gooseberry pest

[Diane]

Last year I grew gooseberries and lost the lot to the sawfly. When do I start spraying to avoid this happening again this year? and what do I use? Advice appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I have found, in the past, rather than spray your gooseberries, is you chuck a few peanuts (ie birdfood) under the gooseberry plants. You will find that the birds will do the rest for you, in a very short time.

valmarg

[Jenny Green]

I would wait until you see the caterpillars. I had this pest about 4 years ago but not at all since. They seem to come and go.
I do have woodchip underneath all my soft fruit, which the birds love to investigate, so this may explain it.

[ken]

Just to add that I found my first gooseberry sawfly caterpillars of the year yesterday - quickly dealt with. This strikes me as quite early in the season, though that's just an impression. As mentioned above, they seem to come and go, and last season we didn't have any.

[lizzie]

Hi All

Try planting Poached Egg plant in containers around the gooseberries. I've found this to work quite well against this pest. The flowers look pretty too.

The flowers can also be planted in the ground but they do self seed prolifically, so i've found pots are better with a bin bag or old carpet underneath to catch the falling seeds.

Hopes this helps as an alternative.