How to get rid of bark beetle on apple tree?
When growing an apple tree, a gardener may encounter such an unpleasant phenomenon as the appearance on the tree bark of holes that serve as an entrance to bark beetles. Populating a tree with these insects can lead to the death of a fruit tree. This article will tell you how to get rid of bark beetles on an apple tree.
Characteristics and description of the apple bark beetle
Bark beetle females usually select weak or young apple trees to lay eggs. Due to the strong bark, healthy adult trees are less susceptible to bark beetle attack. Holes are visible on the trunk or branches through which the beetle enters the wood. If you remove the bark, you can see the tunnels laid directly in the layer of juice circulation (sapwood). Bark beetle females lay the main longitudinal gallery about 5-6 cm long (up to 10 cm) and 2 mm wide.
Important! Occupation of a fruit apple tree by a bark beetle is a sign of a plant weakness, possibly caused by fungal diseases or adverse soil conditions, such as root soaking in close proximity to groundwater.
Then lay eggs in small cavities on the sides of this tunnel. After hatching, the larvae begin to dig their tunnels, slightly shorter in length, located to the side of the original tunnel and almost perpendicular to it. Bark beetle, Latin name Scolytus mali, populates fruit crops. The larvae of this insect feed on the juice of tender wood, located immediately below the bark.
The first signs of a tree lesion
An indicator that a bark beetle settled under the bark of an apple tree, the presence of holes in the bark of a tree. Pests gnaw out the inner layer of wood under the bark (phloem-cambial layer) of branches or trunk of an apple tree. This activity often triggers the flow of wood juice. The flow of juice is accompanied by fine wood dust that accumulates in the crevices of the bark or crumbles to the ground.
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Removing bark sites with multiple openings often reveals dead and degraded internal wood, and sometimes larvae and new, recently hatched adult beetles. Optimally, start taking action when pest inlets are found on only one apple tree. If this is not done, in a year the bark beetle population will populate all nearby fruit trees.
What is the danger of bark beetle for the apple orchard?
These insects often attack apple trees, weakened by drought, diseases, injuries, or other factors that cause stress to the plant. Beetles can contribute to inhibition of development and possible death of trees. Adult beetles feed on the inner layer of the bark of the branches before the time comes to lay eggs.
Did you know? If an adult beetle hatched in the wood of an apple tree or pear infected with fungal diseases, then the spores of the fungus will be spread by the bark beetle to other trees in the garden.
The main methods of control and treatment
Monitoring is an important component of all garden biological protection programs. The sampling method is used to assess the number and distribution of pests, how to scare them off and detect their natural enemies. Information is needed to determine when and what action the gardener needs to take.
Spraying
One should always consider an integrated approach, consistently applying preventive measures and treating trees with biological preparations. If these measures are insufficient, then only chemical treatment is applied. Insecticide treatment is necessary if the population of the apple orchard by the bark beetle has reached a high level.
Important! When applying chemicals to the bark of an apple tree, the gardener must first reliably protect his skin and respiratory organs. To do this, wear overalls with long sleeves and a hood, high boots, safety glasses and a respirator.
The most effective use of insecticides during the flight of adult beetles, immediately after hatching. Both biological and chemical products are applied to the bark using a garden knapsack. Before use, insecticides are diluted with water in accordance with the instructions attached to each drug.
Insecticides
Any chemical spraying done on the bark of an apple tree after the beetles have accumulated and entered the bark is likely to be too late and ineffective. The treatment should target adult insects, so that the beetles die when they land on trees and try to break into the bark to lay eggs. Chemical treatment of apple trees that have already been attacked will not do any good and can kill beneficial insects.
Severely bark beetle infected plants cannot be saved by insecticide treatment and must be removed from the garden. Systemic insecticides, that is, those that are injected with a syringe through the bark or sprayed onto the soil under the trees, are not very effective. Valuable apple varieties that are not infected by the pest can be protected by spraying their bark with a persistent preventive insecticide against bark beetles.
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Any preventive treatment should be carried out along the trunk or branches of an apple tree in order to destroy adult beetles before they penetrate the bark and lay eggs. Otherwise, the treatment will not be effective. In most cases, the time of use of any chemical preparations: from late winter to early spring in warmer areas of the country, late spring in colder regions. For most bark beetle insecticides, only one application per year is required to provide control throughout the season.
