Blackberry pests

Every year blackberries become an increasingly frequent guest in home gardens and vegetable gardens. Depending on the variety, different bushes may have greater or lesser ability to resist various pests and parasites. As a rule, those blackberry varieties, in the genotype of which there are no raspberry genes, are little damaged by pests and diseases - they have increased immunity. But raspberry-blackberry hybrids are capable of contracting the entire spectrum of diseases and parasites that are characteristic of raspberries. Details about blackberry diseases presented in another article, but here you can get to know more closely those pests that can cause damage to blackberries, and find out how you can win the fight against them.

Classification of insects that harm shrubs

Among the endless variety of insect pests, it is customary to divide them into groups, according to which parts of the blackberry they damage to the greatest extent. Of course, this classification is somewhat arbitrary, since some pests, such as the raspberry shoot aphid or raspberry beetle, can cause damage to all organs of the blackberry. Nevertheless, many pests most often specialize in certain parts of plants and, therefore, are easier to identify and neutralize.

• Pests that live mainly in the ground gnaw at the roots and thereby cause the blackberry bushes to wither and sometimes even die completely.
• Those pests that damage the leaves worsen the general condition of the plants, reduce their immunity and, accordingly, reduce the yield of blackberries.
• Among the pests living in blackberry stems, many are tiny, almost invisible to the eye. But thanks to their activity, branches and stems begin to wither and suddenly break off. As a result, the crop may be partially or completely destroyed, and a blackberry plantation heavily infested with them will have to be completely renewed.
• Finally, various pests that eat blackberry flowers and berries spoil their presentation and taste, do not allow the plants to fully develop, and because of them it is often necessary to destroy individual shoots or even entire bushes.

Blackberry pests that attack the root system and how to deal with them

Insect pests living in the soil and their larvae make numerous underground passages, gnawing all the roots of plants on their way. Especially tasty for them are young thin roots of blackberries and the bases of fresh young shoots that emerge from the soil in early spring.

May beetle (chafer larva)

The cockchafer itself does not bring anything good for fruit bushes, in particular for blackberries, since it can feed on its leaves, flowers and ovaries. But its larvae turn out to be much more harmful, because they eat up the most tender parts of the roots and young stems and, if their numbers are large, they can completely destroy blackberry bushes.

The lifespan of the larvae is quite long, about 4 years, then they turn into a pupa, and after 1.5 months adult beetles appear, and all this time they cause irreparable damage to blackberry plantings. Both adult beetles and their larvae of different ages overwinter in the soil. The flight of adult insects to the surface begins approximately at the end of April - beginning of May, during the flowering period of most fruit trees and shrubs. At the end of flowering, the female pests lay eggs in the ground at a depth of about 20-40 cm, from which larvae soon emerge.

Based on knowledge about the life cycle of the May beetle, the following protective measures can be taken:

• Before planting a new blackberry plantation, for preventive purposes, soak the root system of the bushes in a 0.65% Aktara solution for half an hour. Aktara is a systemic insecticide and all parts of the blackberry eaten by the beetle will be toxic to the pest for 30 days (when plants are sprayed with the drug) and up to 2 months (when soil is spilled).
• For preventive purposes, it is advisable to sow the areas where you are going to plant blackberries a year before planting with green manure: rapeseed, clover, mustard or alfalfa. Mustard secretions can repel beetles for a long time, so it is also beneficial to plant it between blackberry rows.
• It is convenient to collect adult beetles by hand in the morning, when they are in a certain torpor. To do this, spread a film under bushes and trees and shake off the pests onto it, after which they are collected and destroyed in a lime solution.
• If you have a small number of blackberry bushes, then it is best to carefully dig up each bush in cloudy weather and shake it off together with the soil on a film, manually selecting all the larvae. Before planting in their original place, additionally treat the blackberry roots with a clay mash with the addition of 100 g of tobacco dust per bucket of liquid.
• Among the folk remedies, the use of iodine solution (25 drops per 8-10 liters of water) is effective against the cockchafer, which is used to water blackberry bushes in April-May at the root.
• Among the chemicals that can be used in early spring are Konfidor and Antikhrushch, the solutions of which are spilled on the ground around the blackberries and the plants themselves are treated.
• Keep in mind that birds like to eat adult beetles: starlings, rooks, and bats. And the larvae of the pest are tasty prey for shrews, moles and even foxes.

Medvedka

This is a large insect, up to 5-6 cm long and up to 1.5 cm wide, with four wings, powerful jaws, and digging holes and passages with its front legs. It feeds mainly on young roots and shoots, but along the way it is capable of chewing through any powerful blackberry roots, thereby dooming the bush to death.The larvae laid by females during the summer turn into adult insects only the following year.

