caterpillars on gooseberry

[supermum]

Today I found 2 tiny green caterpillars on my gooseberry bush, what's the best enviro friendly way to get rid of the?

[Jeanied]

Squish 'em. Simples.
Oh and hang a bird feeder nearby... Blue Tits especially.

[zazen999]

And remember they will strip your gooseberry in hours - so check as often as you can then pull them ALL off. Or no gooseberries.

[purplekat]

If you've seen a couple then there normally loads more.
The way I do it is as soon as I see a leaf that's got nibbled, I pull the whole leaf off with caterpillars still on. That way I know if there's any left as I'll see new nibbled leaves the next day. If you get them early then you don't loose that many leaves. Otherwise it's hard to tell if you've got them all.
Leaves either go on bird table or to the chickens.

I have my gooseberries in pots and if I have them in the back garden, they get stripped of leaves very quickly but in the front garden (where it's a lot shadier) they're hardly ever even touched - I don't know why. Hardly any aphids round there either for some reason

[FB.]

Probably gooseberry sawfly. Unusual-looking caterpillars with black spots on their sides and fairly smooth-skinned appearance.
Those little devils can devastate gooseberry and currant bushes in a matter of days.
Get rid of them ASAP.
Pick them off and either squash them, or leave them in an escape-proof bowl away from the bushes and see if the birds will eat them.

[valmarg]

I know not everyone agrees with me, but the most enviro-friendly way to get rid of them is to chuck some peanuts under the gooseberry bushes. Blue tits and Great tits are currently foraging for food for their young. They will find the peanuts, and also find the sawfly, and clear the problem. It has worked for me for several years. Try it.

valmarg

[sewer rat]

Not always but more times than not, unless you are particularly vigilant, you will not notice the start of any sawfly infestation as they start in the centre of the bush and work their way up and out. They can devastate a good sized bush in 48 hours. Lesson - keep your gooseberry bushes well pruned and open, or better still, if you have the space, grow them / train them along wires or against walls. The walled garden I am currently renovating / reclaiming has a designated fruit bed that was privet hedged but the privet has all but died after 23 years of neglect, so instead of replanting it, I have suggested we put up training wires and grow goosegogs and currants to define the boundary of the fruit bed.

[BarleySugar]

I'll need to check mine tomorrow, it got totally stripped last year. Birds have more sense than to come in my garden unless they want to become cat food.

[ginger ninger]

I have 2 gooseberry bush's and last year was the worst I've had for saw fly's, most of the leaves were stripped and as fast as I was squishing them they seamed to reappear, they also enjoyed some of my red currant leaves, Grrrr

Royal Horticultural Society | Advice Search | Common gooseberry sawfly

[womble]

, if you have the space, grow them / train them along wires or against walls. The walled garden I am currently renovating / reclaiming has a designated fruit bed that was privet hedged but the privet has all but died after 23 years of neglect, so instead of replanting it, I have suggested we put up training wires and grow goosegogs and currants to define the boundary of the fruit bed.

I saw in the victorian kitchen garden program they had gooseberries grown up wires and I think they kept them as a single stem.
I'm not sure as they didn't talk about them in any episode I saw.

I've just got too many bushes now that get them, 3 gooseberries and 3 jostaberries, the jostas are getting huge as well.
I may well just go back to basics, take cuttings and train them up wires, just to keep things simple for aphids and sawfly.

[Buleste]

Thank god for this thread. Last year the green caterpillars snuck under my radar and nearly killed my goosegog so this thread reminded me to keep an eye out. So the other day I checked it and it looked like I had some White fly. So I sprayed them out of existence. I went to check today and there's billions of greenfly!!!!!!! So I've sprayed them hopefully to death. I wonder what happened to all the Ladybirds I was finding earlier this month?

Time to order some larvae I think.

[supermum]

thanks for all advice, I decided that the chemical approach would be best. I tapped each branch sharpy and off dropped a few more tiny blighters which I squished then sprayed the branches. I think I must have spotted them early because ther's no visible damage as yet.

[Two_Sheds]

I wonder what happened to all the Ladybirds I was finding earlier this month?

Well you've just sprayed to death all their food: so they've gone next door

[zazen999]

Today I found 2 tiny green caterpillars on my gooseberry bush, what's the best enviro friendly way to get rid of the?

thanks for all advice, I decided that the chemical approach would be best. I tapped each branch sharpy and off dropped a few more tiny blighters which I squished then sprayed the branches. I think I must have spotted them early because ther's no visible damage as yet.

The best enviro friendly way....was not to spray them.

[Guttata]

Spread a cloth under the bush and hit it/shake it and they drop off, as you noticed, take away and dispose. There is your enviro friendly way.

I used to use an organically acceptable insecticide but it is now removed from sale.