Traps and repellers
Bark beetles locate relatives, attract or repel other individuals of the same species, releasing airborne chemical substances called pheromones characteristic of this species. Pheromones are natural chemicals that people are widely used as bait to catch insects, luring them into traps.
These baits are especially important for detecting invasive species. To prevent bark beetles from particularly valuable fruit trees, gardeners can use repellent (repellent) pheromones and other behavioral chemicals.
Extrusion
Gardeners practice the introduction of insecticides ("Antizhuk", "Confidor", "Empire-20", "Calypso", "Antishashelin") directly into the passages of beetles located in the cortex. The liquid preparation is administered using a syringe equipped with a thin needle. One injection of the drug is not enough, so the procedure is repeated 3 to 5 times, as the insecticide is absorbed into the wood.
At the end of the chemical injection procedure, the insect passages are sealed with a garden var. This operation is aimed at the destruction of beetles and their larvae located under the bark of a living tree.
Increased tree immunity
So that the apple trees do not succumb to diseases and pests, they must be strong and healthy. To do this, the gardener needs to provide them with timely watering, top dressing, pruning and protection from aggressors from the insect world. The gardener should pay special attention to the old, slowly growing apple trees, group plantings and recently planted plants.
Seedlings after transplantation are very susceptible to bark beetles. The success of the transplant depends on the health of the seedling and its development, as well as the appropriate choice of the site for planting, season, method of transplant and subsequent care. Stresses occur in a tree due to improper planting or transplantation at the wrong time of the year, lack of proper care. All these factors increase the susceptibility of plants to bark beetles.
Did you know? Scientists believe that insects make up 90% of all living species on the planet and more than half of all living things. They can be found in almost every habitat, from snowy mountain peaks to sultry deserts, and they have been around for over 400 million years.
If irrigation is necessary, you can supply water to the root zone of the apple tree, and not near the trunk. It is advisable to avoid frequent and shallow watering, which is used for watering lawns. A general recommendation is to infrequently water trees, for example, twice a month during periods of drought. However, sufficient water must be used so that moisture penetrates deeply into the soil (approximately 70 cm below the surface).
Folk methods
As a means of controlling pests of fruit trees, gardeners have long used fruit compotes with an admixture of insecticides with a small addition of sunflower oil. As containers use small dishes with a wide diameter of the bottom.
Fruits with fruit compote are placed under the apple trees or suspended on the branches. The aromatic smell of fruits attracts pests, approaching the liquid, they fall into compote and drown, those who get out get dirty in sunflower oil, which clogs the pores of the body and leads to the death of insects.
Read also about how to get rid of rotting apples.
Not bad proved themselves and hunting belts. In order to create one or several hunting belts on an apple tree, the gardener wraps a selected section of the trunk or thick branch with a wide strip of polyethylene (at least 20–25 cm). A strip of polyethylene is tightly fixed on a tree, after which a thick paste or other sticky substance is applied to it.
Biological control
When bark beetles attack trees, their natural enemies gather in these places for feeding. They are attracted as food by the beetles themselves, their eggs and larvae. The two main groups of natural enemies are predators and parasites. Predators are more important in controlling bark beetle populations than parasites.
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Natural enemies are unlikely to save the infected tree, but they can fight pests and reduce the population of bark beetles, thereby reducing the risk to neighboring fruit trees that bark beetles migrate to. Release of predators or parasites into places inhabited by bark beetles is an effective tactic for suppressing the pest population.
Natural enemies of the bark beetle:
- woodpeckers;
- some species of carnivorous beetles (Enoclerus lecontei and Temnochila chlorodia);
- predatory fly (Medetera aldrichii);
- parasitic wasps.
Preventative measures
It is necessary to provide the apple tree with a balanced diet, to provide enough water, but not to allow its excess. Also, firewood should not be stored next to fruit trees. To monitor the population, pheromone traps must be used. Prevention is the most effective method of controlling insect pests.
Did you know? All the ants of the world combined weigh as much as all the people on the planet.
Preventive measures:
- it is necessary to avoid injuries of the roots and trunk, excessive compaction of the soil during planting;
- it is important to protect trees from sunburn and other adverse weather factors;
- apple trees need irrigation in the dry summer months to dry years;
- it is necessary to observe the spatial spacing between the trees so that the apple trees are healthy and able to withstand the attack of insects.
