Goddam b*stard sawflies on my gooseberries...

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Goddam b*stard sawflies on my gooseberries...
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Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Fri May 06, 11 7:37 pm Post subject:
So far none here but last year they almost totally defoliated my Worcesterberry - but like Catbaffler said, it still cropped well and is looking healthy again this year.

Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Fri May 06, 11 7:48 pm Post subject:
I made a concotion of foxglove - fermented the leaves in water - and sprayed it on. Seemed to help if I caught them early enough. None here yet..... hoping the fact the hens were round the roots this winter means the overwintering grubs have all been eaten? I also thinned out the bushes that were worst effected....

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri May 06, 11 7:59 pm Post subject:
Our bushes get a few later in the season but not huge plagues. I still think it's because we under-plant them with aromatic herbs such as chives, mint and sage. It could also be because the garden is full of birds and I notice the blue & great tits are often picking pests off our plants.

Mary-Jane

Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 18397
Location: The Fishing Strumpet is from Ceredigion in West Wales

Posted: Sun May 08, 11 11:29 am Post subject:
I keep going on 'squish patrol' a couple of times a day, but there are squllions of the buggers. Will they really not affect the fruit? I thought they did

catbaffler

Joined: 31 Mar 2009
Posts: 937
Location: Barry

Posted: Sun May 08, 11 11:37 am Post subject:
I've never found them to affect the fruit. Annoying little things though and well camouflaged too

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Sun May 08, 11 11:39 am Post subject:
Must go and check mine.

Mary-Jane

Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 18397
Location: The Fishing Strumpet is from Ceredigion in West Wales

Posted: Sun May 08, 11 12:23 pm Post subject:
I've been reading up on earlier intervention, including spraying with diluted washing up liquid.

T.G

Joined: 13 Sep 2009
Posts: 7280
Location: Somewhere you're not

Posted: Sun May 08, 11 12:26 pm Post subject:

Spraying many garden pests or in fact a fair bit more than spraying tends to kill off most of the critters I've found over the years, also -

and i have yet to try it, someone told me that making a sort of porridge with comfrey leaves around the base stops some would be pests climbing the plants in the first place and a comfrey dilution sprayed on kills others ...not tried either so can't say for sure.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Sun May 08, 11 12:44 pm Post subject:
None here so far. Everything crossed.

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Sun May 08, 11 1:16 pm Post subject:

Mary-Jane wrote:

I've been reading up on earlier intervention, including spraying with diluted washing up liquid.

An activity much loved by the younger members of this family

LynneA

Joined: 25 Oct 2006
Posts: 4893
Location: London N21

Posted: Sun May 08, 11 7:48 pm Post subject:

Noticed the gooseberry in a pot in the back garden was sawfly afflicted a week or so back - the ones at the allotment are fine. The veil of couch grass that has sprung up around them seems to be keeping things at bay

Anyway, having spotted the critters on the plant in the garden, picked them off and fed them to the hens. Slight problem - Elly the Welly can squeeze her head through her fence and reach the gooseberry leaves - including healthy new growth!

Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Sun May 08, 11 8:49 pm Post subject:
So I found an Aqualegia plant stripped of it's leaves - and when I looked the caterpillars were just like sawfly ones! Yet the gooseberries nearby were untouched!

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Mon May 09, 11 6:09 am Post subject:
Apparently any given sawfly will only attack one given plant, so for example on one plot a worcesterberry could get stripped bare and the gooseberry and remain untouched. Last year it was my Worcesterberry and Jostaberries that copped it and the gooseberries weren't touched.

Dave NE

Joined: 08 Sep 2010
Posts: 18

Posted: Mon May 16, 11 3:26 pm Post subject:
How about vasalene smeered on the trunk lower down, i have heard it works for some other types of fruit trees, cheers Dave NE

Dogrose

Joined: 16 May 2011
Posts: 7

Posted: Tue May 24, 11 9:06 pm Post subject:

Vaseline will only work if sawflies walk up rather than fly! It might stop the larvae crawling down to cocoon in the soil, but I think they just drop.

Chickens, or a good mulch of larvae-unfriendly material, or lots of hoeing will reduce the maturing larvae, but it would have to be pretty persistent as the wretched things go through several generations over the summer. (sawflies, not chickens!)

The damage they do to the leaves does not directly affect the fruit, but it does weaken the bushes so there will be less new growth & flowers & therefore fruit next year!

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