Detect, fight and prevent pests

If there is an infestation with book printers, there is a risk of total failure

They are 4-5 mm long, have a brown body and nest in hosts under the bark. The bark beetle type of book printer (Ips typographus) has specialized in infesting spruce trees in order to multiply there explosively. Under high pressure of infestation, up to 25,000 beetles nest in your blue spruce, so that the tree is hopelessly lost.

Since there is currently a lack of effective control agents, you can only keep the small invaders away from your spruce if you take careful care of them. In a healthy tree, the sap flows so abundantly that the pests drown in it. You should therefore water regularly without causing waterlogging. Avoid high-nitrogen fertilization and damage to the roots and bark. Adhesive pheromone traps catch approaching book printers in the early stages of the infestation.

This is how you can recognize an infestation with the spruce gall louse

If your blue spruce is covered in small, pineapple-like galls in spring, the spruce gall louse (Sacchiphantes viridis) does its ominous work. The next generation of lice is growing up in the galls and sucking the juice out of the leaves. Under high pressure from the infestation, they change color Needles brown or the entire instinct dies. How to take action against the pests:

• Cut out the affected branches and destroy them
• Treat the blue spruce with an insecticide based on paraffin oil
• Check the pH value in the soil and adjust it to 6.5 to 7.5 if necessary

Mulching Regularly with withered lawn clippings, keep the spruce gall louse at a distance. One of the most effective methods of prevention is a rich population of beneficial insects in the garden. Lacewing, Parasitic wasps,(€ 69.90 at Amazon *) Ladybugs and birds of all kinds hunt the parasites with enthusiasm.