All about the miner moth

The miner moth is considered a serious pest and causes irreparable harm to plants. The insect massively attacks urban plants and fruit crops, causing them significant damage. The fight against moths should be started as soon as possible, using the full range of available means.

Miner moths are representatives of the order of the lepidoptera of the families of notchiptera and moth-moths parasitizing urban and fruit trees, berry bushes, vegetables and wild-growing grasses. Pests gladly eat citrus trees (orange, tangerine and lemon), and in rare cases, conifers.

The life cycle of insects begins with the fact that small larvae, whose body has a spindle-shaped segmented shape, begin to hatch from the 0.3 mm long yellowish eggs laid by females. They quickly turn into caterpillars with a well-developed mouth apparatus, which gnaw numerous passages (mines) in the pulp of leaves, thereby causing the death of the green mass. Pests grow rather quickly and reach a length of 5-7 mm. After 15-45 days (depending on the species), the caterpillars begin to pupate, exist in this state for about 10 days, after which they turn into butterflies.

There are several types of miner moths, and each of them specializes in its own culture, switching to other plants extremely rarely, in the event of a shortage of basic food. Lindens, mountain ash, thuja, poplars, oaks, chestnuts, plane trees, citrus fruits, apple trees, cherries and junipers become woody objects of pests. From shrubs, the insect is not averse to feasting on honeysuckle, wild rose, rose, hawthorn and spirea. As for herbaceous plants, the moth will not refuse clover, balsam, strawberries, dandelion, clematis, bellflower and violets (including indoor species), and from vegetables - from cucumbers, beets, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage and melons. As you can see, this insect eats almost everything, which is why it is included in the category of the most dangerous pests.

The following are the varieties of the miner moth, which are very often found in gardens, vegetable gardens and on the city streets of our country.

• Chestnut miner moth (Latin Cameraria ohridella) is a representative of the family of speckled moths, gives 3 generations of offspring per season, is considered the worst enemy of the horse chestnut, maiden grapes and maple. It is found throughout the European part of Russia, conquering new urban areas from year to year. The pest lives in parks, squares, along roadsides - in a word, wherever there is green space.

Since 2003, the insect began to appear in Kaliningrad and its environs. The adult chestnut moth has a brown body 7 mm long, bright motley wings up to 12 mm wide, and white legs covered with black dots. Each female is capable of laying up to 80 eggs in her life, of which larvae appear in 5-20 days (depending on temperature conditions).The pest is predominantly nocturnal, and prefers to hide in the daytime.

• Oak broad moth (Latin Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae) actively reproduces in the oak forests of our country and is able to reproduce 2 generations of offspring per season. The flight of adults is observed all summer, is very uneven and depends on the climatic features of the area. The larvae devour oak leaves from the inside, causing them to dry out and die prematurely.

• Beet miner moth (Latin Scrobipalpa ocellatella) belongs to the order of notchiptera and poses a great danger to vegetable and industrial crops. Especially from its invasions, beets, marsh and salicornia suffer. During the summer, the insect reproduces from 3 to 5 generations of its own kind, which is why the number of moths increases significantly by the end of summer. One female can lay up to 200 eggs, the threshold of harmfulness of this insect is 2 caterpillars per bush. Moth eggs are clearly visible on petioles, leaf plates, on the aerial part of root systems, and even on clumps of earth under bushes. Pupation of caterpillars lasts from 10 to 20 days, butterflies fly from April to August.

• South American tomato mining moth (lat.Tuta absoluta) attacks the green mass of nightshade crops - potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes and physalis. The tomato moth is very unpretentious to external conditions and starts even in greenhouses. The larvae are engaged in leaf mining and actively eat unripe fruits. Therefore, if the pest is not detected in time, the crop will be lost. The tomato moth is very fertile and can reproduce up to 15 generations of offspring per season. An adult butterfly has a gray-brown color and a body 5-6 mm long. Males look slightly darker and grow up to 7 mm. The entire life cycle of the pest lasts 10 weeks, while females live for 10-15 days, males - 6-7.

The miner moth causes significant damage to private and private farms. So, the larvae of the chestnut moth move along the leaves, eat away the juicy green pulp on their way and leave empty passages behind them. With a large invasion of caterpillars, the mines merge with each other, and the leaf blade loses its green mass. The leaves are covered with brownish spots, quickly wither and fall to the ground. Having lost its leaf cover, the plant is not able to accumulate the minimum of nutrients necessary for wintering.