If you notice wilted shoots and even entire blackberry bushes, it is recommended to carefully examine the soil under the plants in search of holes up to 3 cm in diameter, which may be the entrance to the mole cricket’s underground home. If a pest is detected, you can first thoroughly loosen the soil around the blackberry bushes, and then try to use one of the well-proven folk methods of control:

• Pour a bucket of water into the hole with a handful of washing powder dissolved in it. This will force the mole cricket to come to the surface, after which it must be destroyed. Caught mole crickets are happily eaten by chickens, ducks and other poultry.
• When planting blackberries, pour eggshells, dried marigolds, and chrysanthemums into the holes.
• Scatter sand soaked in kerosene near the bushes.
• Pour blackberry bushes at the root with a solution of ammonia in a ratio of 3 tablespoons per bucket of water.
• Install a windmill on a metal wire that creates vibrations in the soil and repels pests.
  
• Traps are installed in the form of jars, with edges coated with honey, dug into the ground.
• In the fall, small holes are dug and filled with a mixture of straw and manure. The mole cricket settles in them for the winter, and after the onset of frost, the straw and manure are pulled out and distributed over the surface - the pests die.
• In early spring, poisoned baits of bread and match heads are placed in the burrows.

If you want to quickly get rid of the pest, you can use special chemicals - Medvetox, Medvecid and Boverin, which are mixed with the soil near the blackberry bushes.

What insects harm blackberry leaves?

Blackberry leaves are very attractive not only to various types of aphids and mites, but also to caterpillars and fleas.

Raspberry leaf aphid

Aphids are a nasty type of pest that primarily attacks blackberries with raspberry genes (Tayberry, Texas, Thornless Loganberry varieties). These insects are very small, no more than 3 mm in length. Those that live on blackberries are characterized by a light yellow color.

The eggs overwinter at the ends of the shoots, near the buds, and with the onset of spring, wingless insects begin to emerge from them, which live in small groups or singly on the underside of the leaves. At the beginning of leaf aphid activity, blackberry leaves bend only slightly and no noticeable damage occurs. But during the summer period, mass reproduction of pests occurs, several generations of aphids are replaced, which may even result in massive leaf fall in the midst of summer. Blackberry yields are reduced, and the frost resistance of shoots is reduced to zero. But the main danger of aphids is that they carry virtually incurable viral diseases.

True, choosing what to spray blackberries against pests that can destroy all plantings is quite easy. In early spring, relatively harmless biological agents can be used to treat raspberry leaf aphids: Agravertin, Aktofit, Fitoverm. Repeat spraying 2-3 times every 5-7 days.

Powerful systemic insecticides, such as Confidor and Mospilan, also cope well with aphids. Spraying with these products must be carried out before the blackberries begin to bloom.

If you notice the pest too late, after buds open and in the summer, then spraying with tobacco infusion can help: infuse 200 g of tobacco dust in 10 liters of water for 2 days. The infusion can be used throughout the day. After 8-10 days, the blackberry treatment is repeated.

Blackberry aphid

This is just one of the varieties of a large family of aphids, distinguished by its relatively larger size and yellowish-greenish color with dark patterns on the body. Otherwise, the lifestyle and degree of harmfulness are very similar to the raspberry leaf aphid, therefore the methods of pest control are the same.

Common spider mite

Ticks are small spiders and cannot be distinguished with the naked eye. Their presence is indicated by the appearance of whitish and speckled spots on blackberry leaves. They live on the underside of leaves and sometimes reveal themselves by forming a small cobweb between the leaves and stems. Most of all they cause harm to young seedlings and blackberry shoots. The leaves quickly turn yellow, dry out and fall off. Mature bushes suffer from mites much less frequently. The pest reproduces especially intensively in hot and dry conditions, so it is most often found in greenhouses and in the southern regions.

Affected blackberry plants stop growing, reduce yield, and young seedlings may even die.

Treating blackberry seedlings with Fitoverm or Akarin will help save the situation; folk methods of fighting against ticks use an infusion of onion or garlic peels (400-500 g per 10 liters of water). In severe cases, spraying blackberries with Neoron or Actellik is used, but only after harvesting the berries.

Raspberry mite

Microscopic in size, arachnids of a reddish hue emerge in the spring from under the bud scales, where they overwinter, and settle below the blackberry leaves. As a result of their activity, the leaves bend, become corrugated, and become discolored. The spots somewhat resemble a viral mosaic, so damage from the pest is often confused with this disease.

In the warm season, to combat the raspberry mite, a 1% sulfur solution is used to spray blackberries, as well as Akarin and Fitoverm.

Raspberry hair mite

The pest has a worm-like shape with a whitish hue and two pairs of legs. Otherwise, it is very similar to the raspberry mite, so the methods of dealing with it are exactly the same.

