Natural natural enemies of the forest, like any living organism, are pests and diseases, which the forest successfully copes with if its growing conditions are not disturbed.
      Such a formidable pest as the gypsy moth periodically appears where plantings have been weakened in the past by intensive logging, fires or excessive grazing. Such areas in Crimea are the southern and southeastern slopes of the mountains with their harsh forest conditions.
      In the mid-80s of the last century, the gypsy moth outbreak spread over an area of ​​50 thousand hectares, 8 helicopters and 2 airplanes were simultaneously lifted into the air, naturally, the outbreak was localized and eliminated.
      The role of forests in Crimea is invaluable; mountain forests perform important water and soil protection functions, and this is their main purpose in the life of the peninsula. The forest ensures the ecological balance of all natural processes and forms the unique climate for which the South Coast is so famous.
      In the recent past, our region was called the “All-Union Health Resort”, attracted, and still attracts thousands of tourists, including from far abroad. Unfortunately, our forests are accessible and vulnerable; the value of Crimean timber led to massive logging in the past, and even now the ax constantly threatens unique plantings.
      One of worst enemies forests are fire, in some years Crimean foresters and fire fighters from the Ministry of Emergency Situations eliminate more than 200 fires, and, as a rule, 99% of these fires are caused by careless, and sometimes criminal, human behavior in the forest.
      Next to fires in terms of threat is unregulated grazing of livestock on mountain slopes, especially goats.
      Unregulated logging, forest fires, grazing on mountain slopes - all this occurs due to human fault, and we can conclude that one of the worst enemies of the forest is man himself.
      At the same time, every 4 hectares of forests in Crimea are grown by humans. One person, in violation of fire safety rules, makes a fire in a coniferous forest, throws away an unextinguished cigarette butt, and hundreds of people extinguish the resulting fire, sometimes risking their lives.
      Studying archival materials on 200 years of forestry in Crimea, you come to the conclusion that the negative impact on the Crimean nature in the last decade has become clearly threatening. Never before have the barbaric procurement of Red Book plants been carried out so intensively, and even more so they have not been dug up and taken away from the forest along with roots, bulbs and soil.
      Removal of household waste into the forest, squatting of forest areas, uprooting and felling of trees, poaching, unauthorized grazing of livestock, fires - this is not a complete list of forest violations that the state forest protection has to deal with.
      Unsatisfactory financing of forestry has led to a sharp reduction in reforestation work, construction of forest roads, and the volume of sanitary felling.
      Indifference and greed are the main enemies of the forest. Until each of us realizes our responsibility to nature and behaves when visiting the forest with full responsibility for its fate, there will be no changes for the better.

Looking for forest pests

A group of entomologists was tasked with identifying harmful forest insects in the school forestry area.

Early morning. Dew. This means there will be no rain. Butterflies in their elegant dresses fluttered from flower to flower, and it was not so easy to catch them.

So Kolya Kuznetsov chased a cherry-red butterfly. All four wings had a large ocellate spot in the front corner. When the butterfly sat on the flower and launched its long proboscis into the base of the corolla of the flower and began to drink the sweet juice, Kolya caught it. Everyone was very happy about the first catch. It turned out that this beautiful butterfly was called a peacock's eye. Natalya Kirillovna told us that the butterfly itself feeds only on nectar, and the caterpillars feed on the plants themselves. This butterfly has nettle leaves. Each type of butterfly has its own taste.

In the clearing we caught a few more butterflies. Among them, a mourning bowl was an excellent trophy. This is the largest daytime butterfly. The wings are velvety black with a wide light yellow border, in front of which, like beads, there is a row of small blue spots. The undersides of the wings are black with a light border. The velvet black outfit of the winged beauty resembled mourning.

No matter how exciting the butterfly hunt was, we had a specific task. After all, every entomologist had to not only catch an insect and kill it, but also be sure to remember and describe the place where the insect was caught, what kind of life it leads, what conditions are necessary for its existence.

For observation, we chose trees lit by the sun, because insects love light and warmth. Everyone took a tree for themselves, part of the area around it, and began to carefully examine it. Insects are found everywhere: in the soil, forest floor, grass and mosses, on trees and shrubs, in seeds, fruits. Most of them lead a hidden lifestyle, hide, and therefore sometimes it is not so easy to find them.

Sometimes harmful insects cause enormous damage to forestry, and if it were not for our voluntary helpers, birds and ants, the forests would have a bad time. Sometimes a tree turns out to be stronger than the pests; it wins a fierce battle, having withstood all adversity.

After choosing a site for observation, we began to carefully look for live trophies. The insect hunting trip helped us discover another secret of nature - one interesting pattern: each type of plant has its own insects that feed only on its parts and organs. Some insects settle only in the ground, eating the bark on the roots and thin roots, others settle in the wood of the roots, others - in the bark and under the bark, and at different heights of the tree, and in the thickness of the wood - "specialists" in wood. There are insects on the branches, in the buds, and there are insects that feed only on leaves and needles. Each tree has a whole regiment of insect pests that live at its expense and often destroy it. The oak tree has 1200 species of insects, and each one tries to infect some of its organs. Sometimes we are amazed at the silence of the forest, and silence in the forest occurs only in winter, when the six-legged inhabitants hide from the cold in secluded places.

In summer, especially in the first half, there is no silence. Our ear is capable of detecting relatively strong sounds. We cannot detect ultrasounds. And if we had such an ability, then, in addition to the singing of birds, we could not hear many sounds: crunching, creaking, slurping, sniffling - all this cocaphony of sounds is made by gnawing, chewing, sucking, chewing larvae of harmful beetles and butterflies and themselves adult insects, which the forest is so rich in.

