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The cherry fly is one of the most “famous” pests of cherries in domestic orchards. Apricot, honeysuckle, bird cherry and barberry also suffer from it. Its larvae develop in the berries of stone fruit crops, contaminate them with their excrement and feed on the pulp. They can quickly damage and destroy from half to 90% of the seasonal harvest - wormy fruits become deformed, fall off and rot, becoming unfit for consumption.Having identified this parasite, the gardener should not leave the situation unattended. Methods of controlling the cherry fly depend on the time of year, the number of insects and the degree of damage to trees. Taking this into account, you can choose the most suitable method from proven folk recipes or use chemicals if the situation becomes critical. The fight against the cherry fly, started on time and correctly, will help get rid of the parasite in the garden and preserve the harvest. And to ensure that the pest does not attack the trees again next season, it is imperative to take preventive measures.
Why are cherries wormy?
Wormy fruits of cherries and cherries are usually the result of a massive spread of the cherry fly in the garden. Adult insects themselves pose virtually no harm to the crop. But small white larvae, deposited by flies in the nutritious pulp of the berries, are the main reason why cherries become wormy and quickly disappear.
The activity of this pest can be determined even at the stage of fruit ripening. The place on the skin of the berry, which the cherry fly pierced in order to lay an egg, is initially clearly visible in the form of a black dot. The pulp of the affected fruit, which the larva feeds on, decomposes and begins to rot under the influence of its excrement. Most of the wormy berries quickly lose their shape and fall off, but even those that remain on the tree are still unsuitable for consumption.
However, if the owners of all areas bordering each other cooperate in this matter, then it is quite possible to completely get rid of this parasite or at least minimize the damage it causes.
What does a cherry fly look like?
What an adult cherry fly looks like can be seen in the photo below.
The cherry fly is a dangerous pest of many fruit and berry crops.
This is a small winged insect 3-5 cm in length, resembling an ordinary housefly. Its body is glossy in appearance and dark brown or black in color. There are two long yellow stripes on the chest and abdomen. The front shield, tarsi and tibiae are dark yellow or pale orange. The shells of the compound eyes of the cherry fly are bright green. The wings are wide and transparent with characteristic four dark transverse stripes on the surface.
Life cycle of a pest
Having become familiar with the stages of development of the cherry fly, it will be easier for the gardener to combat this pest. They can be briefly described as follows:
- Wintering. The cherry fly waits out the cold season in the form of a pupa, hidden in a false cocoon. Usually it goes deep into the surface layer of soil under the tree crowns by 5-7 cm.
- Departure. It begins after the soil warms up, approximately from mid-May, during the period when acacia begins to bloom. Adults (imagoes) emerge from the pupae. At first they are underdeveloped and require additional nutrition. During the first couple of weeks after emergence, cherry flies are “eaten off” by the sweet secretions of aphids and juices that form in the cracks of leaves and fruits.
- Mating and reproduction. Occurs in sunny, warm weather (18 degrees and above), usually in June and partly in July.The female cherry fly usually lays 1-2 eggs under the skin of ripening and already ripe fruits. Within a month, she is able to produce from 80 to 150 eggs, after which she dies.
- Larval development. After 6-10 days, a tiny white worm (about 0.5 mm long) appears from the egg. During 16-20 days spent in the berry, it grows to 6-7 mm, actively feeding on the pulp. The larva then leaves the wormy fruit, enters the soil and pupates.
- Pupation. After the larva moves and deepens into the ground, a false cocoon forms around it in a few hours. After 5-6 days, a pupa forms in it. To successfully complete development, the pupa needs low temperatures (less than 7 ° C), so the cherry fly overwinters in this form.
Then the cycle repeats again.
The pest larva feeds on the pulp of the berries and contaminates them with its excrement
Causes and signs of appearance
The cherry fly season begins in late spring and lasts throughout June, sometimes extending into early July. It is most active on sunny and warm days.
You can determine that a fruit tree has been attacked by this parasite by the following signs:
- on berries that are just beginning to ripen, black dots are clearly visible - traces of punctures of the skin by a female cherry fly that laid an egg;
- the presence of depressions and rotting areas on the surface of the fruit;
- the skin of a ripe wormy berry loses its glossy shine, darkens, and the flesh becomes soft to the touch;
- By cutting or breaking a cherry fruit, you can find a small white larva inside (usually near the pit).
The pulp of the affected berries softens and rots, turning into mush.
What is the danger of cherry flies appearing in the garden?
If, having discovered a cherry fly on a plot, the farmer does not actively fight it, its number will increase from year to year, as will the damage caused to the crop. The larvae of this pest pupate and overwinter in the soil, and next season they attack trees in even greater numbers. The parasite is especially active in the southern regions; it may happen that up to 90% of the collected berries turn out to be wormy.
How to deal with cherry fly
The sooner you managed to detect worms in cherries, the sooner you should try to get rid of the cause of their appearance. Every year it is necessary to pay attention to preventive measures. If the cherry fly does appear, but its numbers are small, you can start by using folk remedies.
