Sunday, 1 July 2012

Inside curly cherry leaves with their food

Yesterday we gave our cherry tree a light trim, removing shoot tips damaged by the black cherry aphid. The leaves curl up, sheltering hundreds of aphids (above). Inside the leaves, with their prey, there were hundreds of Harlequin larvae larvae, a few 2 spot larvae and with few adults of both species, a 10 spot ladybird and a few predatory hemipteran bugs.
A mirid bug Deraeocoris ruber (I think!)


10 spot ladybird, near a black cherry aphid

Fully grown Harlequin larvae

2 spot ladybird larvae

Two spot ladybird
An unusual 2 spot ladybird with 3 spots!

Posted by Africa Gomez at 21:39
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yessss!!! this bug is all over my cherry tree!! Ick!! Already tried an Ortho product for the base of the tree in the grass, and no help. what to do???

1 July 2013 at 18:48
Africa Gomez said...

I'd just clip the damaged shoots. Cherry trees need to be pruned at this time of the year anyway. They are quite tough and the aphids won't kill the tree or even damage the cherries. I wouldn't use pesticides in the garden, you have a whole army of aphid enemies on your side!

1 July 2013 at 19:20

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