Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi
I've just returned from a few days away to find my 3 gooseberry bushes completley defoliated by what I assume is gooseberry sawfly (little black headed catapillars?) There isnt a leaf left on my 2 year old bushes. I've picked off and squished as many as I could find but will the bushes survive?
Sue

they should recover with new leaves in the spring. if the bushes were killed the sawfly wouldnt survive next year either . the leaves were probably about to fall off anyway, its late for sawfly they are often about in mid summer.

Hi Sue,
It is truly late for Sawfly but unfortunately the second you touch the plant an awful lot of them drop to the ground so may I suggest that next year try carefully spreading a sheet of polythene on the soil below then tap the plant and you will get a far better destruction rate.
As Richard says they dont really do any damage. Last year mine were defoliated and still went on to give me a crop of Gogs.
JB.

Well its sounds like there is hope for them yet I had an attack of them in early summer and thought that was the last of it - I too was taken aback that they had returned with what seem to be a 2nd generation so late in the year, but then the weather has been so odd that anythings possible I reckon.

My three bushes were completely stripped of leaves as the fruit were nearly ready to pick but I still got a good crop. However,a few leaves have started to sprout again but I've now pruned them and hope to be more vigilant next spring. My neighbour has some large shrubs on the other side of the fence to my goosberry bushes which are always crawling with caterpillars which drop down onto my bushes so it's a losing battle to control the problem. HoweverI still manage to get reasonable crops.