Black and blue juicy blueberries except the rich taste literally filled with various vitamins and trace elements and have many beneficial properties.
Despite all the advantages of the berry, blueberry bush is an infrequent resident of home gardens and cottages.
Planting and subsequent maintenance of the plant does not present any particular difficulties, however, an important point in cultivation is the fight against numerous pests of blueberries.
Listohtka (rosyana, blackhead)
Listovertka rosany - a small moth of a brownish color, striking young garden plants. The female lays eggs in the autumn (about 250 pieces) on the bark of the shoots, they hibernate on the bush, and in April green caterpillars up to 1.5 cm long appear that feed on buds and flowers, damage the leaves, folding them into a cylinder and weaving them with cobwebs, summer butterflies are displayed.
The use of light-traps, loosening the soil, cutting the folded leaves, spraying wormwood or garlic with a sharp-smelling broth is recommended as a countermeal. If the previous measures did not help, you can use the drugs "Atom", "Landing", "Tod".
Blackhead - Butterfly up to 6 mm gray. In May, a caterpillar with a length of up to 1 cm, a yellow or white color, with a black-brown head appears. Caterpillars moth feed on the tops of the shoots, flowers and young foliage. They struggle with the black-headed leaf-maker in the same way as with rosan.
Did you know? Regular consumption of blueberries will help restore visual acuity.
Grape (pear) Trubkovert
Grape (pear) Trubkovert - An insect of 6-10 mm in length, green in color with various shades, lays white eggs 0.7 mm in length, from which a legless thick larva appears up to 8 mm long, then forms an open white pupa 6 mm long.
Adult trubkoverty arranged for wintering on the ground, under the fallen leaves of blueberries, in the spring settle on the bushes, eat buds and young leaves. Females fold the leaves, in which eggs are laid, tubules. The female is able to lay about 50 eggs for a week, after which it dies.
In the fall, it is necessary to remove the fallen leaves, in the early spring to carry out spraying "Metaphos" or "Metiation".
Fruit Moth
Fruit Moth - small moth up to 1 cm long with narrow gray wings, across which is a strip of brown color. In May, a butterfly appears from the cocoon, which in the evening lays eggs on the fruits and buds of the shrub. A week later, pink caterpillars that feed on blueberries are hatched.
After a month, the caterpillars turn red, they grow to 7 mm in length and settle in damaged bark or fallen plant residues for the winter. After wintering, the caterpillars eat buds and young shoots.
One individual pest damages about five shoots, causing their subsequent death. Pupation occurs in bark cracks, dry foliage.
As a preventive measure, it is necessary to cut off and burn damaged stems and plant residues, to loosen the soil around the bush. Spraying with Lepidocide and Bitoxibacillin is effective: first one treatment, after 10 days the second.
May Western Hrusch
May Western Hrusch is a broad beetle 2.5-3.2 cm long, brown in color, with a rather small head. The larva is six-legged, 4-6 cm long, yellow in color. Khrushchi winter in the ground at a depth of 1.5 m, in May come to the surface and devour the leaves of the bush before its skeletization.
Females lay their eggs in the ground, the larvae hatching from them eat blueberry roots, pupate into an open pupa 2 cm long, hibernate in the soil.
Effectively trapping beetles by light traps followed by destruction. When a beetle appears on blueberries, the shrub is treated with Aktar, Decis or Confidor.
Did you know? Frozen blueberries retain all their healing properties.
Kidney mite
Kidney mite - small elongated insect up to 0.2 mm long, white, with four legs, located near the head. Lay small eggs from which emerge elongated larvae.
Ticks - carriers of various plant viruses. For wintering mites climb into the leaf axils. In the spring they move to the buds, eating them. Bud mites suck up the sap of the plant, deform the tissues and form galls on the shoots.
An effective way to fight is spraying the bush with Nitrafen, KZM or iron sulphate in early spring, before bud break
Leaf gallitsa
Leaf gallitsa - insect up to 105 mm long, lays on the upper side of the leaf transparent elongated eggs, which then turn yellow. Emerging larvae - up to 2 mm long, without legs; pupation occurs in spring, flies fly out at the beginning of fruiting.
Stalks and leaves infected with gallium leaves are removed and burned; it is possible to treat blueberries from this type of pests with the chemical preparations “Mospilan”, “Arivo”, “Fufanon”.
