Pest control on raspberries
Raspberries are one of the tastiest and sweetest berries in the country, which is loved not only by gardeners, but also by pests. Raspberries must be constantly and carefully looked after. During the season, it is fed, watered and treated against pests and diseases.
Raspberry pests
The most common pests are raspberry-strawberry weevil, raspberry stem fly, raspberry beetle, and raspberry shoot gall midge. Every gardener has come across these malicious insects.
Raspberry and strawberry weevil
This little bug wreaks havoc on raspberries in the spring, after the first leaves have opened. He loves to feast on young leaves, gnawing large holes in them. During the flowering period, in June 10-20, it lays eggs on the buds, from which voracious larvae hatch and eat almost half of the raspberry crop, without allowing it to ripen.
To combat the weevil in very early spring, while the buds have not yet blossomed, raspberry shoots must be treated with karbofos: 50 g per bucket of water. For those gardeners who do not want to use "chemistry" on their site, we offer the following recipe: 10 g of birch tar and 30 g of liquid soap per 10 liters of water. Stir all the ingredients well until a suspension forms and sprinkle on the raspberries. Pests do not like the smell of tar very much and will leave your raspberry patch.
Raspberry stem fly
A small gray fly lays eggs on the ground next to a young shoot, then the hatched larva bites into the shoot and sucks the juice out of it. The shoot dries up. If on the stem, at a level of 5-10 cm from the ground, you find a dark point with a small wound, then breaking it, you will see a small worm 5-6 mm long - this is the larva of a raspberry fly. In this case, there is nothing to do but cut the stem to the root and burn it.
To fight the larvae, you need to loosen the ground around the raspberry bush, adding a mixture of ash with mustard and pepper (1 m2 square - a half liter jar of ash, adding a tablespoon of black, red pepper and mustard).
Raspberry beetle
The raspberry beetle damages raspberries when the berry begins to swell and turn red. He lays eggs in a green berry. The larvae suck out the juice from the ripe berries, and the raspberries dry up. The fight against such a pest consists in scaring it away with the previously described tar solution; it is impossible to water the bushes with various chemicals during the ripening period of raspberries.
Raspberry shoot gall midge
Insect damages raspberries from the fall. Its larva climbs into the stem and hibernates there, a thickening "cone" forms on the stem. Damaged stems must be cut at the root and burned, because you will not get a good harvest from such bushes, the berries will be small and not tasty, and the probability of infecting and losing the entire raspberry plantation is very high.