Many inhabitants rarely show themselves outside and only traces in the tree bark in the form of holes indicate their presence. The holes are the summer openings of bark beetles, borers and weevils.

Dangerous enemies of the forest

More than 300 species of bark beetles live in our forests; up to 50 species of bark beetles can live on pine trees alone, and each has its own home, i.e., its own type of tree. The mother beetle chews a hole in the bark and digs it deeper and deeper into the bark. Having reached inside bark, the beetle gnaws out the longitudinal gallery, sometimes touching the sapwood, laying eggs there, from which white larvae hatch. Here, in the gallery, the transformation of a voracious larva into a pupa takes place. A young bug is born from the pupa. He needs to get out, and he also chews small holes in the bark. Each species of bark beetle does this in its own way, in its own manner, having its own “handwriting”, by which an experienced entomologist will immediately recognize the type of insect. But in order to understand the writing of bark beetles, you need to accurately sketch the holes and passages; you will not meet the owner of the “letter” himself, he manages to fly out.

Let's get acquainted with some representatives of bark beetles.

The most common bark beetle among them is the pine beetle, or the forest gardener, or the pine beetle. The main home of this beetle is pine, but sometimes it changes its rules and settles on spruce, sometimes on larch. The pine beetle is dressed in a black-brown, chitinous, shiny “tailcoat”. The body of the beetle is cylindrical with sparse hairs, the apex of the elytra is reddish, the antennae and legs are yellow-brown. The small head is decorated with short clavate-club-shaped antennae, and the legs are of a digging type. The beetles hibernate and fly out when the first warm days appear. Mother beetles are looking for a new home to settle in, mainly the choice falls on old and middle-aged pine trees, sick, weakened and cut down, lying on the ground. The beetles choose a thicker tree with thick bark. They populate it from the base of the butt to the top. Under the cover of lichen, holes are made in cracks in the bark. If the tree is healthy, then the passage is filled with resin. The beetle leaves such a hole filled with resin and settles on another tree. Because of the many holes, the tree loses some of its resin, weakens and becomes accessible to woodcutters and goldsmiths.

The pine bark beetle, or stenograph, is the largest bark beetle. Its length is 8 millimeters. It has a dark round body. The head is hidden under the pectoral segments. When magnified, short bristles can be seen on the chitinous shell. The larvae's babies are legless and white, slightly curved; the pupae are without a cocoon and also white.

Sapwood beetles and bast beetles live off of sapwood and bast, while bark beetles inhabit bark, bast and wood.

Sapwood trees have a cut belly from hind legs to the ends of the elytra, which form a fossa at the posterior end of the beetle's body, their edges are lined with denticles. This hole is called elytra or "wheelbarrow". With its help, the beetle pushes out drilling flour. They also cause great harm to the tree.

The longhorned beetle is also the worst robber of the forest. Its length is more than a centimeter, and the oak one is up to 5 centimeters.

The head is decorated with long, segmented mustaches. The mustache far exceeds the length of his own body. The mother longhorned beetle gnaws out an oblong hole-notch on the bark of a tree, where she lays one egg. A thick white, slightly flattened larva hatches from the egg, which deepens the hole and penetrates the wood. This ugly creature builds itself long and winding passages, usually clogged with drill flour. The wide end of the stroke approaches the bark. In the thick bark, lined at the edges with wood fibers, the larva in its cozy “cradle” turns into a pupa. A longhorn beetle is born from a pupa. He gnaws through the bark and flies out into the light of day. The most dangerous enemy spruce forest is a bark beetle typographer. At the end of the elytra there is a recess lined with teeth - this is a “wheelbarrow” with the help of which the printer throws sawdust out of its stroke. The father beetle gnaws a place for his apartment and contains two or three females in it, each of them gnaws its own uterine passage. Their children, having hatched from the pupa, make their moves, where they feed. This results in a complex pattern of subcortical galleries.

Adult beetles feed on pine needles and leaves. Longhorn beetles, like bark beetles, attack only weakened and diseased trees. The larvae, working with their jaws, often gnaw through the sap-moving vessels, and the tree gradually dies, so dead wood appears on the root. All these forest beetles commit especially great robbery where forests are in poor sanitary condition or weakened by fires, during logging, if the forest is not completely removed on time and lies on the ground. Once such a hammered pine log lies for a year, almost all of the bark will be dotted with small round holes, as if shot through with small shot. Peel off the bark from such a log and you will see a complex pattern of traces of the movement of larvae and beetles. And if the log lies for another year, then only dust will remain from the tree. Therefore, all foresters must strictly remember that in order to protect the forest from these robbers, they should systematically carry out sanitary felling of the forest, remove dead wood and weakened trees from the forest. After cutting, collect all the branches in piles and burn them, rather than leaving them on for a long time. During felling, remove all wood. May beetle - Khrushchev. These are quite large beetles. They appear at the end of spring. The guys set off with nets and brooms to hunt for May beetles.

The favorite food of the cockchafer is young fresh leaves. Khrushchev attacks birch, aspen, oak, poplar, willow and hazel trees, especially white-barked birch.

For robbery May beetles depart in the evening, the flight lasts 30-40 days. When flying en masse, they can completely expose a tree.