As a result, when cold weather sets in, young trees freeze completely, and old ones lose a large number of branches. This leads to sluggish leaf blooming in the spring, the invasion of other insect pests and the defeat of the weakened tree by fungi and viruses. Horse and Japanese chestnuts suffer greatly from insects. Chinese, Indian and Californian species are not afraid of chestnut moths, as their leaves are inedible for its larvae.

The caterpillars of the beet moth cause great harm to sugar beets. Table and forage varieties are also subject to pest attacks, but suffer from them to a lesser extent. The threshold of harmfulness of insects begins with two individuals per bush, with a more massive attack, it is necessary to urgently start taking decisive measures, otherwise you can lose the entire crop. A sign of the defeat of the culture by the beet moth is the appearance of brown spots on the leaves, stems and in the root zone of plants.

Caterpillars of the South American tomato moth infect tomato leaves and cause them to die off. In European countries, this pest is included in the list of quarantine harmful organisms, which indicates a serious danger when it appears on the plantation. Tomato moth penetrates not only the leaves, but also the fruits, due to which the yield loss can reach from 50 to 100%.Previously, this species was recorded only in South America, but in 2006 it appeared in Mediterranean countries, and then in Europe.

The first sign of damage to the plant by tomato moth is the formation of spot-like mines. Caterpillars eat the flesh of the leaf and leave in its place a transparent epidermis with the products of their vital activity. The leaves turn brown, are affected by necrosis and die off.

In order to get rid of massive attacks of insects, chemical and biological methods of control are used, and with a small amount of moths, they use folk remedies for prevention.

You can fight miner moths with insecticides. Treatment is usually carried out in three ways: by injections into the trunk, by spraying on the leaf and by applying drugs to the soil. However, the spraying method is the most harmless and effective. Injection and watering of chemicals under the root can harm the inhabitants of the soil and negatively affect the quality of the fruit. Spraying begins immediately before the mass emergence of adults, not allowing them to lay eggs.

Such drugs as "Bi-58", "Karate" or "Match" will help to kill a mole. And you can also spray plants with "Aktara", "Spintor", "Lannat" and "Confidor". It is better to start the treatment with weaker preparations, gradually moving on to strong ones. With regular numerous attacks of moths, the treatment is performed at intervals of 2 weeks, alternating preparations until the pests completely disappear. For greater efficiency, chemical compositions are recommended to be combined with folk methods and biological methods.

To prevent the appearance of miner moths, orange peels, geraniums or lavender are laid out near the plants. You can treat the bushes with neem oil, mustard, or mint. Insects do not tolerate a pungent smell and quickly leave the plant. Experienced farmers during active summer water the plants with water from a hose, not allowing females to lay eggs. Good results are obtained by using a mixture of water, green soap and Liposam bioadhesive. It is recommended to spray not only the trunk and leaves, but also the near-trunk circle within a radius of 1 m. As a result of this treatment, everything around becomes sticky, the moth's wings stick together, and it dies.

If plants are slightly damaged by insects, biological products can be used. They do not negatively affect plants and soil and effectively fight moths. For processing bushes, you can use "Bitobaxibatselin", "Dimilin" or "Insegar". They slow down the formation of chitinous membranes, which causes the death of the larvae.

Pheromone traps, which are an adhesive structure impregnated with insect pheromones, have proven themselves well. Males actively flock to the smell, stick and die. It is recommended to place at least 25 such traps on one hectare during the flight period.

An equally effective way is the settlement of the territory by natural enemies of the moth - horseflies (lat.Nesidiocoris tenuis), insects-wasps - poachers and trichogrammatids, as well as Spanish eulophids. On an industrial scale, the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae and the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis are used to kill moths, which actively destroy larvae and do not harm plants.

To prevent the appearance of miner moths on the site, a number of preventive measures must be taken in advance.

• Compliance with crop rotation, timely destruction of weeds and fallen leaves.
• Seed treatment with potassium permanganate.
• Formation of glue belts on tree trunks. Hanging adhesive tape on the crown during the flight.
• Treatment of trunks with insecticides to destroy pupae wintering in the bark.
• Digging near-trunk circles in the autumn.Pupae on the surface freeze and die.
• Autumn plowing of fields after beets to a depth of 25 cm.
• Location of light traps on the plantation during the flight.
• Spring sifting of soil in order to extract pupae.

Attracting great tit and black-headed tit, as well as spiders, ladybirds and ants to the site, will significantly reduce the moth population.