How to get rid of caterpillars on viburnum. Saving viburnum from aphids

Viburnum, so named for the color of its berries - fiery red, like hot iron - grows in almost every summer cottage. Unfortunately, in every garden it is also subject to attacks by insects that can deprive the bushes of vitality in a short time. How, how and when to treat viburnum for aphids in order to prevent pests from actively reproducing is a topic of concern to summer residents.

Black aphid

As soon as the first buds on the viburnum bloom, the black (viburnum) aphid occupies the young shoots. Deprived of vital juices, young leaves become deformed and curl. Dark spots of various shapes appear on them, which leads to complete drying and death of young branches. In one season, several generations of aphids appear, and the first is equipped with wings - it has the ability to move from bush to bush, capturing all plants, not just viburnum.

The last generation overwinters at the base of the bush and, at the first signs of the beginning of spring, rushes up the trunks, getting closer to the buds that are beginning to swell. That is why active pest control begins in early spring.

The viburnum aphid causes damage to the entire area, but the main habitat is viburnum bushes. All the main means of struggle are used on them.

There are two main stages in the fight against black aphids.

1. Creating the most unfavorable conditions for laying eggs of the last, wintering generation. To do this, you have to cut out without regret all the basal shoots, which abound in viburnum bushes. It is optimal to carry out such thinning of the base of bushes in the second half of summer.
2. Spring treatment of bushes against pests using chemicals or folk remedies.

In the first days of spring, before using any pest control, the trunks of viburnum bushes are cleared of exfoliated old bark - most pests hibernate under it. After all the debris has been removed, the ground under the bush is watered with hot water.

Application of pesticides

The first treatment is carried out as soon as the spring sun warms up. During this period, pests emerge from hibernation and begin moving towards the kidneys. The most effective drugs include:

• "Aktara";
• "Decis";
• "Prestige";
• "Karbofos";
• "Fufanon."

Viburnum should be sprayed against pests in dry, windless weather using personal protective equipment.

Good results are obtained by treating viburnum with a Nitrafen solution at the rate of 200 g of product per 10 liters of water. The drug also needs to be sprayed on the homes of ants that carry aphids.

It is permissible to poison pests with chemicals only in early spring, since later application will harm pollinating insects, especially bees.

Folk remedies

The fact that folk remedies are less effective in combating aphids is a fairly common misconception. Their effectiveness is no lower than industrial pesticides if they are prepared and applied according to all the rules. At the same time, solutions prepared according to “grandmother’s” recipes can be used throughout the entire growing season. But it is better not to wait until the pest has firmly established itself on the viburnum, but to spray the affected plants immediately after detecting the pest.

• Soap solution

Prepared from laundry or green soap - 300 g per bucket of water. The treatment is carried out 2-3 times a week, after washing the bush with water from a hose under moderate pressure. Instead of soap, you can use one of the most inexpensive washing powders.

• Ash infusion

A glass of ash is brewed with a liter of boiling water and left for a day. Then add 40-50 g of soap or washing powder, bring the volume to 10 liters. Spray viburnum once a week.

• Ammonia

The solution is prepared from 20 ml of alcohol and a bucket of water. Viburnum is treated against pests twice, less often - three times, the interval between spraying is 2 weeks.

• Tobacco infusion

250 g of tobacco or shag are infused in 5 liters of water for 2 days. Then filter, add 5 liters of water and treat the bushes.

• Pharmaceutical chamomile

Take 1 kg of dried flowers in a bucket of hot water and leave for 12 hours. Strain the infusion, add 2 parts water to 1 part infusion. The plants are treated with the prepared solution immediately after mixing.

• Pyrethrum (Caucasian chamomile)

300 g of crushed dried flowers are poured with a small amount of boiling water, left for 2 hours, filtered, water added to 10 liters and immediately sprayed with viburnum - the herb successfully fights many pests of garden crops.

Dried pyrethrum flowers can be purchased at pharmacies or garden centers under the trade name Persian Powder. The manufacturer indicates recommendations for use on the packaging.

• Needles

Pine or spruce needles are crushed and steamed with boiling water at the rate of 200 g of dry raw materials per liter of water. The infusion is kept tightly sealed for two days, after which the affected bushes are sprayed with it.

• Henbane black

If there are thickets of this plant nearby, take young rosette leaves (about 200-300 g), pour a bucket of hot water and leave for 13 hours. Before spraying, add 30-50 g of liquid soap to the infusion.

Black henbane is a poisonous plant; be careful when working with it. Leaf celery.