In the spring, the headquarters of young foresters of school forestries receive reports from forestry scouts about an attack by cockchafers. The guys identify places where insects accumulate and report them. It’s a cool, foggy morning, and we lay out an awning under a tree, tie a rope to the top and pull it several times. At this moment, the beetles are in a daze and rain down directly onto the canopy. Don't yawn here! We quickly collect them in bags and take them home. This is a great treat for pigs, chickens, geese and ducks.

So every spring Sharkan foresters kill “two birds with one stone” at the same time. And the forest is rid of beetles and food is delivered to domestic animals.

Dangerous enemies of the forest are butterflies and sawflies. Butterflies lay eggs on healthy trees. Having hatched from the egg, the caterpillar greedily attacks the leaves, needles and buds, these legless gluttons cut them clean to the petioles, leaving a bare tree. During the years of strong reproduction, these pests colonize large areas and destroy a huge mass of forest.

Usually butterflies and leaf-eaters are inconspicuous in appearance - gray or red, fly in the evening or at night. And birds cannot catch them. They are also rarely caught in the teeth of a bat.

On the bark of a tree you can find a sedentary butterfly with a coloring similar to that of the tree. The female has a thick abdomen, dotted with brown scales and hairs in its lower part. Caterpillars gray with two rows of red and blue hairy warts, the hairs of which break off easily, are poisonous and, when they come into contact with the skin of a person or animal, cause severe itching. The caterpillar grows quickly and molts several times, which explains its gluttony. After the last molt, the caterpillar secretes a liquid that hardens in air and turns into a silk thread, making rotational movements, it wraps itself in a silk web, turning into a pupa with a rare matte-colored cobweb cocoon. Pupae settle on branches between leaves or in crevices of tree bark, so look for them there.

The butterfly hatches from the pupa at the end of July and begins to fly. The female lays 1,500 eggs on tree trunks; the caterpillar, having emerged from the egg, begins its journey through the tree to the leaves and needles. This butterfly is called the gypsy moth.

Take a closer look at a bare branch: sometimes you can find strange looking a branch that was alive before your touch. This is a moth caterpillar. It has two pairs of abdominal legs. They crawl, bending their body into an arc, and pulling up the back of their abdomen. The caterpillar is careful, having walked some distance, it freezes in a curved position, at this moment it resembles a broken, crooked twig.

The moth butterfly also flies late in autumn.

To combat caterpillars and pupae of cutworms, pine silkworms, moths and others, the forest litter is raked into a heap. As the leaves decompose, the piles heat up and the insects die. It is necessary to increase the number of bird populations in the forest, which provide an invaluable service in protecting the forest.

Young friends of the forest and birds should hang nesting boxes in the forest and build winter dining rooms for their winged friends.

I consider the apotheosis of the parade of sovereignties that engulfed the country that was spreading before our eyes in the early 90s to be the episode that I remember with the declaration of sovereignty by a certain North Caucasian village. The main point of the economic program of its initiators was: “Import everything and export nothing.”

Of course, it was, in modern terms, banter from witty young people from the mountains, but how aptly did it reflect the psychosis that was sweeping the entire country, caused by a deficient character? Soviet economy. After all, the bulk of the population voted for “independence” not because they suddenly gained “Svidomo”, yearned for the “disgraceful” language and became imbued with reverence for the Mazeppas and Banderas, but because “enough of feeding the Muscovites”, that the ever-memorable Rukhov’s leaflets “explained ”, that as soon as we separate ourselves and stop “giving away” sacred lard and sausage, Ukrainians will simply drown in a sea of ​​these and other products. At the same time, oil and gas in the pipe were perceived as something as natural and eternal as the sun in the sky.

“Abundance” has indeed arrived, but at the same time it turned out that this is completely insufficient for happiness, and the priorities under capitalism are directly opposite - selling your product is much more important and more difficult than buying someone else’s. The desire to sell more and buy less (and consume your own) is the cornerstone economic policy of all normal states, the subject of long and complex negotiations, often turning into trade, and sometimes quite “hot” wars.

However, there is no rule without exceptions. When it comes to a scarce resource, ensuring access to it also becomes a matter of concern for the state, while often trying to save its own reserves and prevent their depletion.

On Thursday, September 6, Ukrainian MPs voted to lift the moratorium on the export of round timber. 246 parliamentarians voted for the proposal of the President of Ukraine. Let me remind you that on November 1, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada introduced a moratorium on the export of wood. “The export of timber was frozen in order to somehow protect forests from destruction and support the domestic woodworking industry, which is dying. After all, instead of going to Ukrainian enterprises and feeding our workers and economy, logs are sold en masse to our Western neighbors. But this is unprofitable: a cubic meter of raw materials costs $80–90, and processed wood is valued ten times more,” forestry expert Igor Sheludko commented on the situation. – The moratorium on timber exports was not liked by the EU countries, which buy wood from us for next to nothing, produce furniture and sell it to us at a high price... Europeans even give subsidies to companies so that they transport timber from Ukraine. They take care of their own forests. In Poland, Slovakia and Romania, trees are not cut down on an industrial scale. Moreover, Romanians equated illegal logging with a threat to national security.”

Indeed, in Europe they treat their forests very carefully. An example of this is the scandal between Poland and the European Commission. According to the latter’s claim, the EU court ordered Warsaw to pay a daily fine of 100 thousand euros to the European Commission until sanitary felling in Belovezhskaya Pushcha is stopped. The Poles claim that the main reason is the fight against the bark beetle, which is destroying the forest: according to official information, approximately one and a half million trees fell victim to it, which is 8% of the entire Pushcha - they were planned to be cut down.

