Cherry tree and insects
 

Hi there,
last winter I bought three minarette fruit trees - cherry, plum, and apple.
They are all in pots at present; the apple and plum are outside, and the
cherry is currently in the greenhouse as we had a cold snap when it was
flowering.
When I was watering the greenhouse this evening I noticed a lot of insects
on the underside of the cherry trees leaves. They could be weevils from
their body shape, but I'm no expert and don't have a magnifying glass. From
the pictures I've taken it would appear that there are different stages of
the life cycle present. I have put a smallish picture (52k) up at
http://chickenhouse4.tripod.com/smaller.jpg and a larger picture up at
http://chickenhouse4.tripod.com/fullsize.jpg (beware - this is 470k!). I
don't think that the insects were present before today.
The greenhouse is new this year. In fact, the whole garden is new as it's a
new house. I've been using a peat free compost in the pots in the greenhouse
but don't know if the "weevils" are from that. I did have a plague of flies
in the greenhouse recently, although they've all moved on or been eaten by
my sundew.
Any idea what the insects are and, if they're "baddies", what I should do
about them?
The other two trees are OK and none of the other greenhouse plants
(chillies, tomatoes and a courgette plus assorted seedlings) appear so far
to be unaffected.
All help appreciated.
cheers
dan

Dan Welch wrote:

Hi there,
last winter I bought three minarette fruit trees - cherry, plum, and apple.
They are all in pots at present; the apple and plum are outside, and the
cherry is currently in the greenhouse as we had a cold snap when it was
flowering.
When I was watering the greenhouse this evening I noticed a lot of insects
on the underside of the cherry trees leaves. They could be weevils from
their body shape, but I'm no expert and don't have a magnifying glass. From
the pictures I've taken it would appear that there are different stages of
the life cycle present. I have put a smallish picture (52k) up at
http://chickenhouse4.tripod.com/smaller.jpg and a larger picture up at
http://chickenhouse4.tripod.com/fullsize.jpg (beware - this is 470k!). I
don't think that the insects were present before today.
The greenhouse is new this year. In fact, the whole garden is new as it's a
new house. I've been using a peat free compost in the pots in the greenhouse
but don't know if the "weevils" are from that. I did have a plague of flies
in the greenhouse recently, although they've all moved on or been eaten by
my sundew.
Any idea what the insects are and, if they're "baddies", what I should do
about them?
The other two trees are OK and none of the other greenhouse plants
(chillies, tomatoes and a courgette plus assorted seedlings) appear so far
to be unaffected.
All help appreciated.
cheers
dan


I have a sweet cherry, the only insects that attack it are black fly.
If I don't keep a look out they ruin the ends of all branches. I treat
them with washing-up liquid.