whats eating my gooseberry leaves?

longhotbath

I have 2 little gooseberry bushes - planted last year. Very healthy and with lots of fruit and leaves.Went out today, and half of the leaves have been munched away totally, leaving just the middle of the stalk of the leaves.

Help - what could it be????

Should I net them??

westiea

gooseberry sawfly - i am afraid its that time of year,

[Deleted User]

gooseberry sawfly. You will need to prune later to keep the centre of the bushes open, like a bowl shape so that air can whizz through

The gooseberries will be fine, I never sprayed

stumpycat

If it's any consolation, only half the leaves being munched is relatively mild!

I first came across the gooseberry sawfly while watching the Beechgrove garden, and had an unsympathetic snigger at their plight... then discovered that I was also the owner of a twiggy thing with no leaves. :eek:

I've never actually seen one of the sawfly larvae - they just seem to turn up, munch all the leaves and disappear...

Lotus-eater

I'll tell you the best way to deal with sawfly if you like.

Go completely organic, use no pesticides at all, allow everything into your garden, don't kill anything. It will take a few years, I'm not making it out to be a quick fix, but it should work. Works for me.
Allow alot of weeds as well and don't be too tidy, so you have lots of places for wildlife to hide. Everyone laughs at me because I have large areas of cultivated nettles, but it works.

longhotbath

aaaaargh - what a horrid beastie!!

Thanks guys. I have never seen the leaves like this before. My mums gooseberry bushes we always full of leaves.

Will go and hunt the monsters - I though it might have been snails .....

mrbadexample

Provado Ultimate Bug Killer, in the yellow spray bottle. This is the time to be completely ruthless, IMO. You can try and pick them off, but you'll always miss some and they'll strip your plant bare. It will affect next year's crop.

A._Badger

mrbadexample wrote: »

Provado Ultimate Bug Killer, in the yellow spray bottle. This is the time to be completely ruthless, IMO. You can try and pick them off, but you'll always miss some and they'll strip your plant bare. It will affect next year's crop.

And if you can't find (or afford) Provado, look for a pyrethrum-based bug-killer (assuming the hippies have left any on the market - I stockpiled).

Some of the stupidest advice I ever heard was 'you can hand pick them off your gooseberry'.

It can only have been said by someone with A/ Only one plant and a mild infestation. B/ Not very much to do with their time, C/ steel fingers.

Lotus-eater

You can hand pick them off your bushes, I did for years. Last year it got a bit much, as I have 3 large and 3 huge bushes now.

Stupid is relative, I happen to think that to spray something nasty on our food is pretty daft.

izzwizz_2

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I'll tell you the best way to deal with sawfly if you like.

Go completely organic, use no pesticides at all, allow everything into your garden, don't kill anything. It will take a few years, I'm not making it out to be a quick fix, but it should work. Works for me.
Allow alot of weeds as well and don't be too tidy, so you have lots of places for wildlife to hide. Everyone laughs at me because I have large areas of cultivated nettles, but it works.

:T Works for me too. I don't even bother with detergent on the aphids - you kill the good bugs along with the bad ones.

System

I have had them this year after a few years gap. It's always the same one, in a nice sunny spot , another more tucked away was clear. I do wonder if some years the birds get their eye in and eat them.
I saw them early (and on top -phew) and picked off, a few days later there were a few more. Dislodging them with a hose is an option I have heard of but not used.