This step caused indignation among environmental activists in Poland and other EU countries, who announced the “transformation of the Pushcha into a forestry enterprise.” In their opinion, since the age of Belovezhskaya Pushcha is 8–9 thousand years, and large-scale economic work has been carried out there for only one century, if the forest has successfully existed for so many years without human intervention, there is no point in actively interfering in its life and the bark beetle is only a pretext for in fact, commercial logging for the benefit of the Polish wood industry.

Indeed, in 2015, exports of wood and pulp and paper products from the country amounted to $9.6 billion, or 4.8% of total exports. In 2004, this figure was equal to $4.666 billion. But there are also more impressive estimates. Well-known Ukrainian environmental activist Vladimir Boreyko cited the following data: Poland, at the expense of Ukrainian timber, increased its exports of woodworking products to $16.3 billion, while all Ukrainian exports amount to about $37 billion per year.

And what is characteristic is that the decision on “sanitary” felling in Belovezhskaya Pushcha was made just three months after the Verkhovna Rada adopted a decision on a moratorium on the export of round timber. It is not surprising that since the introduction of the moratorium, the need to lift it has been a common thread in all statements by European officials and heads of European states regarding relations with Ukraine. This was also the main condition for providing economic assistance to Ukraine through the EU.

At the same time, Ukraine is the country with the lowest specific forest area in Europe. According to official data for 2007, out of 60.3 million hectares of Ukraine, only 9.5 million hectares are covered with forest. Sweden, Finland, France, Italy, Germany and Turkey have much more forest cover. For example, Finland is half the size of Ukraine, and more than 20 million hectares are covered with forest. Sweden has almost 30 million hectares of forest. And speaking of Finland, “the land of forests and lakes.” It is known that Finland gave consent to the construction of Nord Stream through its waters only in exchange for maintaining low duties on the export of round timber from Russia. This is how they protect their much more extensive forests there.

And as we see, the European partners did put the pressure on the Ukrainian authorities until the moratorium was lifted, from which several important conclusions can be drawn. As we see, European officials have a very “respectful” attitude towards preserving the forest heritage of “united Europe” (they are ready to take the Poles themselves by the throat for the preservation of Polish forests), but their attitude towards the deforestation of Ukrainian forests is exactly the opposite. And this clearly shows that the EU does not see Ukraine as “Europe” (whose forests need to be taken care of as “our own”) neither now, nor tomorrow, nor “the day after tomorrow.”

After all, the consequences of deforestation will be felt for many decades, if not centuries. Already now the situation with predatory deforestation in Ukraine, especially in the Carpathians, is taking on the character of an environmental and national catastrophe. Deforestation in mountainous areas is especially fraught with consequences. There is an authoritative opinion of experts that it was deforestation in the Carpathians that led to the catastrophic floods of recent years.

But the EU is extorting Ukraine to export round timber, forcing it to destroy its own ecosystem (so they would allow other Ukrainian-made goods into the EU, especially agricultural products, except for soil-killing rapeseed and sunflower, and high-tech products with high added value). What else is needed to understand that the EU sees Ukraine only as a colony, from which it is necessary to extract everything that is possible as quickly as possible, and there, as they say, “grass will not grow.”

By the way, the association agreement requires complete synchronization of the Ukrainian regulatory framework with the European one, including, of course, environmental legislation, including forest management standards. Those. during implementation in Ukraine European standards mentioned above, industrial deforestation will almost completely stop. I repeat, there are fewer forests in Ukraine than in any other European country.

But the EU clearly sees a “way out” of the situation, from which we conclude that this story still shows the worth of all the “lamentations” about the fight against corruption in Ukraine, about their extreme concern for ridding the Ukrainian people of this disaster. Closely monitoring the situation with corruption in Ukraine, the EU cannot help but know how criminalized the forestry industry is there. But when it comes to their interest, they, so verbally uncompromising towards corruption in Ukraine, willingly pretend that they do not know the origin of the coveted Ukrainian wood.

The story with the round timber shows that the “fight against corruption” for the West is nothing more than a bogeyman that allows them to keep Ukrainian rulers on a short leash and force them to do what the West needs. And the lifting of the moratorium is further confirmation of this.

However, the fact that the decision was pushed through parliament (and this is always quite difficult for the authorities lately; in this case, even half of the Opposition Bloc had to find “arguments”) and this was done solely for the sake of receiving “aid” from the EU shows how “ the situation in the Ukrainian economy is burning up, which after the Euromaidan is “sharpened” exclusively to serve the interests of European and American “partners”, or rather the owners. And will there ever be those in Ukraine who can tell them: “Go through the forest!”? After all, what other example is needed of their duplicity and hypocrisy, of their true attitude towards Ukraine?

Dmitry Slavsky

Tall mighty trees are the personification of strength, resilience, and strength. But these giants also have enemies - insects. Their size is insignificant, however, having gathered in a large army, they can destroy a centuries-old forest in one summer. The areas affected by them annually amount to 1-3 million hectares. There are especially many forest pests in Siberia and the Far East.

On an adult birch tree sometimes live up to 700 thousand insects, and on 1 hectare of forest grass-moss cover - almost 130 million. On each square meter The trunk is home to about 400 beetles and their larvae. Not all of them are dangerous, but when pests begin to multiply intensively, a real forest disaster can occur.