To attract small birds (tits, warblers, linnets), feeders, drinking bowls, and nesting houses are equipped for them.

If attracting natural enemies of aphids to a site is one of the components of pest control, pesticides are used extremely carefully.

All means are good in the fight against aphids in the spring. Their competent and timely use will protect a beautiful bush with healthy berries from pests and get a good harvest.

Viburnum Pests, cause her a lot of trouble, eating leaves and flowers and significantly affecting the quantity and quality of the harvest. Viburnum has many pests.

The greatest damage to viburnum can be caused by: viburnum leaf beetle, black viburnum aphid, as well as viburnum leafroller and honeysuckle spiny sawfly, viburnum and honeysuckle gall midge, green lobed moth

Leaf beetles almost completely destroy plantings, and control of them is difficult. I had to experience this myself until I found an effective and, I must say, effective method of combating harmful beetles.

In early spring, dirty gray larvae with a black head appear. They settle on the leaf from its underside, holding onto it tightly, so that it is impossible to shake it off like other insects.

Leaf beetle larvae eat a lot and within a few days are capable of destroying many branches, leaving only veins of leaves. Then the larvae go into the soil and yellow-brown beetles 6 mm long appear. They settle on the upper side of the leaves and continue to eat them intensively.

By September, such a bush turns out to be almost completely bare. It goes into winter weakened and may die from frost.

Females lay their eggs in a chain, gnawing through the bark to a depth of two millimeters, capturing a little wood, and lay 15 to 25 small light yellow eggs in the nest.

After the eggs are laid, viburnum pests The nests are immediately sealed with secretions, masking them with the color of the bark. But the masonry is clearly visible due to the convex shape of the “roofs”.

Some females make nests in the petioles of the largest clusters, which is why the yield is sharply reduced. At the end of summer, the beetles go to winter under the viburnum bush (some of them cause damage in September).

When beetles appeared en masse, in June-July, I shook them off the leaves in the early morning (at this time they are least active) onto plastic wrap, and then swept them into a bucket of water and destroyed them. This operation was carried out before laying eggs.

In early spring, when the branches were still bare, I cut off the tops of the shoots where egg laying was visible. I immediately burned the scraps. If you carefully remove all damaged parts of the plant, you can destroy all the clutches, and there will be no new beetles next year.

The next year I repeated the manipulation and thus all the beetles - viburnum pests- were destroyed. There is no need to be late with pruning. This should be done before the leaves bloom. This method of control is completely harmless to plants. It is simple, convenient, and every gardener can use it.

Traditional measures to combat the viburnum leaf beetle include spraying the viburnum bush before it blooms with 10% karbofos (100 g of substance per bucket of water). During the growing season, it is recommended to treat the plant with an infusion of hot pepper (1 kg of pods cut in half or 0.5 kg of dried crushed pods per bucket of water) or infusion of tomato tops (4 kg green or 1 kg dried tops per bucket of water or infusion of pharmaceutical chamomile (3 kg green or 1 kg dried pharmaceutical chamomile in a bucket of water).

Black viburnum aphid

Adults viburnum pests This variety is usually dark brown or crimson-brown in color. Its eggs spend the winter near the buds on the bark. The larvae, born in the spring, settle on the leaves and successfully suck the juices from them.

Viburnum leaves damaged by black aphids curl, and the apical shoots become deformed. In June, pests with wings emerge and colonize new plants. In late summer - early autumn, female black aphids lay eggs that will overwinter.

The black viburnum aphid can migrate, but lives only on viburnum. It damages young bushes with particular cruelty. During the growing season of viburnum, aphids develop several generations.

Control measures

In order to combat black viburnum aphids, it is recommended to cut out and destroy the basal shoots in which viburnum pests lay eggs for wintering. To combat black aphids, beneficial insects that feed on aphids are widely used - hover flies, lacewing larvae, and ladybugs.

Also, before the buds bloom, the shoots should be treated with 60% nitrophen paste (250g of the substance per bucket of water).

A good result is obtained by treating viburnum shoots with preparations made from plants: infusion of potato tops (1.2 kg of green 0.7 kg of dried tops per bucket of water), infusion of pepper (1 kg of capsicum, cut in half or 500 g of dry crushed pods per bucket of water, infusion celandine (3-4kg of fresh grass or 1kg of dried grass per bucket of water), finally with a solution of laundry soap (250g per bucket of water).

