Coniferous trees and shrubs are very popular plants. We are happy to plant them in our gardens. In addition to the needle-shedding larch, they keep their green robe throughout the year, which is their great advantage.Due to the variety of forms, the size and shades of green can fulfill many functions and are used in various garden arrangements.
Unfortunately, conifers have one big drawback: they are often attacked by pests. Some insects have developed a taste for and specialized in feeding even on certain species or types of conifers.
A very large group of voracious pests consists of various species of aphids, which feed on the sucked juice from plant tissues.Volcanoes are tiny aphids that feed in small groups on firs, spruces and larchs.
Galls are the feeding symptom of the spruce mantis
- structures similar to cones. They grow on young spruce shoots, and often also on fir, pine or Douglas fir. Juvenile forms of the pest live inside.In larch, the same aphid shelters under clumps of white fluff.
Foraging on the thuja, as well as junipers and cypresses, the thyme aphids secrete honeydew, also known as honey dew.It is an excellent medium for fungi.They cover the needles with a black coating that interferes with the breathing process and assimilation.
Cuplets and scales from the bugs order appear in the form of dark brown lumps firmly attached to the needles and shoots. Successive generations of pests develop under the shields. The needles of plants attacked by aphids and scales usually turn brown, dry up and fall off, and shoots do not grow.
Dangerous pests of conifers are some butterflies, e.g. the pine weevil moth, the dandelion moth, the red and pine moth, the common neck and the thuja leaf.