Caterpillars of silkworms (pine, gypsy, Siberian, etc.) feed on pine needles. The fir, cedar and spruce trees eaten by them die immediately. Pine can withstand two such invasions, larch - three. After an attack by silkworms, dead, bare trees remain. Sometimes forests over tens and hundreds of square kilometers die. What has survived from the mighty Rosh are called silkworms. Over the past hundred years, forests covering an area of ​​about 1.3 million hectares have been damaged by the Siberian silkworm. The reasons for its massive invasions are not precisely known; It was only noted that such phenomena occur after several dry seasons and last 7-10 years.

Oak budworm attacks are no less dangerous. Small green caterpillars gnaw away entire oak forests in a matter of days. Sometimes after such a “raid” the trees dry out. Sometimes they remain alive and after some time become covered with leaves again, but, being already weakened, they often suffer from other pests, as well as diseases and droughts. Something that does not threaten a healthy tree can lead to death in the victim of a leaf roller.

Stem pests are also dangerous for the forest - larvae of bark beetles, longhorned beetles, gold beetles, horntails, and woodworm caterpillars. They penetrate under the bark and gnaw deep passages in the wood. But forests have their own defenders against pests: birds, red ants and other insect predators - haymakers, ground beetles, spiders, mites.

Project goals and objectives:

Identifying the influence of wildlife on our forest;

Identify the positive and negative roles of insects;

Get acquainted with the insects most harmful to the forest;

Develop a caring attitude towards nature, towards your land;

Learn to systematize and use observational material;

Draw certain conclusions and suggestions on issues of interest.

Introduction

“I praise the miracle of miracles -

Dear Forest, Green Forest!

R.Luka

Currently, there are a lot of environmental problems. I, like many others, love nature and think about its condition, health, and protection.

We live in the beautiful village of Korzhovka, which is surrounded by forest. When caring for nature, we must first of all take care of what surrounds us. I consider caring for the forest a top priority. After all, if the forest dies, it will be bad not only for birds, animals, rodents, insects, but also for us - people.

Therefore, I chose the theme of my project “Enemies and friends of our forest.” This work fascinated me very much, I learned a lot of new and interesting things.

Materials and methods

Studying the forest, we are convinced that its fauna is diverse, it is connected with local natural conditions, age and composition of forest plantations, their undergrowth, ground cover, as well as economic activity person. The fauna influences the soil, the growth and durability of the forest, fruiting, seed distribution, and the replacement of one tree species by another.

Exclusively big role Insects play a role in the life of the forest, and their role can be both positive and negative. Ants are very useful for the forest: one nest of them can destroy up to 10 million harmful insects within a year. Where there are ants in large quantities, the forest grows healthy. Many larvae and caterpillars of forest pests are destroyed by weaver spiders and cross spiders. The role of bees and bumblebees in cross pollination plants. However, many insects - butterflies and beetles, mainly in the stage of caterpillars or larvae, cause enormous harm to the forest, sometimes being the scourge of tree nurseries, forest crops, valuable oak and other plantings.

Insects that attack healthy trees and eat leaves and roots are called primary pests, while insects that attack weakened trees and eat bark or wood are called secondary pests.

Particularly dangerous are leaf-eating primary pests: the gypsy moth, which is extremely polyphagous and is found on a wide variety of deciduous trees, especially oak. May beetle causes great harm to plants; its voracious larvae, developing in the soil for 3 years, eat up the roots of plants.

Secondary forest pests include bark beetles, longhorn beetles, and pine beetles (deciduous tree pests). Of the various forest pests, insects make up the bulk of its most dangerous enemies.

Hot and dry weather, extreme fertility, and the absence of birds - enemies of insects - contribute to the massive appearance of primary pests. The spread of secondary pests is associated with the weakening of forest stands due to forest damage by primary pests, fires, logging, and lack of proper control of forest pests.

In some years, pests multiply so abundantly that they sometimes destroy the foliage of trees over large areas, causing the trees to weaken and often dry out.

Forest insects

Let’s get acquainted at least briefly with the insects most harmful to the forest; what butterflies look like, their eggs and caterpillars, beetles and their larvae, what time of year they appear.

Gypsy moth. Female butterflies are larger than males (50-70mm), dirty white wings with black lines. Male butterflies are 45 mm, the upper wings are brownish-gray with stripes and fringe. They fly in July–August in the evening and during the day. Females lay up to 1000 downy eggs, in clusters of several hundred, mainly in the lower part of the trunks. In the fall, 16-legged caterpillars develop in the eggs and overwinter in the eggs. In the spring, the eggs hatch into very hairy caterpillars that are easily dispersed by the wind. Crawling across the crown, the caterpillars eat buds and blossoming leaves. In autumn they reach 70-75 mm in length. The caterpillar is grayish, densely hairy. Hairs piercing a person's skin cause itching. During the growth period, the caterpillars molt 4-5 times, by the end of August pupation occurs, and after 2-3 weeks a new generation of butterflies emerge from the pupae.

Fig. 1. Gypsy moth: 1 – female; 2 – male; 3 – laying of eggs; 4 – caterpillar; 5 – pupa.

Oak traveling silkworm. The butterfly is yellowish-gray, up to 30 mm long. Flies in August–September. Lays up to 200 disc-shaped eggs with a diameter of 1 mm on oak bark. groups of several rows in the form of a rectangle, covering them with a transparent, quickly hardening liquid. The eggs overwinter; in May, grayish-colored caterpillars emerge from them white, covered with long white hairs. The caterpillars have red-brown spots on their bodies. Silkworms form web nests on oak trees and destroy their foliage. When there is a lack of food, it makes mass “hikes” - invasions of other oak forests, for which it received the name marching.

