Content
- A dangerous pest for the Solomon seal: the sawfly
- Recognize the Solomonssiegel sawfly
- Way of life and stages of development of the Solomonssiegel sawfly
- Protect the Solomon seal in the garden from the sawfly
- Tips
The caterpillars of the sawfly can cause considerable damage to the Solomon seal
A dangerous pest for the Solomon seal: the sawfly
The Solomon's seal is not only on many forest edges in nature a charming spring flowers, in some gardens, the poisonous ornamental plant is grown in shady locations. If on the leaves of the "fragrant white root" suddenly feeding damage to discover, then it is usually the caterpillars of the Solomon seal-sawfly blame.
Recognize the Solomonssiegel sawfly
The adult specimens of the Solomon seal-sawflies look relatively unimpressive and can sometimes be confused with flies because of their glossy black and smoke gray color. While these imagines do not cause direct damage to the plants, larval caterpillars present a danger, as they leave in part only rib-like scaffolds on the leaves of the true Solomon's seal. The caterpillars are bright gray-green or almost whitish colored, sometimes a little bluish with increasing size. The caterpillars are visually relatively easy to identify by:
Way of life and stages of development of the Solomonssiegel sawfly
The adult specimens of this leaf wasp hatch in spring and fly in the mating season from mid-April to mid-May to the host plants. The females subsequently lay their eggs in the stalks of the Solomon's Seal with a saw-toothed drill. After the hatching of the larvae at the end of May, the growth phase of the rapidly developing caterpillars usually only lasts about 2 to 3 weeks. Thereafter, the larvae pupate in a cocoon in a Erdhöhlung before the cycle begins again next spring. Since the Solomonssiegel sawfly is very locally true, damage occurs to the plants without taking countermeasures recurring.
Protect the Solomon seal in the garden from the sawfly
Often the responsible for feeding damage to the leaves caterpillars are not discovered the same, since they are in sunlight most of the time on the underside of the foliage. Generally speaking, you do not need to use chemical-based pesticides if you simply collect the caterpillars with gloves. If individual stems of your plant population show reddish discolouring, which indicates that eggs have been laid by the Solomonssiegel sawfly, the affected parts of the plant can be cut off promptly and burnt in a controlled manner.
Tips
If you notice only a few feeding spots on a larger stock of the Solomon seal (Polygonatum odoratum), then countermeasures are not mandatory. Although infested plants are weakened, they do not automatically die off. For insect-interested gardeners, observation of the Solomon's Seal sawflies and their special defensive strategy of "reflex bleeding" may be interesting.