Viburnum leaf roller

The viburnum leaf roller usually damages viburnum, as well as mountain pine. This viburnum pest is a dark gray-blue or greenish-olive caterpillar, yellowish on the sides, all covered with light hairs with a light brown head. Caterpillars ( viburnum pests), which were born in the spring, eat the buds, when the leaves appear, they eat and damage them, having first entangled them in a web and knocked them into a ball. The leaf roller pupates by mid-summer in the places where it feeds. When it reproduces en masse, the viburnum leaf roller is capable of destroying a large number of leaves, and this leads to a significant reduction in yield.

Control measures

The fight against viburnum leaf roller comes down to collecting and burning caterpillar nests. Before the buds bloom, the viburnum should be sprayed with 60% nitrophen paste at the rate of 250 g of the substance per bucket of water, and from the beginning of the buds to the moment when the buds of the plant appear, it should be treated with 10% karbofos.

Honeysuckle spiny sawfly

The sawfly damages decorative and edible honeysuckle and viburnum. The pest larva has an olive-colored body and two transverse rows of white spines, with a dark red back or mesh pattern, light gray sides and a yellow head. The larvae overwinter in the top layer of soil. Pupation occurs in the spring. Adult pests appear when the leaves bloom, on which the females lay eggs. The hatched larvae eat the leaves. They can eat until they are completely naked.

Control measures

To combat the sawfly, autumn digging of the soil is effective. Then you need to spray the bushes before flowering and after it with 10% karbofos (100g per bucket of water), and also treat the plant with wormwood decoction (750g of dried grass per bucket of water) or garlic, tobacco, onions (200g tobacco waste or dust, 200g ground onions or garlic and 200g of onion peel per bucket of water).

Viburnum and honeysuckle gall midge

These viburnum pests affects plant flowers. The larvae of the viburnum gall midge are white, and the honeysuckle gall midge is red. They spend the winter in the upper soil layer, wrapped in spider cocoons. Adult gall midges reveal themselves when the buds are exposed. Female gall midges like to lay eggs inside the bud, and the larvae also develop here. Due to this, the buds become ugly, significantly increase in size, swell, turn red, the corolla thickens, and the pistil and stamens are greatly retarded in development, the flowers cannot open. Viburnum pests produce only one generation.

Control measures

To combat gall midges, it is necessary to loosen the soil in early spring and late autumn, and before and after flowering of the viburnum, it is necessary to spray with 10% karbofos at the rate of 100 g of the substance per bucket of water.

Green lobed moth

The greenish lobed moth can damage viburnum, buckthorn, lilac and other shrub crops. This pest is a yellow-green caterpillar with two pairs of abdominal legs and a red-brown line along the back with similar colored dots and spots. It only harms flowers by gnawing out flower ovaries.

How to deal with aphids on viburnum, many gardeners and gardeners wonder. The plant attracts pests, creates a favorable environment for the development of their larvae, and promotes the spread of insects throughout the land. Protecting viburnum and preventing the spread of aphids is the responsibility of every gardener.

Viburnum Pests

The most common pest of viburnum is. The insect spends its entire life on the bush. Adults lay eggs on the bark near the buds in late August and early September. They will have to spend the winter in this state.

In May, winged individuals appear. These are sexually mature females and males ready for fertilization. After the mating process, the aphid spreads to other trees and lays eggs that are destined to overwinter. In spring the cycle repeats.

Black aphids on viburnum are a real disaster for the planting and surrounding plants. It is necessary to begin the fight early in the spring, even before the first leaves bloom.

On a note!

The pest has the ability to migrate to other plants, but lives exclusively on viburnum. During the entire growing season of the shrub, several generations of insects develop.

Professional products

If the viburnum is attacked by aphids, you can fight it professionally using insecticides. The active components of the product block nerve impulses, causing paralysis and early death. The minimum dose of poison is enough to cause death.

The advantages of this method of control are high efficiency, quick results, preservation of properties for up to 20 days. The insecticidal agent destroys adults and larvae of all ages.

The drug is sold as a concentrate. Before use, you should prepare a solution by diluting it in a certain amount of water. Usually 10 l. While working, you must wear rubber gloves and carry out the procedure in the morning and evening in dry, windless weather.

The most effective means:

• Aktellik;
• Karbofos;
• Prestige;
• Fufanon;
• Decis;
• Inta-Vira.

Which drug to use is an individual decision. All of them act immediately, mass death of aphids is observed within a week, and retain their properties for up to 20 days.

Folk recipes

The fight against aphids on viburnum is carried out using all known methods. are very diverse and unique, making it possible to do without chemicals.

