What diseases and pests cause spider webs?

If you see gray-yellow caterpillars in a thick, massive, dense web, you have codling moth.
If you notice a white, dense web all over the tree, it is an apple worm. Its larvae suck the juices out of the plant, and then secrete a sticky substance that glues the buds, foliage, and buds together, resulting in the formation of a sooty fungus, which we see as a white cobweb.

If you find clearly visible cocoons on apple trees, you will understand that the trees have been infected by hawthorn. These are small caterpillars that curl up and overwinter in cocoons.

But when a spider mite appears, you will see a web in the form of transparent cloudy films with many black very small dots - these are eggs.

Why do cobwebs appear on an apple tree in summer?

Very rarely, spider mites can be found on very young seedlings. But most often, various moths entangle our apple trees in a web: ermine fruit moth, hawthorn circle moth, case-bearing moth, etc. Around June and July, up to 300 eggs can be found in the rainbow-brown egg mass of the fruit moth caterpillar. Because these caterpillars only produce one generation per year, the eggs will not hatch until the following spring. And by the way, on the lower branches it is enough to simply remove this “bag” and throw it into the fire.

Cocoon moths and silkworms severely damage fruit trees.

Nest of ermine moth caterpillars

Pest varieties

There are many types of this pest and we will give a description of the most common of them, and also show what a spider mite looks like on an apple tree: photos are given below.

Red fruit mite

Polyphagous, up to 0.4 mm long, so they can only be identified with a magnifying glass. The body of the tick is oval-shaped, reddish in color. Externally, red fruit mite damage appears as light yellow spots along the veins on the leaves, which then darken and die.

Red fruit mite.

Brown fruit mite

Adult insects are up to 0.6 mm long, the body is flat, brown in color. They suck out the juice from both the buds and the leaves, which is why they acquire a reddish or dirty gray tint, dry out and fall off. Mite larvae molt, leaving silvery marks from their skins on the bark in the moulting areas.

Gall mite

It lives secretly, inside the tissues of leaves and buds, has an even smaller size of up to 0.25 mm, the body is elongated, white, oval, tapering at the back. Galls are formed on the surfaces of the leaves - spherical swellings of yellow or dark brown color. Due to damage by gall mites, the leaves turn black, dry out and die.

Gall mite and leaf damaged by it.

Kidney mite

The most dangerous mite that destroys young shoots. A diseased bud cannot grow and either does not produce shoots or produces diseased ones. The main sign of damage by these insects is large deformed buds.

Schlechtendahl tick

A less common pest of apple trees. It is 0.2 mm long and yellow-brown in color. The females of this tick species are very fertile and can lay up to 2 million eggs in their lifetime. Due to the active feeding of insects, photosynthesis processes stop and leaves fall off.

What to do if you see red bugs?

Possibly a red spider mite . Females are 0.5 mm long and have a purple tint, bright scarlet males are even smaller - 0.3 mm.

The appearance of a tick can be noticed:

• If there are cream, scarlet or silver spots on the leaves.
• On the back of the leaves there are slightly noticeable white spots - these are mite larvae.
• If a small cobweb appears on the leaves of the apple tree.

To kill insects, spray the apple tree with bicol and verticillin.

Mechanical methods

Try collecting cobwebs and caterpillars with your hands. Do this early in the morning, in spring, when the browned young leaves appear. Remove the webs so that the caterpillars remain inside the nests. After eliminating dwellings with insects, burn them immediately.

Using a catch belt against pests

An effective method of control is the use of catching belts, which can be dry, sticky, and poisonous. Read the instructions for making them:

• Sticky - take paper 30 cm wide, attach it to the trunk at a height of about 1 m from the ground, coat it with special glue, tar or resin. To prevent insects from hiding under the bark, carefully coat all cracks with clay in advance. Once a large number of parasites have been collected, remove and burn the belt and attach a new one if necessary.
• Poisonous - buy a special product for killing insects, making sticky traps, generously coat burlap or thick paper 30 cm wide with it, attach it to a tree according to the above instructions.
• Dry - considered the easiest to create. You can make a funnel from thick paper or cardboard: roll a cone of material around the perimeter, secure the top tightly to form a “skirt”; if necessary, coat the attachment point with clay.

If there are caterpillars in the web (black, gray, green)?

• If you find almost black caterpillars in the web, with bluish stripes on the back, this is a ringed silkworm . They sit motionless all day, and at night they feed heavily on leaves and flowers.

To repel caterpillars, use tinctures of wormwood or milkweed, spraying apple trees before the buds open. You can use “Lepidocid” and “Bitoxibacillin”, but they can only be used at temperatures above +15°C.