Raspberry leaf sawfly

In this pest, which looks like a fly, the greatest damage to blackberries is caused by larvae that look like caterpillars, which is why they are often called false caterpillars. If left unchecked, they can destroy more than half the leaves on blackberry bushes.

The larvae overwinter on the soil surface among fallen leaves in cobweb cocoons. They pupate early in spring, and in the second half of May, adult sawflies emerge and begin laying light-colored eggs on the underside of blackberry leaves near the veins or along the edges. The larvae appear literally after 6-8 days and begin to intensively eat away the blackberry leaves, starting from the lower tier. Pests prefer mature leaves and do not feed on young leaves, so gradually towards the end of summer they move closer and closer to the top of the blackberry bushes, leaving behind holey or completely gnawed leaves.

As a result, already in the current season the harvest of blackberries is reduced, and the plants do not have time to form full-fledged buds for next year’s harvest.

To combat the sawfly, it is necessary to loosen the soil under the blackberry bushes and mulch it with a layer of 6 cm or more. False caterpillars are collected manually from a small number of bushes. Also used is spraying blackberries with infusion of tobacco, garlic, wormwood or a solution of carbolic soap (100 g per 15 liters of water).

Cruciferous flea beetle

Often in hot and dry weather, the common cruciferous flea beetle attacks blackberry leaves and makes holes in them. In general, the damage caused by this pest is insignificant. As a protective measure, the leaves are powdered with a mixture of wood ash and tobacco dust.

Various caterpillars

The caterpillars of many butterflies can also gnaw out blackberry leaves, leaving only skeletons. Caterpillars of moths and crimson glassworts especially love blackberries. If the infestation is small, it is most convenient to collect the pests by hand and feed them to poultry. If you missed the moment, you can use spraying with the biological product Lepidocid. Chemical preparations against leaf-eating pests (Karate, Fufanon, Tiovit-Jet) can be used strictly at the very beginning of blackberry budding, no later than 5 days before the start of flowering.

Methods for controlling pests of blackberry shoots

Pests of shoots on blackberries can be detected by careful and regular inspection of the bushes. The usual measure to combat them is to cut out and burn the affected shoots, but sometimes it is necessary to use chemical means of protection.

Raspberry stem fly

If you find wilted tops of young shoots on blackberries, then the raspberry stem fly is most likely at work here. This is a very small gray fly no more than 5 mm long. Forms only one generation per year. The eggs are white, the larvae are light.Lays eggs at the base of leaves on the tops of shoots. The emerging larvae penetrate inside the shoot and make a circular passage in it - the upper part of the shoot withers.

And the larvae gradually descend along the stem to the base, trying to get into the soil for pupation and overwintering. On blackberries, the side shoots and their small branches are most often damaged, so the damage is small. Nevertheless, the affected shoots must be removed and burned, and the soil around the raspberries must be mulched so that the pest cannot fly out and lay eggs in late spring.

Raspberry shoot aphid

The crimson shoot aphid is very similar to its relative, the leaf aphid, which was described above. Only it spreads in large colonies, clinging to young buds from the beginning of spring and sucking the juices out of them. Then the pest occupies the shoots, leaf petioles, and finally gets to the buds and inflorescences. In the summer, the pest has the possibility of viviparity - that is, females immediately give birth to larvae, bypassing the egg stage. This allows you to speed up the reproduction process of insects several times.

In order not to miss the moment of intensive reproduction of shoot aphids, it is necessary to inspect the tops of young blackberry shoots regularly. At the first sign of the presence of pests, the shoots are cut out and burned. And the remaining stems are sprayed with Fitoverm or Actofit.

Raspberry stem gall midge

Damage to blackberries is caused by the larvae of this small flying insect, orange-yellow in color. The pest is easy to identify by the presence of thickenings on the shoots, in the form of growths - galls. It is in them that the stem gall midge larvae live and feed. That's where they spend the winter.In spring, pupae appear, and when warm weather sets in (+10°+13°C), adult gall midges emerge from them. The shoot usually breaks in places where the larvae are concentrated and the total number of damaged shoots can reach 40-50%.

Pest control involves cutting out and burning all shoots with growths in the fall or early spring.

Raspberry shoot gall midge (raspberry mosquito)

An even more dangerous representative of gall midges, since no pronounced growths-galls are formed in the places of its penetration, but they can be identified by the way brown spots first form on the shoot, and then this place turns black. Orange-red larvae, unlike stem gall midges, overwinter in the top layer of soil (2-4 cm) at the base of blackberry stems.

Therefore, among control measures, it is also important to loosen the soil between blackberry bushes in the fall, and mulch in the spring to prevent adult insects from flying out.

Sometimes, in case of severe damage, treatment is used in early spring before flowering with chemical systemic preparations, such as Confidor or Aktara.