Willow silkworm. Damages willow, poplar, hazel and others hardwoods. A butterfly with silky white wings, their span is 40-55mm. Oviposition is 1-3 cm, each contains up to 50 eggs. The caterpillars reach a length of 50 mm.

The caterpillars are yellowish in color with red warts and yellow stripes and emerge in the spring, spreading across the crowns. Pupation occurs in early June. The pupa is shiny black with white spots and tufts of yellow hairs. Butterflies emerge in June-July.

Rice. 2 Willow silkworm. 1 - butterflies; 2 – laying of eggs; 3 – caterpillar; 4 - doll.

Goldentail. Damages deciduous trees, especially oak. The butterfly is snow-white, with a silky sheen, wingspan 30-40 mm. The butterfly flies in July in the evenings and at night, willingly flying into the light. Females lay up to 300 eggs in a heap, usually on the underside of leaves, densely covering the clutch with golden fluff. After 2-3 weeks, 16-legged caterpillars emerge from the clutch of eggs, crawl along the crown and eat away the upper skin of the leaves, making holes in them. They overwinter in nests made from leaves, covering them with dirty gray cobwebs. Several hundred and sometimes thousands of young caterpillars gather in one nest. In early spring, even before the leaves bloom, the caterpillars emerge from their nests and damage the buds, and then gnaw leaves, young shoots and even fruit ovaries. The length of an adult caterpillar is up to 45 mm. The caterpillars are covered with yellow-brown hairs and have a double reddish stripe running along their backs. During development they molt 6 times. The caterpillars pupate in early June, and after 3-4 weeks the new generation of butterflies emerge from the pupae.

Fig.3. Goldentail.1 – female; 2 – laying of eggs; 3 – caterpillar; 4 – pupa.

Winter moth. The male butterfly has a wingspan of 20-25 mm and is yellow-gray in color. The female has rudimentary wings and cannot fly. Male butterflies fly in the evenings and at night in late autumn. Females lay up to 350 eggs (one, two, in groups) in crevices in the bark, on young shoots, and buds. At first the testicles are bluish-green, then they become yellowish-red. At the beginning of May, 10-legged caterpillars emerge from them, eat the buds, and then eat the blossoming leaves, rolling them into tubes like a web and hiding in them. The adult caterpillar is up to 20 mm long, light green, with three lateral white lines on each side. It crawls, arching its body upward. In the first half of summer, adult caterpillars descend on cobwebs from branches into the soil, where they pupate at a depth of 10 cm.

Forest apple and pear trees are affected by the codling moth butterfly, which is ubiquitous. Its caterpillars develop in apples. They overwinter in dense cocoons under the remaining bark of trees, in cracks in supports. They pupate in the spring. Butterflies appear in early summer after the apple trees bloom.

Fig.4. Winter moth.1 – female; 2 – male; 3 – egg laying; 4 – caterpillar.

Apple flower beetle lays eggs in the buds of apple blossoms. The larvae emerging from the eggs bite into the bud and feed on the ovary and stamens. Damaged buds do not bloom. Larvae pupate inside the buds.

Common insect pests of forests include cockchafers, bark beetles, and longhorned beetles.

May beetles live for about a month. They eat leaves and flowers of trees and shrubs. Particularly dangerous are the larvae that develop in the soil for 3-4 years.

Everyone knows ants. There are several species of them in our fauna, including the very useful large red ant. Ants of an average-sized anthill can destroy more than 30 thousand caterpillars in one day, and up to 2 million in a season.

Benefits of amphibians

The benefits of amphibians (common toads, lake and pond frogs) and reptiles (spin lizards, grass snakes, snakes) in the fight against harmful insects are also significant, but they are often underestimated by the population, and these animals are undeservedly destroyed. More than 10 species of insects are found in the stomachs of toads, including darkling beetles, click beetles, longhorned beetles, crickets and grasshoppers. Snakes destroy large numbers of mouse-like rodents.

Rice. Grass frog.

Birds of the forest

One of the significant regulators of the number of pests in nature is birds, which, unlike beneficial insects, amphibians and reptiles, destroy pests throughout the year. Most of them belong to the passerine order, of which tits, warblers, warblers, wrens, and orioles are especially useful. A family of great tits protects up to 20 trees from pests, and a pair of starlings nesting on the edge of the forest during the feeding period brings up to 8 thousand May beetle larvae and other large insects to their chicks. Kinglets collect food in the summer exclusively in the paws of spruce trees, and occasionally pine trees, usually at a height of 8-10 meters from the ground. The basis of the food ration of adult individuals is Homoptera (73.5%), represented almost exclusively by psyllids.

They bring a lot of benefitscuckoos and woodpeckers . Special attention need to call securityowls and birds of prey . The point is that in last years There is a sharp decline in the number of these birds, and the use of pesticides, which directly lead to their death or chronic poisoning, is of no small importance in this. In the eggs of birds of prey, the shell becomes thinner, proper metabolism is disrupted, and other physiological and biochemical disorders occur, as a result of which the embryo dies while still in the egg or shortly after hatching. With a decrease in the number of owls and diurnal birds of prey, the number of pests is suppressed to a lesser extent, and they cause significant damage to forest plantations. But the kestrel, for example, feeds mainly on mouse-like rodents and large insects (May beetles, dung beetles and others). In the “mouse years” the buzzard feeds mainly on rodents, and in the “non-mouse years” the percentage of large insects in its diet increases significantly.

