Blueberry Bush
Insect Damage & Control
When you buy blueberry bushes and plant them, then you need to learn how to care for them. For the most part blueberry bushes have very few insects that can cause extensive damage. This is good news, and this means you do not have use preventative insecticidal spaying of harmful chemicals.
Bag worms
Bagworms larvae can become problematic, but they are easily recognized. You will note a silk bag {hence the name bagworm} where the females live and never leave. The female will lay her eggs in the silk bag, but he male has wings and leaves in search of other female bagworms.
Sometime in the winter the silk worm bags should be removed from the blueberry bush and destroyed. You can use chemicals during the growing season such as malathion, and sevin, but read the preharveting instruction very well.
Japanese beetle
The beetles are about half inch in size with a characteristic green and brown color, and their wings have a row of white tufts online the edges. The Japanese beetle find the blueberry bush very attractive. They can skeletonize a blueberry plant very quickly, and their grubs can be found in soil where they feed on the roots of the blueberry plant and grasses around it.
Clean harvesting to reduce the amount of overripe and damaged fruit will help to discourage beetles from being attracted to the planting. Japanese beetle traps have been shown to be ineffective at reducing beetle numbers and, in some situations, have increased the amount of damage near the traps.
Plum curculio
The plum curculio is a early spring blueberry pest. This beetle is about 1 /5 inch long, mottled brown and gray in color with a long beakish snout. They are mostly active feasting on blueberries in the night, and the adult females feed on the fruit and lay eggs inside the developing berries. The larvae after hatching will feed on the blueberries, and the fruit will appear shriveled and fall off prematurely. Same insecticides can be used as mentioned above.
Are Blueberries Safe For Animals?
Can blueberries harm animals?
Blueberry bushes are natural bird feeders.
Save your blueberry bushes from birds with netting.
Organic Blueberry Bushes
How to grow organic blueberry bushes.
Low bush blueberry
What are lowbush blueberries?
Mail this post
Recent Comments