insect, and the pest individuals will fall from the trees.
• Another option for fumigation - you will need any metal container, put dry chips in it, set it on fire and sprinkle it with wet straw, leaves or shavings on top, and pour two good handfuls of tobacco dust with peat on the very top.
• Decoctions and infusions of herbs are effective only with a small number of pest colonies, such herbs are suitable - dandelion, yarrow, shag, delphinium or tobacco. You can prepare an ash infusion.

Application of insecticides

Unfortunately, with a strong colonization of pear plantations with a sucker, it is extremely difficult to fight the pest without the use of chemistry. First you need to determine whether it is advisable to apply such treatments. An alarm bell will be 10 or more colonies per 100 leaves or shoots, as well as 5 colonies per 100 flower outlets.

Spraying is best done when the buds open. It is advisable to have time before flowering, using one of these drugs - Aktar, Inta-Vir, Iskra, Confidor, Fury, Commander, Kinmiks or Sherpa. Further, when the trees fade (the petals fall off), the following treatment should be carried out against the most dangerous generation of suckers with Agravertin or Iskra. When processing the garden from aphids and codling moths, subsequent generations of pear psyllids die.

Spraying should be done in evening time, in calm weather. It has been observed that the treatments are especially effective after heavy rain, when some of the insect exudates are washed away with water. It is expedient to carry out the last spraying for the generation leaving for wintering (at the beginning of August), thus, to reduce the number of overwintered individuals.

On the packaging of any drug is detailed instructions— description of recommended proportions and indications. Read it carefully, do not exceed the specified limits for the use of insecticides.

Personally, for the second year in our country, the psyllid is vicious, but we have not yet resorted to chemistry - we are watching the entomophages and sprinkled biological preparations twice. So far happy with the result.

Biological protection

The following insects were observed as assistants in the fight against pear sucker in our garden: ladybugs, fire bugs, lacewings, sirphids, spiders and ground beetles, and the predatory bug Anthocoris nemoralis fights the pest most effectively (by the way, they are sold in 200 pieces).

This predator and the pear sucker emerge almost simultaneously after wintering (at + 10°C). The insect develops well, hatches up to 4 generations in one season. The entire listed arsenal of predators in the garden this year was presented in wild quantities, so there is no need to resort to chemistry yet.

After a long-awaited downpour, the garden was treated with a tank mixture of BTB, Lepidocide, tobacco infusion and Novosil. And before you fight with the tinnitus on a pear, you had to pinch off the young affected tops of almost all growths. Immediately after the rain and processing, new healthy shoots appeared, like these:

After 2 weeks, the complex treatment was repeated. But again there was no rain for a long time, they splashed right on the remnants of sticky dew, which worsens the effect of the drugs.

Weather conditions also play an important role in pest control: with a stable sub-zero temperature at 20°C, up to 99% of the pest individuals die, and at -4°C, only half of the males and a third of the females do not overwinter. But you can't command nature.

In general, we have considered the main reason why a pear has sticky leaves and sheds ovaries and fruits. And although it is quite difficult to remove the pest from the site, we have so far settled on biological measures to combat the pear sucker, but how do you restrain their spread?

During the year, only one generation of insects can appear. Eggs die on dry branches, as well as due to low temperatures. But the surviving larvae are able to create a large population of adult insects. The development of apple sucker includes three main stages.

• Imago. Young winged pests appear in the garden 8-13 days after the end of flowering trees. Scatter throughout the garden. They can migrate to other trees and plants. At the end of summer, apple trees “capture” again.
• Eggs. Females lay eggs for the winter in August-September in the most different places- cracks in the bark, the bases of the buds of fruits, the fork of branches, in the irregularities of knots. Fertility is up to 75 pieces. After wintering, embryonic development occurs within 12-16 days.
• Larvae. They appear when the buds begin to open. Depending on weather conditions, the development of insects can occur in March or April. At first, the pests feed on the kidneys. After their blooming, they move to the stalks and leaf cuttings. Before the appearance of wings and molting, insects are located on the lower part of the leaves, where they turn into adults.

Insect development depends on climatic conditions environment. They also play an important role in the process. fruit trees: the younger they are, the faster the pest grows. On old, dried up branches, the apple sucker cannot eat well, therefore it develops with a long delay.

Fighting methods

It is worth noting that mechanical methods elimination of insects is ineffective due to the peculiarities of the development and localization of insects. The females of the psyllid are very prolific, so absolutely all the eggs still cannot be removed. In addition, sweeping them with a broom or other suitable tool simply will not work. Pests jump well and move quickly across the territory, so it is impossible to catch them in this way. The only secondary option is weed control. In summer, many adults feed on weedy flora, so removing the latter can lead to a decrease in the pest population.