How to get rid of cherry flies using folk remedies
The advantage of traditional methods of fighting cherry flies is that they are gentle and harmless to humans, animals and the environment. However, their effectiveness is significantly lower than that of chemical drugs.
Among the proven folk recipes against this parasite are:
- Pine decoction. To prepare it, you need to put a spruce or pine branch in a saucepan with cold water, bring to a boil and cool. After this, you can spray the trees with the decoction. After heavy rain, the treatment should be repeated.
- Wood ash solution. It works well against adults and larvae of the pest, and is also destructive for aphids, the secretions of which feed on the adults of the cherry fly. 1 shovel of ash should be stirred in a bucket of boiling water and boiled for 20 minutes. Next, strain the broth, add water to a volume of 10 liters and use it to treat the crowns.
- To effectively combat the cherry fly, it is also recommended to spray the affected trees with tobacco and soap infusion. It is prepared from 400 g of tobacco, which is poured into 10 liters of cold water and left for a day. After settling, the product is boiled for an hour. Immediately before use, add 40 g of grated laundry soap to the composition.
- The cherry fly senses odors extremely well, so in the fight against it, infusions and decoctions with a strong strong aroma are effective, repelling and disorienting adult individuals. You can use onion peels, chopped garlic cloves, nightshade and wormwood. The products are prepared in the same way as tobacco-soap infusion, only the main component is replaced.
Folk remedies help if there are few pests and the damage is minor
Using cherry fly traps
Homemade traps installed in the garden will help fight the cherry fly, preventing the cherry from becoming wormy. They come in two types:
- Traps with sweet bait. They can be made from halves of plastic bottles or empty cans. You should pour compote, juice, beer, kvass or sugar syrup inside and hang it on the branches. To protect one tree, 4–5 such traps will be enough. Cherry flies, attracted by the smell, become trapped and die. The gardener should periodically clean the traps of dead insects and pour a new portion of bait inside. They should be hung when the trees finish flowering.
- Glue traps. They are made from cut sheets of cardboard, bright yellow or red, which attracts cherry flies. A layer of special glue is applied on top of the sheets, which does not harden in air for a long time, and traps are carefully placed along the periphery of the tree crown. They are usually hung during the acacia flowering period, when adult cherry flies are actively looking for additional food.
An effective and simple remedy - glue and liquid traps
How to get rid of worms in cherries using chemicals
Modern science has developed a large list of chemical preparations for cherry flies that are effective against adults and larvae. The most commonly used:
- "Aktellik" (50%) – emulsion or powder for preparing a solution. Low toxicity for humans and domestic animals, but dangerous for bees and fish.
- "Calypso" in the form of a concentrate that must be diluted with water. Non-toxic to humans, animals, fish and bees.
- "Karate Zeon" in the form of microcapsules. When used correctly, it has low toxicity to humans.
- "Zolon" (35%) – concentrated emulsion. It is slightly toxic to humans, but highly toxic to bees and fish.
- "Fufanon-Nova" – water-based emulsion. It is necessary to work with this substance for no more than 3 hours in a row, using gloves and a respirator.
- "Spark Double Effect" – tablet drug. Does not harm people, pets, earthworms, bees or fish. Used to combat 60 types of harmful insects, including the cherry fly.
Table of the use of drugs against cherry flies
The features of the use of chemicals that help fight cherry flies can be most clearly presented in the form of a table:
Active substance | Name drug | Preparation of the solution | Application rate | Features of application |
Pirimiphos-methyl | Aktellik | 2 ml per 2 liters of water | 2.5 l per 1 tree | At least 20 days must pass between processing and picking berries. |
Thiacloprid | Calypso | 2 ml per 10 liters of water | 100 m2 garden | Do not spray the garden on a hot day, 2 hours before rain or immediately after it. |
Lambda-cyhalothrin | Karate Zeon | 4 ml per 10 liters of water | 100 m2 garden | Treat before flowering |
Fozalon | Zolon | 2 ml per 5 liters of water | 10 m2 garden | Spray in dry weather. Process twice per season |
Malathion | Fufanon-Nova | 11.5 ml per 1.5 liters of water | 2-5 l per 1 tree | Harvesting is possible 3 weeks after spraying the trees with the drug |
Cypermethrin, permethrin | Spark Double Effect | 1 tablet per 10 liters of water | 10 l for 1-5 trees | Treat during flowering period |
The video contains useful information about fighting cherry flies and preventing the appearance of wormy berries: https://youtu.be/54am8TpQ95c
Rules for combating cherry flies
Any measures to combat the cherry fly - both folk and biochemical - must be taken competently.It is necessary to take into account the time of year, current and expected weather in the near future, the phase of the growing season of the plant, the stage of the pest’s life cycle, and the degree of damage.
When working with chemicals, it is imperative to follow the instructions and adhere to the required safety measures.
When can you treat cherries for cherry flies?
Treatment of trees with insecticidal preparations is carried out if the cherry fly has attacked the garden en masse.