The Scops Owl owl is very useful, as it hunts not only in the forest, but also on open places– clearings or meadows adjacent to the forest. This small bird destroys a lot of beetles, lumberjacks, click beetles, and moths. The main diet of the tawny owl consists of rodents (up to 85%) and insects (10%), of which it eats most of the May beetles, lumberjacks, forest dung beetles, and sometimes caterpillars of ribbon and poplar hawk moths. Moreover, the number of these owls strongly depends on the number of rodents - their main food. Great importance There is also the preservation of hollow trees in the forest, which are very often destroyed when caring for the forest. Owls populate artificial nesting sites very rarely.

Invaluable assistance in protecting forest resources is provided byinsectivorous birds and small feathered predators . They are the most active natural enemies of harmful insects, destroying them at various stages of development in huge quantities, especially during the period of feeding their voracious chicks. Birds that are very useful for the forest include: tits, woodpeckers, starlings, pikas, flycatchers - pieds, cuckoos, morning dawns, rollers, jays, wrens. Swallows, siskins, goldfinches, larks and many other birds also feed on insects. Many harmful rodents and large insects are destroyed by small birds of prey: buzzard, falcon, small falcon - kestrel, many owls - these are the most useful of birds of prey.

A tit eats as many insects per day as it weighs. The chicks of some insectivorous birds are capable of doubling their weight in 2-3 days. You can imagine how many different insects their parents need to get to ensure such a gain in weight for their voracious young. Small birds, such as pied flycatchers and their chicks, destroy 500 or more eggs of future harmful caterpillars per day. These miniature birds sometimes completely eliminate outbreaks of such dangerous pests, like pine and other cutworms, moths.

The main food of starlings in the forest is the gypsy moth, goldentail, mayweed, moths and many other pests, which these birds, appearing in flocks, often completely destroy.

Woodpeckers actively destroy the worst enemies of the forest - various types bark beetles, as well as large larvae of golden beetles, longhorned beetles, living under the bark and in wood and inaccessible to other species of birds.

Cuckoos, which come to us from hot countries for 4-5 summer months, are one of the most useful birds for the forest. They destroy a lot of hairy caterpillars of various silkworms, lacewings, moths, exterminate May beetles and many other dangerous pests. The undoubted great benefit of the cuckoo is reduced by the fact that it lays its eggs in the nests of small insectivorous birds. Cuckoo chicks, growing up, throw out the chicks of their adoptive parents and thereby cause harm, especially to young steppe forest plantations, where there are still few valuable insectivorous birds.

Many forest birds feed on seeds and fruits of tree species for some part of the year. And if in some cases the feeding of birds on the seeds of trees and shrubs during the difficult autumn-winter period causes certain damage to the forest, then, by destroying a lot of harmful insects in the spring and summer, they repay our green friend a hundredfold for his help.

At the same time, birds, feeding on the seeds of forest plants, bring great benefits as sowers of the forest. By dropping tree seeds, birds help spread them. Jays carry heavy acorns for many kilometers.

Goldfinches, larks, bullfinches, gray partridges and many other birds provide considerable benefit, destroying a huge number of harmful weeds and thus preventing their spread.

Some birds, along with the enormous benefits brought by their tireless activity in exterminating insects dangerous to the forest, also cause harm. For example, rooks, settling in entire colonies on tall trees of the most various breeds(in forests, usually bordering vast fields, meadows or steppes), breaking shoots to build nests and constantly polluting branches and leaves with droppings, they spoil nesting trees to such an extent that they sometimes die.

In turn, the forest does not remain in debt to its feathered friends. He gives them shelter and food. The huge role of birds in the life of the forest is reflected in the popular saying: “A forest without birds and birds cannot live without a forest.”

The goshawk, sparrowhawk, marsh harrier and some other large predators exterminate birds useful to the forest. But it must be said that this harm is relative, since predators are quite rare. After all, the hunting area, for example, of a goshawk has up to 8 km. Within radius. It is clear that there are many birds in such a huge area, and the percentage of their extermination by the goshawk is very small. In addition, there is a biological law according to which victims adapt to the predator in such a way that the predator cannot catch an absolutely healthy victim; it catches a sick, weakened victim, performing the role of an orderly. As an illustration of this, the following example can be given: by decree of the Norwegian government, it was decided to destroy all predators that feed on the ptarmigan in order to stop the decline in its numbers. As a result, after a few years, almost all white partridges died out from frost diseases. The task of man is not to destroy predators, but to intelligently regulate their numbers.

Most of our feathered friends fly to warm countries for the winter. Starlings, blackbirds, dawns, warblers, finches, and wagtails winter in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy; flycatchers, orioles, nightjars, nightingales - in Africa. Siskins, bullfinches, waxwings and tap dancers come to us for the winter from higher latitudes. IN middle lane About 15 species of northern birds winter. Our sedentary insectivorous birds: woodpeckers, tits, nuthatches, pikas, crossbills, kinglets. These birds that constantly live with us in winter often do not have enough food, and only feeding saves them from hunger and death. Tits, which produce two or even three broods, die especially often without feeding.

Wood grouse, black grouse and hazel grouse, which are of commercial importance, lead a sedentary lifestyle. They also contribute to the spread of seeds of shrubs and berries.

The following nests are built in hollows of trees and stumps: woodpeckers, starlings, pikas, nuthatches, tits, flycatchers, redstarts, whirligigs, rollers, long-eared owls, tawny owls, barn owls, scops owls, wood pigeons (clint owls) and other birds.