Chemical methods

In case of severe infection, insecticides, pyrethroids, organophosphorus compounds, neonicotinoids will help. The following preparations are suitable for spraying:

• "Fas";
• "Fufanon";
• "Esfenvalera";
• "Cypermethrin";
• "Diazinon";
• "Dimethoate";
• "Nemabakt";
• "Decis".

Apply chemicals according to the manufacturer's instructions. It is necessary to consider not only the dosage, but also the time of use. They can be applied before flowering, during budding or before bud break. The maximum number of treatments in one year is no more than three times. When choosing one or another tool, it is recommended to take into account how long it will be possible to work in the garden, eat apples.

Folk recipes

Unfortunately, one love and passion for growing apple trees is not enough to ensure the health of the trees and get a rich harvest. Needs to be properly protected cultivated plants from the attack of the psyllid. One of the primary roles in this process is played by time, and specifically the period when the problem was discovered. With a small infection, it is much easier to deal with the pest.

Insects are not that invulnerable. Especially if you study the features of their behavior, nutrition and reproduction. In their elimination, the following folk remedies are used.

• Infusion of bitter red pepper. 1 kg of fresh or 500 g of dry product is poured into 10 liters of water. The mixture is boiled under the lid for 60 minutes. Infused for two days. After straining, the finished infusion is poured into a container and corked, left in dark place. 500 ml of infusion is diluted after 10 liters of water are ready. 35 g of grated soap is added to the composition. Suitable for processing trees before flowering.
• A decoction of yarrow. 2.5 kg of crushed plants are poured into 10 liters of water. The composition is boiled for 30 minutes. It is cooled, filtered. Experienced gardeners It is also recommended to add soap to this infusion to increase efficiency.
• "Assorted" of onion peel, garlic, shag. 200 g of husks are pre-soaked in water for 12 hours. Chopped garlic and shag in the same amount, along with onions, pour 10 liters of water. The mixture should boil for two hours. After the solution has completely cooled, more liquid is added to it to make 10 liters.
• Potato infusion. Chopped freshly picked greens are poured into a bucket warm water. Leave the mixture for four to six hours. After straining, add 50 g of soap.
• Infusion of mustard powder. For 2 liters of water take 20 g of mustard. The composition is insisted for two days.
• Tobacco solution. 1 kg of fresh leaves is poured into 10 liters hot water. They insist 24 hours. After filtering and mixed with water to get a 10-liter bucket of the drug.

In the fight against the pest, fumigation with tobacco leaves along with straw can help. The procedure is performed within two hours. If the insects start to fall, then the smoke sheet worked perfectly. Processing is carried out in calm weather in the evening.

Preventive measures

Gardeners who are kind to their "pets" cannot allow the apple harvest to suffer from negative impact psyllids. Therefore, a wise gardener does not bring the situation to a critical boundary. Instead, he uses preventive methods of protection that prevent the reproduction of the pest. Let's consider the main measures that allow you to avoid the attack of the apple sucker or its re-invasion.

• Pruning. Timely pruning for rejuvenation of trees and thinning of the roots favorably affects the general condition of the garden. Trunks and branches are cleaned of moss, lichen and other growths. The remains of the bark, fallen leaves are removed from the site. Dry branches weakened as a result of the disease are cut from the crown.
• Digging up the earth. The soil under the trees is dug up closer to winter.
• Treatment with ovicidal agents. If, after wintering on apple trees, a large number of eggs, treatment with ovicidal preparations is relevant. The funds are available in the horticultural departments and are used exclusively by production instructions. Processing is carried out until the buds open on the trees.
• Top dressing. Give strength to horticultural crops will help mineral fertilizers. In some cases, edge processing of horticultural crops helps.
• Purchase planting material in a verified location. New seedlings are purchased in specialized places, and not in spontaneous markets. Pledge-resistant apple trees can be purchased at farms and in nurseries.
• Competent placement apple orchard. The laying of the garden is carried out on well-drained soil in a place that is at a great distance from the forest and wild plantations.

16.04.2017

Apple sucker - widespread, but not the most dangerous pest apple trees. At the same time, amateur gardeners sometimes encounter it and do not know what to do, although it is relatively easy to deal with psyllids on fruit trees.

Spreading

Apple leaf blotch is very widespread. In the north of the European part of Russia, its range covers the entire Leningrad region, and the southern border of significant distribution and harmfulness is approximately limited by the line Kamenetz-Podolsky - Kyiv - Kharkov - Voronezh - Kuibyshev. It is also found in Northern and Central Europe from Norway to Poland, in the Czech Republic, Austria and Canada.

