The snow has melted, the first spring rains have passed, leaves are appearing on the trees, and warm April weather prevails... The vegetation season of 2018 has begun!

Along with the pleasant moments of nature awakening after winter, harmful insects are also becoming active.

The first to appear were pine web-spinning sawflies, specifically the red-headed sawfly Acantholyda erythrocephala L. Next will be the starry sawfly Lyda nemoralis Thoms, whose imagos will start flying in early May.

Pine web-spinning sawflies can significantly expand the affected area due to the active and passive dispersal of imagos.

In light of the above, we recommend that forest protection services increase monitoring of the population development of these harmful insect species in natural conditions. Forest pathological surveys of pine plantations should be conducted, with special attention given to Scots pine cultures aged 20-30 years.

The key to preserving pine cultures is the timely detection of mass outbreaks of pine web-spinning sawflies and the implementation of a comprehensive set of forest protection measures.