I had a good crop of raspberries in my inherited fruit cage, unfortunately they had maggots.
Found a couple of birds in the cage as well so made a big opening in the net to let them feed on the maggots/raspberries no point in wasting them.
Any suggesting on how to prevent maggots next year would be welcome.
Thinking of replacing the rasperries with some small troths for strawberries for next year, what would be best width size 6/12/18 inches length will be 10 feet and they will be on stilts.
Maggots in my Raspberries
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Dear Colin,
Allowing the maggots the chance to mature and pupate is not the answer. What you need to do is remove all the fruit/flowers and dispose of them into the green bin; not the compost heap. You might have to do this for a couple of years if the infestation is bad. The good news is that they only tend to affect the summer cropping plants and not the Autumn raspberries. If you have or can borrow some hens to release into the fruit cage then they will pick out any pupa as they scratch about. Do this in the Autumn when the ground is soft and everything has finished cropping.
If there are not very many and you REALLY need the raspberries then a trick I was taught may help. Pick the fruit (good, bad and indifferent - ALL of them) as they ripen. Eat the good ones fresh, throw away the really bad ones into the green bin or chicken pen, the indifferent should be left in a bowl of cold water for a few hours. This makes the maggots leave home and float on the top of the water where they can be removed with a spoon. These poor quality raspberries will still make good puree/jam/jelly/freeze for cooking with later. This method also works with maggoty blackberries.
Regards Sally Wright.
Allowing the maggots the chance to mature and pupate is not the answer. What you need to do is remove all the fruit/flowers and dispose of them into the green bin; not the compost heap. You might have to do this for a couple of years if the infestation is bad. The good news is that they only tend to affect the summer cropping plants and not the Autumn raspberries. If you have or can borrow some hens to release into the fruit cage then they will pick out any pupa as they scratch about. Do this in the Autumn when the ground is soft and everything has finished cropping.
If there are not very many and you REALLY need the raspberries then a trick I was taught may help. Pick the fruit (good, bad and indifferent - ALL of them) as they ripen. Eat the good ones fresh, throw away the really bad ones into the green bin or chicken pen, the indifferent should be left in a bowl of cold water for a few hours. This makes the maggots leave home and float on the top of the water where they can be removed with a spoon. These poor quality raspberries will still make good puree/jam/jelly/freeze for cooking with later. This method also works with maggoty blackberries.
Regards Sally Wright.
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try autumn rasperrys no maggots in mine