Orioles, finches and jays, as well as the well-known rooks, useful not only for agriculture, but also for the forest, nest in trees. Inhabitants of bushes and undergrowth - warblers, thrushes, nightingales make nests in bushes. Very often you can see the nests of blackbirds, songbirds and nightingales in piles of cut brushwood. Buntings and nightjars make nests directly on the ground.

To attract hollow nesting birds, nest boxes are hung in the forests. During protective afforestation, shrubs are planted, artificial nests are created, and water bodies are provided.

Benefits of mammals

Some can also provide significant assistance in the fight against forest pests.mammals : moles, hedgehogs, shrews, the bats, caresses and others. They destroy mouse-like rodents and harmful insects. For example, the mole is the only exterminator of soil pests.

conclusions

Effective protection Controlling forests from pests is possible only if all natural enemies of the forest from the animal world are used for this purpose. Therefore, when carrying out forestry work, you should always remember to preserve the habitats of our assistants from the animal world. It is also necessary to scientifically and educationally promote nature conservation among the population, especially among the younger generation, to involve the public in carrying out various biotechnical activities in the forest.

Fig. 6. Hedgehog. Fig. 7. Mole

Benefits of beetles

Many harmful insects are destroyed by beetles - ground beetles. Bugs with funny names " ladybug"(seven-spotted) destroy a lot of harmful aphids on trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, preventing the massive spread of these unusually prolific pests. The offspring of one aphid, if it survived, would cover the entire globe in a year.

Fig. 8. Ladybugs of different types. Fig. 9. Ground beetle.

Damage caused by rodents

Mice cause great damage to plantings. They gnaw the bark of young trees, eat thin shoots and buds, and destroy the seeds of many trees. But these same rodents also bring some benefit in that, storing fruits and seeds for the winter, they often lose them on the way to their burrows and thereby contribute to the spread of shrubs and trees.

Fig. 10. Rodents.

Benefits of animals

Foxes and badgers are very useful for the forest, destroying rodents; They also eat May beetle larvae, extracting them from the upper layers of the soil. Small predatory animals, weasels, are no less useful.

Hedgehogs are very useful, destroying mice and feeding on the larvae of forest pests. Hares damage the forest by gnawing the tops and bark of young oak trees.

Fig. 11. Fox.

Our observations

Tits fly to human habitation in winter, it is easier to feed here and inspect all the trunks and branches of trees.

Crows drop nuts from above onto the asphalt so that they break, and then take them to a secluded place and eat.

In autumn and winter, woodpeckers, jays and crows themselves fly to visit us - home, if anyone has walnut or hazelnut (hazel) trees and, without hesitation, but often looking around, feast on nuts. The nuts are either crushed, inserted in half into the branch of the branches, or a hole is hollowed out and a delicacy is taken out, and jays and crows lose the nuts in the gardens, so they plant trees.

When examining an area of ​​approximately 1.5 hectares of forest, only one anthill was found near a poplar stump; its height was 52 cm on September 20, 2005.

On an area of ​​100 m2 one tree found ( wild apple tree) whose bark was damaged by rodents (observation was carried out on January 9, 2006) and two willow trees growing along the river.

In the forest area to the left of the bridge near the village. In Selivanovka, 21 oak trees were damaged by gypsy moth larvae, and the foliage was destroyed (observations dated August 14).

Our affairs

Several decades ago, almost no work was done to reduce the number of insects that harm forestry. Church ministers called for salvation from these disasters through prayers. Nowadays, a powerful network of special institutions for plant protection has been created, and various methods have been developed to reduce the number of insect pests. The simplest of them are mechanical.

In cases of severe spread of insect pests, use chemical methods: pollination and spraying of plants with toxic substances. Chemical methods are used very carefully, since beneficial insects and birds that have eaten poisoned insects may die along with the pests.

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to biological methods of pest control: protection and attraction of insectivorous birds, bats, breeding of insects - the natural enemies of insects - pests, the use of biological preparations that cause insect diseases. Most high result In the work to reduce the number of insect pests, it is possible to use the right combination of mechanical, agrotechnical, chemical and biological methods.

In the harsh winter, birds die not from cold, but large ones from hunger, because it is difficult to find food under the snow or in the icy bark of trees. We brought them gifts plastic bottles- feeders. These are seeds, millet, millet, unsalted lard, meat, crushed wheat, bread. And under New Year They decorated the bushes with food, like a Christmas tree with toys.

Conclusions and offers:

Create a network of special institutions for plant protection;

Develop various methods to reduce the number of insect pests;

Use chemical methods for pollination and spraying of plants;

Pay attention to biological methods of pest control;

Help birds in the winter season (make feeders, feed them);

Involve the population to implement measures aimed at protecting nature;

Use funds mass media to draw attention to environmental problems nature

Literature

"For schoolchildren about the forest." T.G. Zorina, publishing house "Forest Industry", Moscow, 1967.

Annual magazine "Forest and Man", publishing house "Forest Industry", Moscow, 1984.

“Forest is the wealth of our country.” L.A. Alferov, Moscow, “Knowledge” publication, 1963.

"Forest Life" S.I. Ognev, Moscow, Nauka publishing house, 1964.

Encyclopedia “I explore the world.” Moscow, publishing house "Prosveshchenie", 1999

Encyclopedia “What is it? Who it?". Moscow, publishing house "Prosveshchenie", 1995

“Birds and forest pests” by A.N. Formozov. Moscow, publishing house "Nauka", 1983