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Sawfly larvae confused by beans!

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  • #1

    Sawfly larvae confused by beans!

    This year, I decided to grow dwarf french beans in any pot with a plant that was not actively averse to them. After killing three batches of sawfly larvae on my gooseberry-in-a-pot, I kinda-sorta had given up and thought maybe the Nitrogen from the beans will help them regrow the leaves at least.

    Beans are growing pretty well, and a few have started twining around the gooseberry branches. Today, I was examining the plant because the 5th batch of larvae is at it.

    Noticed some drying squiggles on the beans and examined those, only to find that a bunch of those pesky things had crawled up the wrong stem!

    As a result, the infestation on the gooseberry wasn't as bad as the previous ones, and quite a few of the bean leaves have dead larvae on them.
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  • #2
    I wonder if you have stumbled on a novel way of controlling the gooseberry sawfly?
    Personally I find the best method of stopping these pests in their track is persistent diligence. If you carefully inspect your bush[es] EVERY day you will be able to remove each batch of newly hatched larvae on a single leaf. That leaf will show evidence of newly hatched larvae all eating from the one leaf before dispersing throughout the rest of the bush. You will have to get in some ungainly positions and suffer a few scratches as you search but it WILL work. Remember sawfly tend to lay their batch of eggs underneath a leaf and generally the lower leaves of the bush. It will help if you keep your bush well pruned and light and airy in the centre.
    Last edited by cheops; 10-07-2018, 08:21 AM.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by cheops View Post
      I wonder if you have stumbled on a novel way of controlling the gooseberry sawfly?
      Personally I find the best method of stopping these pests in their track is persistent diligence. If you carefully inspect your bush[es] EVERY day you will be able to remove each batch of newly hatched larvae on a single leaf. That leaf will show evidence of newly hatched larvae all eating from the one leaf before dispersing throughout the rest of the bush. You will have to get in some ungainly positions and suffer a few scratches as you search but it WILL work. Remember sawfly tend to lay their batch of eggs underneath a leaf and generally the lower leaves of the bush. It will help if you keep your bush well pruned and light and airy in the centre.

      I know it's a bit too much to expect it to work on its own, but I am going to do this next year as well!

      I try to inspect the bush every day, but a thorough inspection isn't always possible. I normally do a quick once-over of all the plants in the morning. However, the amount of time I spend on each means I can only 'see' the larvae once they've started nibbling on the leaves.

      A dog who needs to be walked for at least an hour twice a day, house-work, and content writing from home generally leaves me with very little time to do much else during the day.

      Thankfully, the gooseberry bush in the front garden does not have the sawfly problem (yet! knock on wood)!

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      • #4
        Worth a go - good luck next year - would be interesting to hear how things went.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by cheops View Post
          Worth a go - good luck next year - would be interesting to hear how things went.
          If I remember to (A) plant the beans, and (B) remember to post here, I shall definitely give an update.

          I think I'll still have a squash a lot of them, but I'm hoping this will give me *some* help.

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          • #6
            I was looking at Youtube for sawfly vids and saw one by Bob Flowerdew who says the sawflies only afect younger trees and not the older ones. I hope that's the case because I find them very difficult to deal with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOqfCplh2zI

            I may try growing some climbing beans next year to see if it helps at all.

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            • #7
              thats not true ! iv'e just cut down a 12 year old bush that's been covered in them again ! Dal
              Last edited by Derbydal; 22-07-2018, 11:21 AM.

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              • #8
                Plant lavender under your gooseberries. I grow lavender under/around mine, never had leaves eaten by sawfly grubs in six years, although the rosemary beetle has had a few trial nibbles

                Don't know how this would work if the sawfly larvae are already in your soil. Might take a year or two to be totally rid of them.
                Location - Leicestershire - Chisit-land
                Endless wonder.

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                • #9
                  I'm sure I remember watching the Beechgrove Garden a couple of years ago when Jim McColl said to take a note of when you see the sawfly and then the following year you water in nematodes 2 weeks earlier. So for example, let's say you see then on 14 June one year, the next year you water them in on 1 June.

                  However when I started looking into buying nematodes this year the instruction say you need to spray it on the plants making sure it comes into contact with the sawfly larvae.

                  This has left me confused and I have started to doubt my memory of what Jim said. I tried looking up the fact sheets but I find their website not really that easy to use.

                  Can anyone else shed some light?

                  My gooseberry bush happens to have chives underneath. Not for any particular reason other than I thought it would look nice. Doesn't seem to make any difference so I think chives can be struck off the list of companion plants.

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