OK last year we lost our entire raspberry crop to the drizzle and some brown beetles, this year the beetles are back, what can I use to get rid of them!
They are about the same size as ladybugs
gardie,
Nov 22, 5:02am
We have them every year.I googled it and got some great hits about what they were.When you try to kill them, they just fall off into the grass - are these the ones!From what I read, they live in the grass but come up to the plants - they don't seem to affect berries, just the leaves.If I remember rightly, the plan was to spray insecticide on the ground under the berries at night - once the beetles have dropped.As we have bees, I didn't want to do this.I'm sure you'll find more info if you google.
net_oz,
Nov 22, 7:44am
Sounds like you have a plague of grass grub beetles. You could always spray your plants with a systemic insecticide. They will eat lots of different plants from plum trees, silver birch etc. Not really worth worrying about them in my opinion.
wheelz,
Nov 22, 8:40am
Raspberries are fruiting now. Not a good idea to use a systemic o any pesticide now.
nigelt74,
Nov 24, 11:59pm
Last year they were literally all through the berries, mind you last year was damp so half the berries were rotting, so i don't know if the beetles had a part in it. all i know is when we got a bowlful of berriesthey kept coming out no matter how many times you had shaken the berries or doused them in water there were always a few more beetles coming out
crackerjack19,
Nov 19, 9:48am
Yes net_oz has it exactly right. These are grass grub beetles and certainly they are a nuisance and the only spray free way to keep them off crops is to cover them with very fine meshed cloth. I have never grown raspberries where they were in such large numbers as to be a pest in themselves. The grubs are an immense pest to pasture of course. The beetles are one hell of a nuisance if you have pear trees as they eat all the young leaves - - -why they should target them I dont know but one can spray, just to kill off the beetles and crops should be ok unless you have blossom then the bees will cop it too. These beetles are night fliers too so birds are no threat to them. So if you want to deal to them some ingenuity is called for. Good Luck
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