Control Measures For Kidney Mites On Currants. Description. How To Process? How To Get Rid Of? Facilities. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

Black currant grows and bears fruit in every summer cottage. Its beneficial properties are undeniable. But, like other horticultural crops, it is susceptible to damage by various pests, including the kidney currant mite. This article describes different ways to protect the berry from the attack of a pest and measures to combat it.

Kidney currant mite

The kidney currant mite is a four-legged mite. Due to their microscopic size, it is extremely difficult to see them. The external dimensions of adult female kidney mites are 0.2 mm, and males are even smaller. The body of the kidney currant mite is white, worm-like, elongated-rounded, with 4 legs. The legs are made up of segments, hence the name arthropods. With the help of a piercing-sucking mouth apparatus, mites suck out the sap of plants, dooming them to death.

Development cycle of kidney currant mite

Fertilized female kidney currant mites overwinter in the kidneys. A closed shelter protects them from winter frosts and other weather disasters.

In spring, when the air warms up to + 5 ° C, the female kidney currant mite begins to lay eggs vigorously. One female can lay about 8,000 eggs. One kidney can simultaneously contain 3-8 thousand individuals, which makes the kidney swell and look like a miniature pea. In the context, such a pea resembles a bursting head of cabbage.

Intra-egg development of the larva of the kidney currant mite lasts about 6-12 days. Gluttonous young individuals, through tears of the "head of cabbage" during the budding period, penetrate into healthy buds and start feeding. Sucking out the juice of young shoots, flower and vegetative buds, they lead to the death of not yet unfolded plant organs. The migration of young females and larvae of the bud currant mite lasts about a month, coinciding with the beginning and mass flowering phase. During this period, they can be seen with the naked eye. The horde of gluttonous pests is carried to other bushes by wind, clothing, rain.

How dangerous is a kidney currant mite?

According to the level of harmfulness, the kidney currant mite belongs to the group of very dangerous pests of garden and berry fruit-bearing crops. In one year, 1 female kidney currant tick gives 5 generations (2 spring and 3 summer-autumn), which is about 15-40 thousand pests. In the process of development, bud currant mites have adapted to endure climatic disasters in protected conditions (buds, shoots, galls, etc.), which complicates the fight against these pests. The developed adaptability is so reliable that if you do not take cardinal protective measures, the berry (black, red, white currant and gooseberry) can die in one season.

Signs of kidney currant mite damage

The kidney currant mite affects mainly the buds of the plant. By autumn, deformed, damaged kidneys increase in size and begin to differ in appearance from healthy ones.

On the currant bushes affected by the bud currant mite in the fall after the leaves have fallen, two types of buds are well distinguished:

• Healthy buds, normally developed floral, roundly elongated and elongated leafy buds, covered with dense outer scales.
• Patients are swollen, round, reminiscent of a tousled miniature cabbage head. They are inflated by a huge number of wintering sexually mature tick females, which are ready for breeding with the onset of warm weather.

In the spring and summer:

• alarming is the change in the shape, size and color of leaves on the tops of young shoots.
• The leaf blade becomes rough, leathery to the touch, light in color, and may be deformed.
• The shoot stops developing. Witch brooms appear on the stems. This is a viral infection of plants, the carriers of which, along with other pests, are kidney mites. They are carriers of viral diseases such as leaf reversal and double flowers. There is no cure. Diseased plants are destroyed.

Control measures for kidney currant mite

It is very difficult to fight the kidney currant mite, which spends almost its entire life inside the kidney. The maximum number of vulnerable larvae could be destroyed by treatment with pesticides during their resettlement. But, given the period of resettlement (budding and flowering), treatments are strictly prohibited, since at this moment pollination by beneficial insects (bees, bumblebees) is taking place. Therefore, kidney currant mites are classified as especially dangerous pests. The methods of active destruction of the bud currant mite are carried out in the period before flowering and after the harvest.

All types of control of kidney currant mites on currants can be divided into:

• preventive;
• agrotechnical;
• chemical;
• biological;
• folk.

Tick-borne prevention

Preventive measures against kidney currant mite include:

• maintaining the site without weeds;
• cleaning the berry from leaf litter;
• mandatory sanitary pruning in autumn and spring;
• reproduction only with healthy planting material.

Agrotechnical measures

Timely watering, fertilizing and processing of plants, which will increase the immunity of plants to the damaging effects of pests.

For planting and reproduction, use only zoned, pest-resistant varieties.