• Let's say you notice green caterpillars on a tree in a web; these are winter moths . Each caterpillar has one dark and 3 light stripes on its sides. These caterpillars crawl inside the buds and eat them, and in later spring they feed on foliage and flowers. To catch caterpillars in the fall, put fishing belts on the trunks.
• If you see gray caterpillars in a web that are covered with hairs coming from tufts, these are gypsy moths . They are easily carried by the wind from tree to tree.

Advice. In the spring, carefully examine all the trunks; if you see masonry, scrape them off with a knife and treat them with kerosene.

Chemicals

The drug fufanon

How to treat an apple orchard for cobwebs

Answering the question of what to do if cobwebs appear on the branches of apple trees, it should be noted that there are many effective ways to combat cobwebs in the garden. These are folk remedies used in the initial stages of infection, and complex industrial insecticides that help defeat pests in case of serious damage to the garden. Of course, each gardener decides for himself how to deal with the scourge.

Folk remedies

Folk remedies involve the use of decoctions of medicinal herbs (celandine, yarrow, dandelion, tansy) for spraying fruit trees.

Important: such products can be used every 4 weeks, the main thing is to alternate them, since pests quickly get used to them.

In addition, the plantings are sprayed with infusion of shag or onion peels. Effectively, to combat caterpillars, use a mixture of wood ash and laundry soap.

Chemicals

When choosing how to treat apple trees against pests, you should prefer complex agents that are effective against most insects. For example: Fufanon, Karbofos, Tanrek, Fitoverm. Today, biological preparations that protect against pests have appeared; they are safe and effective in use.

See also

Characteristics and description of the Ural Souvenir apple tree variety, cultivation and careRead

Bitoxibacillin

The drug is harmless to people and insects, but destroys most garden pests (adults and larvae). Use in strict accordance with the instructions.

Bicol

The biological product, classified as a bacteriological plant protection product, is effective against a huge number of garden pests (about 80) and is safe for humans.

Endobacterin

An effective product suitable for controlling most types of caterpillars and other pests of garden trees. More effective in warm weather conditions. For caterpillars and butterflies, 2 treatments are carried out with an interval of 7-10 days.

Spraying with biological preparations

Produced in warm, dry weather, in strict accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. To avoid an allergic reaction, you should wear safety glasses, gloves, and respiratory protection.

Mechanical method of combating apple moth

Methods of mechanical control of apple moth include:

• birdhouses that destroy garden pests;
• pheromone traps that lure males, preventing them from fertilizing females;
• catching belts.

Some species of wasps destroy apple moth caterpillars by laying their eggs in them.

Agrotechnical techniques

They include timely getting rid of weeds, digging up the root circle of apple trees, whitewashing the trunks and, if necessary, treating the trees with garden varnish. Timely pruning of trees also helps reduce the likelihood of pests spreading.

Apple (ermine) moth

Since this pest also flies, it can appear anytime and anywhere. Its caterpillars create a thick, dense and quite strong web, like that of a silkworm, inside which the insect goes through the “pupa” stage, so that later, when it comes out, it begins to actively spread throughout gardens and flower beds, causing devastation. Such cocoons with caterpillars can be either “for one person” or “mass dormitories”.

What to do if there are spider mites in the leaves?

In addition to the red spider mite, there are many types of mites of different colors. Ticks drink the sap, so by July half of the leaves have fallen from the tree.

You can spray the apple tree with tobacco infusion. Pour 1 kg of tobacco dust into a container and pour in a bucket of water.

Then strain and pour in another 10 liters. Then add 50 g of grated laundry soap so that the solution sticks to the surface of the leaves. Apply the composition 2 times at intervals of a week.

Dry 1 kg of chamomile flowers, pour into a bucket of water and leave for 10 hours. Then strain and spray with the composition 2 times again at intervals of a week. If there are a lot of flares, then you will have to use chemicals.

Important! Nitrofen is also used, but this is a very strong poison; it cannot be used closer than 200 m from a living space. But spider mites can be killed with bioinsecticides; they are the safest to use compared to chemicals, these are bitoxybacillin and bicol.

We must not forget about prevention: collect fallen leaves, cut off branches, burn them, clean off old bark with metal brushes and burn it.

Sapwood and bark beetle: harmful beetles

There are several types of these pests that appear after the apple tree blooms.

Sapwood is a shiny black bug that feeds on tree bark and causes great damage. Without proper treatment, the apple tree will simply die.

Beetle larvae overwinter in cracks in the bark and trunk, and in early spring they feed on tree sap, gnaw holes and come out. Females give birth to large offspring and do not die for a long time.

Important! If bark beetles appear on an apple tree, then the entire garden must be repeatedly treated for fungal diseases. To get rid of pests, clean your garden thoroughly in the fall.

In early spring, pour boiling water over the tree to kill all pests. In winter, dig up the tree trunk when stable frosty weather sets in

To get rid of pests, clean your garden thoroughly in the fall. In early spring, pour boiling water over the tree to kill all pests. In winter, dig up the tree trunk circle when stable frosty weather sets in.