• In order to save the viburnum and completely overcome black aphids, it is necessary to cut out the shoots that are located at the roots in late autumn. It is in this place that the aphid lays eggs and leaves them to overwinter. In the spring, when the bush begins to bloom, pour hot water onto the soil at the root.
• Natural enemies of insects - lacewing larvae, hoverflies - can destroy aphids.
• You can spray viburnum with a solution of onion peels. Pests cannot stand this smell and try to hide from it quickly. 200 g of husks are combined with 500 g of wood ash, 200 g. Pour in 10 liters of water. Leave to infuse for 5 days. Before use, add and filter the finished product. It is necessary to spray viburnum in May even before the first leaves bloom, or during the flowering period. Repeat the procedure every week until the pests disappear.
• Add spices to the water - cinnamon, red, black pepper, soap solution. Pour the mixture into a spray bottle or spray bottle. The first time you need to spray the viburnum is in the spring, then this should be done every month with a break of 7-14 days.
• You can get rid of aphids with a strong tincture of

In May, the first winged individuals, ready for reproduction, appear on the viburnum. After mating, some insects move to other viburnum bushes and lay eggs. With the advent of a new spring, everything starts all over again.

Have questions?

Ask and receive useful advice from professional gardeners and experienced summer residents.

Aphids on viburnum, how to fight?

What to do if there are aphids on the viburnum? Chemical agents can successfully combat black aphids on viburnum. Under their influence, paralysis occurs in insects. They simply cannot feed anymore and soon die. Chemical products are made on the basis of insecticides. A tiny dose of these substances is enough to kill an entire colony of pests.

The advantages of fighting aphids with chemicals include the speed of action of poisons and the fact that under their influence all aphids on viburnum die, that is, adult insects, larvae, even eggs. In addition, these drugs retain their toxic properties for 20 days after treatment.

You can buy such products in flower shops. They are sold in the form of a concentrate. Before use, dilute the product with water. Typically, the packaging indicates instructions for use based on diluting the concentrate per 10 liters of water.

Treat viburnum bushes against aphids using rubber gloves in the absence of wind. It is advisable to use a respirator.

Gardening stores will tell you which chemicals to buy. By and large, all these drugs have an effective effect on aphids. So you can use any of them. During the first week, aphids die en masse, then this process slows down. After 20 days, the effects of these drugs stop.

Before the first leaves appear, viburnum can be treated with Nitrafen paste. Later, the viburnum bushes need to be sprayed with any of the above products.

Eco-friendly pest control products

This is a good preventive method. In late autumn, cut off the young shoots that appear at the base of the viburnum trunk. Aphids readily lay eggs on it. In the spring, before flowering begins, generously water the soil around the viburnum with very hot water. This will kill the eggs and larvae of the aphids.

Aphids are happily eaten by hoverflies, lacewings, and ladybugs.

A solution of ammonia is actively used against garden pests.

An infusion of onion peels will help get rid of aphids on viburnum. These insects cannot stand the smell of the infusion, but do not die from it. In order to enhance the effect of the infusion, add laundry soap, wood ash, and tobacco to it. It takes a long time to prepare, but is not difficult. To do this, you need to take 200 grams of onion peels, 500 grams of wood ash, 200 grams of tobacco. Mix the ingredients and add 10 liters of water. Leave the remedy for five days. Then strain the infusion, dissolve a bar of laundry soap in it.

Spray the viburnum with this infusion every week until all viburnum pests leave the bush.

Here's what else you can use to spray viburnum against aphids. The product is prepared by eye. Add wood ash, spices, and soap solution to the water. Any spices can be used. This is, for example, red or black pepper, cinnamon or cloves. One day is enough to infuse the product. Then strain the infusion and start spraying the viburnum. This infusion should be used for the first time in the spring. Then the procedure can be repeated every month.

No less effective in the fight against aphids is another infusion. Take 200 grams of garlic, tobacco, pine needles, fill them with 10 liters of water. Boil for half an hour. After five days of infusion, the decoction is ready for use. Add a little liquid laundry soap to it so that the broth does not drip from the leaves and branches of the viburnum.

Perhaps you have an exotic variety of viburnum buldenezh growing, reaching a height of three meters. So you ask: how to treat buldenezh against aphids? Use the same methods for controlling black aphids as for ordinary viburnum.

Viburnum is a shrub or small tree belonging to the Adoxaceae family. Viburnum is valued for its ease of cultivation and care, decorative appearance from late spring until the first snow, and beneficial properties of both bark and berries. Even after the leaves have fallen, viburnum continues to delight the eye with its scarlet berries, which look especially impressive against the backdrop of snow.