Description

You can recognize the leaflet from the photo below. This is a small, very mobile insect: it is not easy to photograph it. Therefore, the efforts of the authors of the photo are respected.

adults

1. Body length up to 2.5 mm.
2. The head and thorax are yellowish-green.
3. Abdomen green.
4. Antennae and legs are yellow.
5. The wings are much longer than the body, transparent, with yellowish veins.
6. In autumn, some insects turn dark red. In males, two longitudinal stripes of orange appear on the back.

Eggs

1. The eggs are oblong-oval, with a hollow stalk at the base.
2. The color of the eggs is orange.

nymphs

1. The shape of the body is flattened.
2. Body color is yellow to green.
3. Wing cases appear in nymphs of the third age.

Lifestyle and harmfulness

Apple sucker is a monophage. She only hurts.

Damage to the apple tree is caused by nymphs that stick to young leaves and flowers even before the bud opens. Damaged buds dry up and fall off, and the leaves develop much more slowly and can be 8 ... 10 times smaller than healthy ones (there is, however, evidence that the area decreases by 15 ... 52% - see the lectures of the SSAU, edited by Slepchenko). At severe defeat the tree lacks leaves nutrients for the formation of a normal crop: it discards a significant part of the ovary and forms fewer fruit buds per next year. According to some reports, the vital activity of the apple sucker can lead to the loss of 15% of flowers and leaf rosettes.

Insects not only suck out the juice, but also excrete a large amount of sticky sugary excrement. The latter have the appearance of whitish balls, covered with a thin shell of a waxy substance. Wax is secreted by special perianal glands. These balls spread and form a sticky mass that glues the leaves and parts of the bud inside the buds, floods the stomata and impairs aspiration and respiration. In addition, the excrement of the apple psyllid serves as a substrate for the development of soot fungi, which also impair the functioning of the leaf.

Development cycle

The apple sucker winters in the egg stage. Hatching of larvae begins simultaneously with bud break at the apple tree. AT Leningrad region it takes place from 13 to 21 May, in Vinnitsa (Ukraine) - from 15 to 29 April. The hatching period stretches for 12...16 days and ends 5...8 days before the beginning of apple blossom.

Nymphs feed on the buds - first outside, and then, after blooming, they move inward to the petioles and pedicels of young flower leaves.

In 29…38 days after hatching from the egg, the larva of the apple psyllid flies and turns into an adult. Usually the first imagoes appear 8-13 days after the completion of the flowering of the apple tree. In the Moscow region, winged suckers can be found in early June, in the Kyiv and Vinnitsa regions - in the 20th of May.

Before fledging, the larvae climb to the underside of the leaf, where their last molt passes. Adult insects actively fly and move to garden protection strips, where they damage various plants.

At the end of summer, the sucker returns to the apple tree, where it lays its eggs. The period of mating and oviposition begins at the end of August and lasts about a month.

Females lay their eggs in cracks in the bark, forks in branches, folds at the base of fruit buds, etc. The fecundity of the female is low and is about 45…100, maximum 180 eggs. These eggs, as noted above, hibernate and in the spring give rise to a new generation of insects. Thus, apple sucker (unlike) gives only one generation per year.

It is easy for a person with good eyesight to notice the laying of this psyllid. Therefore, you can determine the risk of damage to your apple trees even in winter.

If the branch dries up, all the eggs located on it die. In addition, a certain number of eggs die due to severe frosts, unexpected winter thaws followed by frosty days, etc. However, there are enough surviving eggs for quick recovery populations of suckerwort: it would become a serious problem for gardeners, if not for the numerous predators and effective insecticides.

Apple sucker does not tolerate extreme heat and low humidity. It is practically absent in the southern regions of Russia and Ukraine. At the same time, at the latitude of the Moscow region, in the north of Ukraine and throughout Belarus, it is very widespread.

Methods of dealing with apple sucker

Predatory insects - lacewing, ladybugs, predatory bugs, etc. significantly reduce the number of suckers. In addition, its population is extremely detrimental to later spring frosts. Therefore, Psylla mali should be actively combated only if the economic threshold of harmfulness is exceeded, which is 200 eggs per 200 cm of branch length in winter period or 30% of populated inflorescences in spring.

The main method of dealing with apple psyllid was and remains processing chemicals. The most effective spraying carried out:

• before bud break - at this time chemicals with an ovicidal effect are used;
• in the bud separation phase. At this time, the larvae open are located on the pedicels and are easy to "get".

In summer, adults feed on various weeds. Therefore, weed control undermines the forage base of apple sucker and helps to reduce its numbers next year.

Insecticides for the control of apple sucker