It is very important that the planting material is not affected by the pest. To prevent infection, a seedling or a rooted stalk can be completely dipped in a working solution prepared from agrovertin (10 g) and colloidal sulfur (40 g) in 10 liters of water for 18-20 hours.

Before planting, seedlings and rooted shoots can be held in hot water (+40.. + 45 ° С no more) for 15 minutes;

Larvae of kidney currant mites do not tolerate high air humidity. This property can be used and, at the first resettlement of hatched larvae (first spring generation), irrigate the berry.

Every year, in early spring (early March), fire the currant bushes with black, red and white (only currants) by dormant buds

Procedure: After the sanitary and thinning pruning of currant bushes, use the fire of a blowtorch or a gas burner at a distance of 8-10 cm to run along the branches 2-3 times from top to bottom, without stopping so as not to burn the branches. Heating it with fire will kill aphids and most of the bud mites without damaging the plant. The fire will not damage healthy buds, which are covered with dense upper scales. Diseased kidneys are loose, the cover is torn by overpopulation of the kidney by pests that lay eggs for future offspring. They are very vulnerable during this period and the fire (high temperature) burns and causes the death of unwanted tenants. Of course, not all females die with this method, but their activity is sharply reduced.

In the same period, instead of fire treatment, currant bushes can be "redeemed" with a hot shower, spending 1.0-1.2 buckets of water on a large bush

Procedure: For treating bushes, it is more convenient to use a sprinkler with a sprinkler. Pour boiling water into a container. We wash the bush above the bush from about 15-20 cm. At low air temperatures, hot boiling water, when filling the sprinkler and until the water reaches the bush, will cool down to +60.. + 70 ° С. This temperature will not harm the plant, but it will destroy some of the pests (the principle of action is the same as with fire treatment) and fungal infection.

Physical destruction of the kidney currant mite

When pruning in spring, each currant branch must be carefully examined. If there are 1-2 swollen buds on a branch, they are cut off and put into a bag, which is then burned. If the number of swollen buds is 4-6, and they are scattered throughout the branch, it must be cut off and burned. Such physical destruction of the kidney currant mite is effective, especially if this procedure is performed annually in spring and autumn.

The use of chemicals and other drugs to destroy the kidney currant mite

The following methods of killing the kidney currant mite are not safe for the owner, his family, domestic animals and birds. Therefore, before starting to use pesticides for the destruction of a tick, it is necessary to carefully prepare, study the action and aftereffect of the chemical, its effectiveness, repeated use and technical recommendations for implementation according to special literature.

Frequency of treatments

If the requirements of the instructions for use of the drug are violated, its effectiveness can be reduced to zero.

The development cycle of a kidney currant mite depends on external temperatures. The first active development of the larvae of the kidney currant mite begins at an air temperature of +10.. + 12 ° С, but their release and resettlement may occur in 25 days, until the air warms up to + 18 ° С. The higher the air temperature rises, the shorter the period of development from the egg of the carnivorous larva, which will infect new buds on the native and neighboring bushes (Table 1).

Table 1. Intervals of treatments with drugs against kidney currant mite

Air temperature, ° С	Development period, days	Treatment interval, days
+12.. + 18	25-30	8-12
+20	20	ten
+25	ten	five
+30	6	3

The number of treatments in the temperature range must be at least three:

• the first treatment destroys overwintered adult female kidney currant mites and hatched larvae (resistant to cold). Some of the eggs do not have time to go through the development cycle;
• with the onset of heat, the second wave of larvae ends the development cycle. If the interval of treatments is not kept up (late with the treatment of the bushes), the larvae have time to turn into adult ticks and lay a second clutch of eggs.
• the third treatment is belay. Surviving young female kidney currant mites can lay eggs, which will give a new outbreak of infection of the bushes.

It is especially important to record the first migration of the larvae of the kidney currant mite. During this period they can be seen with the naked eye. After processing the bushes, further monitor the temperature and observe the processing interval. For example: the temperature is maintained in the range of + 20..25 ° C - the treatment interval is 8-10 days.

Use of pesticides against kidney currant mites

"Lovers" of quick measures, you can offer several chemicals for plant treatment.

Ticks are arachnids, so they are destroyed not with insecticidal drugs, but with acaricidal and insectoacaricidal drugs.