It should be noted that not all types of viburnum have edible fruits. The well-known species with the French name Buldenezh is exclusively decorative and is known for its gorgeous white inflorescences in the form of snow globes.

Flowering viburnum continues for 30 - 40 days, starting in May. Large umbrella inflorescences of white color can be tinged with pink and reach 10 cm.

Under natural conditions, viburnum grows in areas with moist soil - near rivers, streams, lakes. In total, there are more than 160 species of these plants, of which several dozen are found in Russia.

Planting viburnum

Viburnum is a moisture-loving plant, so it grows best in moist areas in partial shade on slightly acidic soils with pH = 5.5–6. However, the place should be well lit, but preferably not in direct sunlight. In completely shady places, viburnum will also grow, but the bloom will be noticeably weaker.

Viburnum is planted in autumn or early spring. Autumn plantings show better plant survival. The planting hole is 50 cm wide and 40 cm deep. In the pit, a soil mixture is prepared from the top layer of soil, to which 6 kg of humus is added, well mixed with a glass of wood ash and peat. The ratio of peat to the rest of the soil is 1:3. If the soil is not rich in humus, then add 100 g to the hole and mix thoroughly.

The seedling is placed in a hole so that the root collar is buried from 3 to 5 cm. After planting, a hole is formed around the bush and watered with 20 liters of water. Then mulch with peat or straw.

When planting several seedlings, they are located at least two meters from each other.

Viburnum care

Caring for viburnum consists of:

• feeding
• pruning
• pest prevention

In addition, moisture-loving viburnum needs watering during dry periods.

Feeding

In early spring, viburnum is fed with a complex feed - 50 grams per bush. To do this, you need to remove the mulch, add fertilizer, loosen the soil and water the plant. After feeding, it is necessary to re-mulch the bush. In the fall, root fertilizing is done with ash - 1 cup per bush or superphosphate in the amount of 60 grams.

Trimming

Viburnums are pruned in early spring. Its task is to thin out the bush so that there is access to fresh air inside it, to remove shoots that grow inward, as well as weak, broken and dry ones.

By pruning, the plant itself is formed, growing it in the form of a tree, leaving one trunk, or in the form of a bush - several large shoots.

After 5–6 years, rejuvenating pruning is carried out, removing old shoots. It is better to carry out such pruning not at once, but over two years - cut half of the shoots in one year, the rest in a year. This way the viburnum will tolerate pruning without unnecessary stress.

Prevention of pests and diseases

Viburnum is often damaged by pests such as viburnum leaf beetle and aphids. And if measures are not taken in time, the plant will lose all its decorative properties.

Already in early spring it is important to treat viburnum from pests. It should be noted that the viburnum leaf beetle lays eggs in dry twigs of the plant. Accordingly, to prevent the appearance of caterpillars of this dangerous pest in the spring, in the fall, after the leaves have fallen, you need to carefully examine the bush and remove dried parts of the branches at the edges of the shoots. Cut parts of the shoots must be destroyed.

The plant is treated against powdery mildew - you can treat it with this drug in the spring for the purpose of prevention.

Viburnum propagation

Viburnum is propagated:

• dividing the bush
• cuttings
• layering
• seeds

Reproduction by dividing the bush

With this method, the bush is carefully divided into several parts. Each part should have 2 - 3 shoots with developed renewal buds.

Propagation by cuttings

In June, green cuttings are cut, 8–10 cm long with three nodes. An even cut is made from the bottom of the cutting at an angle and the lower leaves are removed, leaving a couple at the top, cutting them in half. The cuttings are soaked for 10 hours in a root formation stimulator and planted in a greenhouse. In the fall, they are planted in open ground in a permanent place, covered with straw or spruce branches for the winter.

Typically, cuttings involve keeping the germinated cuttings indoors and planting them in open ground only in the spring. But viburnum shows good survival even after such autumn planting of cuttings.

Reproduction by layering

In spring, a low-lying shoot is bent and placed in a prepared groove. Cover with soil and secure with wire. The upper part of the shoot remains in the air and is tied vertically. By autumn, roots will form on such a shoot. The shoot is cut off from the mother plant, divided into parts and planted in a permanent place.

Propagation by seeds

The most labor-intensive method. Before sowing, viburnum seeds are stratified. At the end of February, the seeds are sown in containers filled with peat mixture. In the spring, when warm weather without frost sets in, the seedlings are transplanted into open ground, protected from the sun for two months.