Gooseberry sawfly

[newbieveggie]

Hello there everyone

Please excuse my ignorance with my question as I am very new to growing fruit etc and to this forum.
I have a problem. I have a gooseberry pax (well thats what it calls it on the label) and it has been eaten by lil green caterpillars. I am gardening organically so I have been picking them off and squashing them. I think (hope) I have them all and that my plant will recover, however they got to it long before I worked out what it was hence no fruit and only a few leaves left. So my 4 questions are :

Will it now survive ?

Does it have to be open for bees etc to pollinate it to get fruit or can I cover it with fleece to prevent sawfly and still get fruit ?

Does the sawfly like any other types of fruit as my raspberries havent done that well either ?

Finally is there anything else I can do in the future to prevent this if the fleece is not an option ?

Many thanks in great anticipation.

[divvy]

I hae this problem on my gooseberry. It would get eaten totally, no leaves left at all. Each year it would make new leaves and then they would get eaten. I read that the caterpiller over winters in the soil around the bush then in spring goes up the plant and eats it. Last year I landed up spraying it , which I don't like doing. I have now moved the bush making sure I removed all the soil so I didn't move the bugs with it. It looks much better now.How long this will last for , I don't know , they may find the bush in it's new place. It is in the flower garden with others . I am hoping that it will be harder to find there.

[Two_Sheds]

Yes, the caterpillars fall to the ground & pupate in the soil. You should hoe round the plant to expose the pupa to birds.

As to raspberries ... they get eaten by the Raspberry Beetle.

[daylily]

They like red and white currants, too. The damage can sometimes be lethal, but it is most likely that fruiting will be affected for a few seasons.

[BayViewPlot]

I had 6 plants (red/white/gooseberries) coompletely stripped!

I give up. It's war!

What do you spray with and when?

[valmarg]

It's a bit late in July for gooseberry sawfly, but if you've got it you've got it.

When we had a gooseberry bush we used to find it occurred in Spring, when the birds were looking for grubs to feed their young. I used to chuck a couple of handfuls of peanuts under the bush. Problem solved.

valmarg