Taking Action Against The Raspberry Beetle

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

The raspberry beetle, also called the raspberry beetle, is distinguished by a special love for raspberries, but sometimes it can also be found on various fruit trees, as well as on drupes and blackberries. The appetizing berries damaged by it quickly fade, shrink, wither and begin to rot. To save the harvest of fragrant and tasty berries, you should start fighting this pest in a timely manner

Meet the pest

The size of raspberry beetles is in the range of 3.5 - 4 mm. The pests are oval in shape, endowed with a small head and painted in a blackish-grayish color. Their body is covered with gray or rusty-yellow hairs, the legs are yellowish. Eggs up to 1 mm in diameter can be either yellowish or white. The worm-like larvae of parasites reach a length of 6, 3 - 6, 8 mm. They are characterized by three pairs of chest legs and a light brown color with a slight yellowness. On the dorsal part of each of the segments, brownish chitinized plates can be seen, and on the last nine there are also hook-shaped spines curved upward. The size of the white pupae reaches 3, 5 - 4 mm.

Overwintering of larvae and beetles takes place in the soil, at a fairly decent depth of 20 cm, mainly under fodder shrubs. In late April or early May, they move to the surface as soon as the surface layer of the soil warms up to 12-13 degrees. Then, for 12 - 15 days, they additionally feed on nectar, as well as on the anthers of flowers of berry and fruit vegetation, and only then switch to raspberries, on the leaves of which they gnaw narrow oblong holes between the veins. As soon as buds with flowers appear, the pests will begin to eat them, as a result of which partially damaged buds will give deformed berries, and badly damaged buds will generally fall off.

Female eggs are laid mainly in flowers, one at a time, a little less often - on young ovaries. Their total fertility ranges from 30 to 40 eggs. The revival of larvae begins 8 to 10 days later. For some time, the harmful larvae are on the surface, and then, gnawing inside, they begin to devour not only the very fleshy receptacle, but also the parts of the racemes adjacent to it. On average, the development of larvae takes about 40 - 45 days, in connection with which they can often be encountered in an already harvested crop. At the end of development, voracious larvae begin to burrow to a depth of 5 to 20 cm into the ground, where they subsequently pupate in earthen cradles. Pupae, after a couple of weeks turned into bugs, remain in the soil until spring. The larvae that completed development a little later, passing into diapause, pupate only in August of the next year. Basically, the annual generation is characteristic of the raspberry beetle, and only occasionally it is two years old.

How to fight

As a preventive measure, in the fall, it is recommended to carefully dig the soil near the raspberry bushes, as well as plow the row spacings. It is equally important to eliminate the contamination of the areas in a timely manner so that the overwintered beetles do not have nutrition.

During the budding period, raspberry beetles can be shaken off onto litters spread under the bushes. Any container is suitable for this, into which you can easily shake off the parasites, even an inverted open old umbrella. The beetles collected in this way are poured with water with the addition of a small amount of kerosene.

Before tying the buds, it is advisable to spray at least once a week with a solution of baking soda, which takes only one tablespoon per ten liters of water.

If on one bush of raspberries the number of beetles begins to exceed 2 - 3 individuals, during the budding period, they begin to treat with insecticides or fungicides. Fosbecid, Aktellik, Kinmiks and Iskra have proven themselves quite well.

A good effect is given by spraying raspberry bushes with Fitoverm - this drug is able to retain its protective properties for up to three weeks. This treatment is best done from mid to late May, when the cherry blossoms.

In the fall, after completing the collection of berries, raspberries are sprayed with karbofos, which is taken in 60 g for every ten liters of water. For a dozen raspberry bushes, one and a half to two liters of karbofos solution is enough.