Beet Black Aphid
Beet Black Aphid - a small insect of dark color that affects the leaves, after which they turn yellow, curl and dry out. Aphid lays eggs on the bush stems in the fall; in the spring, adult insects appear, which later fly over to beet plants for breeding.
In the fall, the plant louse returns to blueberries, and the larvae that eat the young roots of the bush appear on the plant at the roots. Get rid of this pest of blueberry by spraying the shrub with Calypso 480.
Red Blood Aphid
Red Blood Aphid - an elongated insect of dark color 2 mm long, settling on young shoots. Aphids are collected in large groups on the buds, leaf stalks and stalks. The habitat of blood aphid is determined by the presence of loose nodules-thickenings on the stems.
On a shrub, an infected blood aphid, the leaves and shoots twist and dry, the fruits become small, in addition, these insects are carriers of bacteria and fungi-parasites.
As a struggle with a blood aphid, blueberries are sprayed several times with Confidor, Aktaroy and BI-58 - every two weeks from the moment of bud swelling.
Did you know? Blueberry berries have the ability to prevent cancer.
Weevil-tsvetoed apple
Weevil-tsvetoed apple - a black beetle 4 mm long with elytra covered with hairs.
The pest feeds on the kidneys, lays eggs in unblown buds, while eating away the pistil and stamens, and the bud glues the secreted liquid. One egg is laid in one bud, after which it darkens, dries and disappears. In the fallen bud, pupation of larvae occurs; in the summer, the bugs emerging from the pupa eat berries, damaging the harvest.
The bush infested with a weevil is watered with “Inta-Vir” or “Fufanon” preparations, and it is also treated with shrub foliage.
Single skosar
Single skosar is a black beetle up to 1 cm long, its larvae are legless, white in color, up to 1.2 cm in length.
Skosar lays eggs in the ground, the larvae that emerge from them eat the roots and arrange for wintering in the ground. In spring, the growing larvae eat the bark and roots; in early summer, beetles appear that feed on bark and shoots.
To protect the blueberry bush from the scrub pest is necessary during the swelling of the kidneys to treat the plant "Tsidialom" or "Rogor".
Drosophila Suzuki
Drosophila Suzuki - winged insect is a light brown color 3-4 mm long, with large red eyes. Females lay eggs in the berry, legless white larvae hatch up to 4 mm long. The best temperature for reproduction is 20 ° C.
Drosophila suzuki overwinter under fallen leaves and plant debris. It is possible to get rid of the pest drug "Calypso".
Winter moth
Winter moth - winged insect of brown shade up to 1 cm long, females do not fly, in autumn small eggs are laid on the bark near the kidneys, from which yellow caterpillars with a bluish head hatch in spring, the length of caterpillars is up to 2.5 cm. Caterpillars live between the leaves, woven over the web. In the autumn, butterflies fly out.
To get rid of the moth in the early spring, they spray the plants "Decis", "Enzio", CALL.
Scar
Scar - brown insect, male length - 1.5 mm, females - 3 mm. In autumn, the female lays white eggs of 0.3 mm in size under her shield, where they are located until spring. In late spring, the hatched larvae settle on the shoots and feed on the plant sap.
Struck bush shrivels. To avoid contamination of the garden with a shield, healthy material should be used for planting. The stalks struck by the pest are cut and burned, the heavily infected shrub is removed.
It is possible to get rid of harmful insects by thoroughly washing the affected shoots with Karbofos, Decis, Kinmiks.
Did you know? Blueberries are able to protect people from radiation exposure and maintain the integrity of nerve cells.
Mantis
Mantis - an insect of green color up to 10 cm long, has two pairs of wings and three pairs of legs. Insect differs in that it eats small pests. The praying mantis is very prolific - females lay eggs on the top of the shoots in the amount of about 300 pieces, after several days the larvae hatch by 2 mm in length, up to three generations of praying mantis are replaced in one season.
When infecting a large number of stems, this pest leads to the death of blueberry shoots. Cats hunt mantis, reducing their numbers.
Caring for blueberries should be regular, and a large number of various pests complicate the process of growing shrubs. With the right approach, careful observation of plantings and the immediate adoption of all necessary measures to rid the bushes of settled pests, blueberries will bear fruit in the fifth year of life. And given that the blueberry bush lives up to 60 years, your plantings will delight for a long time with tasty and healthy berries.