Fight moths in an environmentally friendly and effective way by using natural predators. Glue rings have a preventive effect and protect the environment.
The winter moth is a pest that not only affects fruit trees but also berry bushes and ornamental trees. The small winter moth is particularly dangerous. Although the winter moth also infests the plants, it causes significantly less damage.
An infestation with the winter moth becomes noticeable as soon as they sprout in spring. The green caterpillars, which are up to 2.5 centimeters long, gnaw on the young leaves, flowers and buds. Depending on the infestation, this can lead to defoliation within a short time. Even if the tree or shrub often sprout again in the course of the year, it is severely weakened by the loss of leaves. It is all the more important to take action against the caterpillars.
Fight Frost Moth
If you have noticed a pest infestation, you should regularly check your fruit and ornamental trees for caterpillars. If your trees were already affected last year, you can assume that they will also be affected in the current year. In this case you should take a closer look at the buds. Because this is where winter moths lay their eggs in autumn.
If you want to fight the winter moth naturally, you can attract natural enemies such as great tits or other songbirds. These eat several hundred caterpillars a day. With a nest box in the tree, you can even kill the caterpillars before they hatch.
Another possibility to take action against the caterpillars of the winter moth without chemicals,
is the use of pesticides based on Bacillus thuringiensis. This is a stomach poison that kills the caterpillars quickly and does not damage the wood.
Prevent Frost Moth
With the onset of the first night frosts in autumn, winter moths hatch from their hiding places in the ground, where they pupated in summer. While males have wings, females have stunted wings. So they are unable to fly and have to climb up the trees to get into the crowns. Here males lure you with pheromones and after mating lays an average of 200 to 300 eggs from whichthe caterpillars hatch in the spring.
To prevent this from happening in the first place, glue rings can be attached tightly around the trunk until the end of September. This is where the female winter moths get caught and cannot crawl into the treetops to lay their eggs. This is a particularly environmentally friendly and effective method.
Tip: For better effectiveness, you should replace the glue rings with new ones from time to time and remove them completely in December. Otherwise it could happen that the female winter moths lay their eggs on the tree trunk.
You can also easily make such glue rings yourself. To do this, cut out strips of paper or plastic strips about ten centimeters wide. Then coat them with a tough, non-drying adhesive. You can also get special caterpillar glue for this in stores.