As if covered by a veil Some bird cherries look like spooky ghost trees between April and June. Most likely the so-called web moth was at work here. This is what you should know about her.
What is the bird cherry moth and how do you deal with it?
The spider moth is a moth that prefers to attack the bird cherry. The caterpillars eat the leaves bare and spin silvery threads around the tree. However, the tree will sprout again later and can be protected by natural enemies of the moth or by manual collection.
The picky nature of the web moth
The web moth is a moth from the web and bud moth family. It has silvery-white forewings and gray-brown hindwings. In addition to their silvery color, web moths can be easily recognized by their black spots.
But what is so bad about this little animal for some gardeners? The larvae of the web moth feed primarily and preferably on the common bird cherry. They are picky, specialize in bird cherry and only rarely attack cherries and other fruit trees.
What does the spider moth do to the bird cherry?
The female spider moths lay their eggs on the winter buds of the bird cherry after mating between late summer and autumn. The caterpillars hatched from the eggs overwinter under the bud scales.
In spring they wake up and eat the buds or freshly sprouted leaves, which are poisonous to us humans. This is usually the case until the end of May/beginning of June.
And then?
- the caterpillars spin around the entire tree to protect themselves from predators and rain
- the tree looks like a ghost tree or covered in silvery cobwebs
- the caterpillars pupate in communal webs (usually on the trunk)
- they hatch in July and become moths
A pest that should be destroyed?
Don't worry, the caterpillars eat the bird cherry bare, but the plant will sprout again. This is the so-called St. John's shoot. By mid-summer at the latest, the bird cherry no longer looks bare.
You can tackle the web moth. But chemical clubs are less recommended for environmental reasons. On the other hand, there are around 80 different insects that eat the web moths and prevent them from spreading. These include, among others, predatory bugs and parasitic wasps.
Tips & Tricks
Another method that is in your own hands is to collect the animals from the bird cherry wood in good time if they are infested.