Cherries should be sprayed twice:
- at the very beginning of insect summer (during the flowering period of acacia);
- 10-14 days later, when the adults begin to lay eggs.
How to choose a cherry fly remedy depending on the lesion
As a rule, if the degree of damage to trees by the cherry fly is insignificant, gardeners prefer to use agrotechnical and folk remedies to combat this pest. If the threshold of harmfulness is exceeded (for every 100 cherries there are 1-2 wormy berries), then they get rid of the parasite using chemicals.
Trees of medium and late maturation are treated with insecticides. It is important that the day when the last spraying was carried out and the day of harvesting are separated by at least 20 days - during this time the toxic components of most drugs usually have time to decompose.
Security measures
You should work with chemical insecticides with extreme caution, not forgetting the main safety rules:
- When spraying the garden, you must protect your nose and mouth with a respirator, wear goggles over your eyes, and gloves on your hands;
- It is advisable to have special clothing intended only for working with chemicals, which after use must be ventilated and washed in a soap and soda solution;
- utensils used for preparing and storing medications must not be used for other purposes, nor should they be left in places accessible to children, near food or animal feed;
- It is prohibited to eat, drink or smoke directly during the treatment of the area;
- at the end of the procedures, you need to thoroughly wash your hands with soap and rinse your mouth;
- Do not allow children, pregnant or lactating women to work with insecticides.
When choosing a drug, they are guided by the threshold of harmfulness of the cherry fly (1-2 spoiled berries per 100 pieces)
Spraying cherries against cherry flies
Spraying the crowns of fruit trees with tinctures and decoctions prepared according to folk recipes, or with insecticidal preparations is one of the key measures to combat the cherry fly in the spring. Here are some tips to help you carry out this procedure correctly and safely:
- trees should be treated using a spray bottle in dry, windless weather, preferably in the evening or early morning;
- when spraying the crown, you should take into account the strength and direction of the wind, make sure that splashes of the product used do not fall on people, animals and crops growing nearby;
- It is necessary to treat not only the branches of “wormy” trees, but also the soil in the tree trunks;
- When using a chemical, you must adhere to the period specified in the instructions, which must pass from the last spraying to harvesting.
Features of processing during the fruiting period
It must be remembered that fruits from a tree previously treated with any preparations must be thoroughly washed before eating.
If the time for re-treatment with chemicals has been lost because harvest time is approaching, you can use biological products for spraying (Akarin or Fitoverm). The waiting period after using them is shorter.
It is necessary to harvest the crop completely and as quickly as possible, without dividing the procedure into several stages. Wormy cherries should never be left on the tree next to healthy ones. Having recognized them, it is imperative to collect and destroy them.
What to do with berries if the cherry is wormy
Active control of the cherry fly, seen in large numbers on the site, does not exclude the possibility that the cherry may already be worm-eaten.
Soft, wrinkled and tarnished fruits, of course, are unsuitable for food - they should only be destroyed. However, if there are few wormy berries in the total mass, they are still strong, dense and plump in appearance, and at first glance do not differ from healthy ones, then you can try to get rid of the larvae. To do this, pour 1 kg of cherries with cool water and table salt (2 tsp per 2 liters) and let stand for half an hour. Then the surfaced worms are removed and the berries are washed.
Fallen wormy fruits must be destroyed, in no case leaving them in the trunk circles under the trees. It is advisable to collect and burn them, or, as a last resort, keep them in a container filled with water, and then bury them in the ground at a great distance from the orchard.The depth of the pit must be at least 0.5 m.
It is impossible to bury wormy berries directly on the site, since cherry flies have every chance of overwintering in the soil and will begin to cause harm again next year.
Preventative measures against cherry flies
Fighting the cherry fly is a very difficult and time-consuming task. It is best to worry in advance about protecting the shrubs and trees susceptible to its attacks in order to prevent the appearance of wormy fruits.
An effective preventive measure is digging up tree trunks three times a year.
Preventive measures against cherry flies include:
- thorough digging and loosening of soil in tree trunk circles to a depth of 25-30 cm three times a year - in early spring, summer and autumn;
- planting marigolds, marigolds, lemon balm under berry trees - plants that help fight cherry aphids, which provide food for adult flies;
- quick and thorough collection of ripe berries, regular destruction of carrion and fallen leaves;
- covering the soil under trees with film or agrofibre during the period of emergence of adult flies and pupation of larvae;
- fight against other parasites and diseases of berry trees.
Conclusion
Methods for controlling the cherry fly, a very common and dangerous pest of stone fruit crops, must be selected depending on many factors. If there are few insects and the damage is insignificant, homemade traps and treating trees with folk remedies that are safe for humans and animals may be effective. However, in cases where the cherry fly infestation is widespread, only comprehensive measures to protect the garden, including agrotechnical measures and spraying with potent insecticides, can help.It is very important to follow safety rules when working with chemicals. Preventing cherry fly damage to fruit and berry crops will help prevent the spread of the pest and preserve the harvest.
