Some thing is eating my goose berry bush every year it's stripped bare can any one help ?
Question:
Answers:
Probably caterpillars, others could be sawfly, magpie moth, but your problem is more likely to be gooseberry caterpillars, one caterpillar can strip an average sized bush in a day or two. Spry with any insecticide to kill them at the first sign of them. I myself use rose clear which is an insecticide and fungicide which will also keep virus and disease at bay.
put a netting over the berry bush
Try covering it with a fleece at the begining of the year.It's probably the birds after the fruit.
the same thing happened to mine, half the foliage dissapears, but the fruit gets left on. someone tokld me this was sawfly which can live under the leaves and around the soil at the base of the plant. i just sprayed mine with a pest spray for fruit, and gently dug up and removed some of the base soil replacing it with compost.careful of the roots though i think they can be quite shallow, and easy to damage. my plants seem ok now.
It is being eaten by the sawfly caterpillar, which is pale green with black spots. There is usually a group of them together. The fruit is not damaged, but the loss of leaves will reduce the following years crop. There will be several generations between May & Sept. Check the plants regularly - look for the eggs low down or in the centre of the plant. Malathion used to be my weapon of choice, but in the UK it has now been withdrawn! Look for an alternative in the garden centre - Anything for bush fruit (currants etc) should crack it, or give up and go the supermarket! Good luck!
could it be deer ?
More Related Questions & Answers...