Please note! The use of chemicals, if used incorrectly, can be harmful to health. Therefore it is necessary:

• observe personal safety measures (gloves, goggles, headwear, respirator or multilayer bandage, dressing gown);
• strictly follow the requirements of the instructions;
• preparations for spring and autumn use are recommended to alternate so as not to cause an addictive effect.

The most vulnerable period for kidney currant mites is the relocation of larvae to new places. In the phase of budding and leaf blooming, the first wave of hatched larvae of the bud currant mite enters the open space.

Moving to new territories takes 2-3 weeks. It is during this period that at least 2 sprays should be carried out with an interval of 8-12 days.

Of the pesticides against the kidney currant mite during this period, acaricidal preparations are used:

• Endidor;
• Forbid 4F;
• Nissoran;
• Vertimek;
• Aktelik;
• Contos.

The next period of using pesticides against the kidney currant mite is the treatment of the bushes after the harvest is complete (so that the children do not eat such delicious last berries from the bushes). It is recommended at this moment to use acaricidal preparations with a stronger effect:

• BI-58;
• Rogor-S;
• Phosphamide;
• Sun Mayt;
• Nitrafen.

Processing of currants with sulfur preparations

Of the sulfur preparations against kidney currant mites, colloidal sulfur (Sulfaride), karbofos are used. They can process bushes and soil around until the end of flowering. A solution of colloidal sulfur is prepared at the rate of 10 g of the drug, and karbofos 75 g per 10 l of water. Sulfur is far from a harmless drug and, at the dosage used, it can cause burns of young leaves and their litter. Therefore, re-spraying (after flowering) is carried out with a solution of 2 times less concentration. The highest efficiency from the treatment of currant bushes with solutions of colloidal sulfur is manifested at temperatures not lower than + 20 ° C.

Currants form a crop in a short time, and the effect of the drug can last a long time. Therefore, chemical preparations are used once, only in the phase of bud extension and the beginning of mass budding. Further use of pesticides is prohibited. A transition to the use of more gentle means for human health in the destruction of pests is necessary.

Use of biologics against kidney currant mite

Bioacaricides can serve as such agents. They are developed on the basis of positive strains of fungi and bacteria and are harmless to humans. Along with a large list of positive properties of bioacaricides and bioinsectoacaricides, there are also limitations in their use. The main thing is that the drug is effective at elevated temperatures (+15.. + 19 ° C). In windy cold weather, which often happens in early spring, they are useless. If spring is early, characterized by high temperatures, the use of acaricidal preparations is highly effective.

The most famous bioacaricides are:

• bicol;
• boverin;
• bitoxibacillin;
• phyto-farm;
• acarin.

The preparations are used at intervals depending on the ambient temperature, until the end of flowering and after harvesting. The drugs must be alternated. They are well compatible in tank mixes with biofungicides. However, before preparing the tank mix, it is necessary to check the compatibility of the preparations, especially the new ones. Dilution and processing methods are indicated on the package. Do not deviate from the recommendations, independence will not bring success.

Using folk recipes against kidney currant mites

Some experienced gardeners against the kidney currant mite recommend treating plants with infusion in cold spring before the possibility of using bioacaricidal preparations:

• garlic;
• onion peel;
• tobacco;
• green covers of walnuts or winter infusion of their fallen leaves.

You can plant berry bushes with garlic or perennial onions. Ticks smell disgusting. They lose the ability to reproduce. But when using chemicals for treating bushes, garlic and onions are not recommended for use in food.

Using herbal medicines in pest control is not a panacea. For a while, they can slow down the reproduction of the pest, but not destroy it.

Protect the environment

The oldest way to destroy pests was invented by nature itself. Each pest has natural enemies, entomophages, that effectively reduce the number of plant pests. Be attentive to small workers of orchards and berry fields. When using chemicals, remember that you are also destroying useful fauna.

Ticks are effectively destroyed by beneficial insects:

• ladybug (stethorans);
• carnivorous bug;
• carnivorous tick;
• lacewing;
• chalcids (parasitic insects);
• phytoseiulus;
• encarsia
• hover fly and others.

More details about herbivorous mites can be found in the article "Ticks - herbivorous garden pests".

Dear Readers! You have familiarized yourself with the main methods for the destruction of the kidney currant mite, which causes significant harm to berry crops. Not all methods are harmless to humans, animals, beneficial insects. Before using any of the drugs suggested in the article or purchased, carefully read its action and decide whether its use is right for you. The choice is yours. Offer us your ways to protect berries from this and other pests in the comments to this material.