Raspberry moth

Another pest of blackberries, in the places where the larvae live, swellings form on the shoots - galls. The galls have an elongated shape. Blackberry branches on which galls form are doomed to death, so you cannot expect a large harvest from damaged bushes.

The larvae overwinter in the galls. Therefore, to destroy the pest, it is only necessary in the fall to find, cut out and burn all blackberry shoots with galls.

Pests that harm blackberry buds, flowers, buds and berries

These pests not only spoil the appearance of the berries, but also worsen their taste and yield characteristics.

Raspberry weevil (flower beetle)

The pest is a small gray-black beetle up to 3 mm long with a proboscis. In spring, females damage blackberry buds, laying eggs in them. And in July, young beetles, emerging from larvae, actively feed on blackberry leaves before leaving for the winter in the soil.

The optimal way to cope with the weevil is to spray the blackberry bushes during the budding period with an infusion of mustard powder with an interval of 5-7 days. To do this, dissolve 100 g of mustard in a bucket of warm water and leave for 12 hours. Loosening the soil around the bushes in autumn and early spring also helps reduce the number of pests.

Raspberry bud moth

A small pest whose caterpillars eat young blackberry buds, adult butterflies feed on buds and nectaries in flowers, and the larvae hatch in fruits and eat drupes, causing them to stop developing.

The activity of the pest at least leads to a decrease in yield, but can also lead to the death of blackberry bushes. Among the folk remedies to combat it, tincture of wormwood (2 kg of fresh herb per 10 liters of water) is effective, which is used to treat blackberry bushes 3-4 times with an interval of 8-10 days during budding and flowering.

Other methods of control include cutting out and burning all old shoots and leaves, loosening and mulching the ground.

Shaggy Bronzewort

The beetle is small in size, black in color with white spots and yellow-gray hairs. The pest is most active in warm sunny weather from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It eats pistils from blackberry flowers, but the damage caused is insignificant. The best method of protection is manual collection.

In regions where the number of bronze insects is greatly increased, you can use the Calypso insecticide.

Raspberry beetle

This pest is more typical for raspberries; it is rare on blackberries. It is capable of damaging both leaves and stems of blackberries, but lays eggs in inflorescences and fresh ovaries. It has the appearance of a flying beetle, no more than 4 mm in size, grayish-brown in color with rusty hairs.

To combat it, in the fall and spring, dig up the ground near the bushes, and then dust it with a mixture of tobacco dust and wood ash.

In early spring, it is effective to water the soil with Confidor solution, and when blackberry buds first appear, spray it a second time.

Blackberry mite

The pest is an arachnid and can be spread by wind and in infected planting material. Blackberry mites are very small, overwinter inside blackberry buds and, with the onset of warm weather, begin to intensively feed on its inflorescences and berries. They introduce special substances inside that change the composition of the berries, which causes their taste to deteriorate and the berries cannot darken when ripe.

To counteract pests, it is necessary to spray the blackberry bushes with the biological product Akarin or Apollo before the buds open. It is advisable to repeat the treatment after 8-10 days.

A set of measures to protect blackberries from pest invasion

Often gardeners, having discovered unknown larvae, caterpillars or damaged leaves and fruits, do not know what to grab, where to run, or how to treat blackberries against pests that can destroy the fruits of their labors.

It is necessary to understand that protecting the garden begins with laying it with uninfected planting material. Therefore, the day before planting, it is advisable to soak the root system of all seedlings in Aktara solution or tobacco dust infusion for several hours.

It is advisable to plant blackberries in areas where green manure (mustard, clover) were planted the year before to improve the health of the soil and reduce the number of its harmful inhabitants.

Since most pests overwinter either in the soil or on plants, spraying blackberry bushes with hot water (60°-70°C) in early spring, when the buds have not yet awakened, is very effective. If the plants are then covered with plastic wrap for a couple of hours, then this preventive technique can be very effective. You just need to understand that the conditions are different everywhere and the method will not be harmless for all varieties of blackberries, so for the first time it is worth testing on several shoots in different parts of the blackberry.

During the entire warm season, you need to remove drying and damaged leaves and shoots of blackberries, destroying them, and constantly loosen and mulch the soil. You should also not thicken your blackberry plantings and remember to regularly feed and water them.

Immediately after the end of fruiting, it is necessary to completely cut out the old shoots and burn them.

Conclusion

Blackberries, especially varieties that lack raspberry genes, still remain relatively resistant to the invasion of various pests. Nevertheless, gardeners cannot relax. You need to know your enemies by sight and apply preventive methods of protection, and when pests are detected, act as quickly as possible, using, first of all, harmless folk remedies.

Recommended Posts

Blackberry diseases

Blackberry Helena

Caring for blackberries in the fall, preparing for winter

The best varieties of blackberries

Arapahoe blackberry

Blackberry Columbia Star

Blackberry Reuben

Blackberry Polar

Blackberry Brzezina