Coniferous trees in the garden can be threatened if they are attacked by a pine sawfly, the fight with which can be quite lengthy because of the extended life cycle of these insects.
Who is the pine sawfly?
Among the numerous pests of coniferous trees, this is impossible not to notice, despite the small size. If the tree suddenly began to lose needles, bald patches formed on the tops, you should carefully look at it - most likely you will see a mass accumulation of small caterpillars, whose size does not exceed two and a half centimeters.
A distinctive feature of the sawflies is a black shiny head, and the color of the body depends on the species of the insect. They are ordinary, red, less common in our eastern and pale yellow. According to the classification, the color may differ, but this does not affect its recognizability - so are the lesions left by the sawfly on the trees.
How to deal with pine sawfly?
The most common measures to combat pine sawfly are biological methods. These include the planting of flowering plants near the pine to attract insects feeding on the sawfly larvae, the purchase of larvae of flies-riders in specialized shops that destroy caterpillars.
In addition, if you do not know how to get rid of pine sawfly, you can arrange for feeding troughs for small birds on trees. They will gladly move to where they are fed, and caterpillars will become a delicacy for them. If the pines are still small, you can try to collect insects manually, pre-dressing gloves, as the sawfly produces a substance that causes an allergic reaction in humans.
When all measures are in vain, and the population of pests is growing, then to get rid of the pine sawfly tracks, you can use aggressive chemistry - drugs for spraying "Aktellik", "Confidor", "Arrivo" or biological means "Bitoxybacillin", "Lepidobaktocide" and "Lepidocide" ".