Wounds and cracks in the bark are cleaned and treated with 1% copper sulfate, after which they are carefully sealed. This is the most effective remedy against diseases and pests.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that a tree is rarely affected by one type of pest, so complex preparations offer protection in several directions at once. Carefully monitor the condition of the apple trees in order to take timely measures to combat pests.

A cobweb on an apple tree is a sign that the tree has been taken over by a pest. Spiders, of course, also weave webs on trees, but the thick and dense ones are usually left by insects that feed on the leaves, flowers and buds of the tree. If you do not deal with them in time, the tree may die.

Folk remedies

• Grate a piece of laundry soap , add water and add ash. Soap forms a white film on the leaves, making it difficult for aphids to bite through the leaves, and the ash makes the leaves taste unpleasant.
• Collect 1 kg of nettle , place in warm water, spray the apple tree with this mixture.
• 1 kg of shag into a bucket of hot water. You can boil for 10-15 minutes, then let the mixture sit for 3 days, then strain the infusion and pour in 2 more buckets of water. Then spray the trees.
• Finely chop 200 g of onion and 200 g of onion peel , add a bucket of warm water. Leave for 6 days. Then strain and spray. Do this no more than 3 times in 6 months. This composition will protect the apple tree from aphids, spider mites, and leaf rollers.

Important! Prevention measures:

• do not forget to pull out the weeds;
• cut off the root shoots;
• do not plant cruciferous vegetables and flowers near apple trees;
• feed the apple trees. Read more about fertilizing apple trees and their timing here;
• ladybugs eat aphids, to attract them plant: parsley, caraway seeds, dill;
• prune apple trees before the growing season;
• treat wounds on trees;
• fill up the hollows.

Consequences of spider mite infestation of apple trees

The difficulty of controlling the pest is that at the early stage of damage to apple trees, this insect is practically undetectable. It reproduces incredibly quickly. A week after laying the eggs, a full-fledged insect is already formed, ready to continue its genus.

Such rapid reproduction of the negligible apple mite leads to the fact that in a short period of time half of the leaves from the apple trees fall off. This, of course, happens if the gardener has abandoned his plot to the mercy of fate or does not have the opportunity to care for it.

The presence of spider mites on apple trees sharply reduces the trees' immunity, and as a result, they begin to get sick. Most often, fungal infections occur under the influence of pests.

If ticks are rampant in the garden, then you can’t even dream of a good harvest of apples.

Processing times

To protect the apple tree from spider mites and other pests, there is an established order in which spraying should be carried out during the growing season.

Before the buds open

The first spring treatment is carried out to destroy ticks and other insects that have overwintered on the apple tree.

Before the buds open in March, at temperatures not lower than 5 ºC, you can spray the trees with a solution of copper or iron sulfate. Also treat the soil around the apple tree with this solution, because many pests also overwinter in it.

After bud break

The next spraying should be carried out after the buds open and before flowering begins (in May). Treatment can be carried out with any of the insecticides or acaricides mentioned above.

During flowering

Spraying during flowering is undesirable. Chemical exposure during this period can negatively affect the harvest and cause the death of bees and other beneficial insects.

Spraying should be carried out only as a last resort, if you were unable to treat the trees against mites before flowering, and their numbers pose a threat to the apple tree.

During fruiting

The next treatment should be carried out at the beginning of fruit growth (June). The same insecticides should not be used several times in a row.

ATTENTION! You cannot spray apple trees while the fruits are ripening; the last treatment with chemicals should be carried out on average a month before harvest!

Damaged fruits and branches are removed and burned.

Final processing

The last treatment is carried out after harvesting and before the leaves fall with insecticides, copper sulfate or urea, to destroy mites that have remained through the winter.

Attracting birds and insects to the garden that destroy aphids

Some small birds feed on aphids. These are sparrows, tits, morning robins, linnets and some others. In order for them to settle in the garden, in winter and early spring they need to be attracted by feeders and birdhouses. And with the onset of spring warmth, it will take care of not only food, but also water. In European countries, elegant birdbaths are sold that look like sculptural fountains in the garden.

Photo 6. Bird drinkers are best placed next to feeders and birdhouses.

In addition to birds, gardeners have other helpers - these are beneficial insects that eat aphids:

• Ladybugs,
• ground beetles,
• hoverflies,
• earwigs,
• Riders,
• Lacewings,
• Some types of wasps
• Flies are surfids.

To make them appear in the garden, plants are planted whose smell they like - carrots, parsley, celery, lovage, dill.

A good solution is to provide them with wintering in special houses where they can hide from the cold. They are easy to build from scrap materials - scraps of boards, fragments of bricks, tiles, straw, reeds, etc.

Photo 7. A house for beneficial insects made from wood scraps.