Our entire gooseberry crop has been eaten by something

parsonswife8

I'm gutted! Since yesterday, something has eaten every single gooseberry off our bushes which were laden with fruit.:mad::mad::mad::mad:

I couldn't believe my eyes when DH asked me if I had picked them. And there they were, stripped bare of fruit.:(:(:(:(

poorly_scammo

Have all the leaves gone too? If so it could have been sawfly larvae. They decimated mine a few years ago. I used an insecticide on them as I knew I wasn't going to be getting any fruit to eat!

parsonswife8

poorly_scammo wrote: »

Have all the leaves gone too? If so it could have been sawfly larvae. They decimated mine a few years ago. I used an insecticide on them as I knew I wasn't going to be getting any fruit to eat!

Thanks for your reply.:) No, all the leaves are still there, but every single gooseberry has gone.:( It must have been squirrels or birds.

poorly_scammo

Birds sounds about right. Netting next year then.

Farway

Birds most likely

mrbadexample

Farway wrote: »

Birds most likely

Or people....

parsonswife8

I don't think it was people as our garden is fairly secure. Anyway, we went shopping at Waitrose and they were selling goosberries for £1.99, so bought two lots to replace what we lost and feel a bit better now.:)
I was wanting to cook them down with sugar and eat them with fresh custard and cream.

foxgloves

if you've still got the leaves & lost all the fruit, my money's on naughty blackbirds. Even if you think the fruits are well hidden, or you'll wait & net them tomorrow, you can guarantee the blackbirds have already spotted them & are just waiting for them to get riper before robbing the lot.

parsonswife8

We don't see many blackbirds around here, however, we have a flock of about 50 crows, a pair of magpies, 2 or 3 squirrels, who ate some of our strawberries before DH put plastic domes and jamjars over them and the normal tits, dunnocks, robins and wood pigeons. We also have those light green parrots.

Steve_xx

We have two gooseberry bushes. Each year just as the fruit is setting, every leaf is eaten by what I'm told is sawfly. But they don't seem to eat the fruit and in fact the absence of the leaves makes the fruit easier to pick. This year is the first year in the last eight years that there has been no fruit on the bushes at all. I can usually make ten jars of jam from them. I have no idea why this has happened this year, but might assume it's the poor weather that's been the cause?

bluemeadow

This happened to me last year too, was looking forward to some lovely gooseberry and rhubarb crumble then went up my allotment one day to find the whole lot had disappeared in 24 hours! Have found out this is down to pidgeons so I now net my gooseberrys when the fruit starts to grow, so far so good!
Blinkin pidgeons did get to my kale this year though!