Hi. I've grown blueberries for years and have had this problem for the last couple of years. It's a micro moth, pretty sure it's the light brown apple moth. I've found the best way to deal with it is to keep an eye on the leaves when they start sprouting and check they aren't curled up with the webbing. Any that are just squish them (it's an introduced species from Australia) then once the fruits start growing check the bunches often and look out for webbing or berries turning purple before the rest of the bunch. They like to hide in the middle of bunches. They have two generations a year do you need to check often. I don't like squishing them, but they don't have any natural predators. :-(
Thank you so much for your advice, i will follow that. I'm sure random-Bubble will do that too. The link sent by NannaBoo showed white maggots and that is not correct, they are definitely small green caterpillars. If I find them in fruit i put both the caterpillar and the fruit on the bird table and they get gobbled up! saves squishing!
I'll definitely be checking each fruit for holes as i don't much fancy snacking on them myself!
I know they so. last year one blackbird was so funny. It stood in front of the pot that one of the blueberries is in and jumped up and down trying to get high enough by jumping to reach the fruit, of course it succeeded and it was so comical to watch that I was happy for it to eat some of the berries!
Thank you so much for the replies! I've looked at picture of the apple moth and think that could be it. war on apple moth here I come, thanks again guys!
I caught one of these buggers nibbling a blueberry today. Usually they hide in the leaves and curl themselves up between them with webbing so easy to spot but hadn't spotted these.Once they get too big they nibble into a bueberry. Constant war in the garden, if its not the slugs, its the birds and it it isn't the birds its the insects.
To me they look identical to the gooseberry sawfly but they might be a bit bigger.
Edit: I don't think I saw this apple moth as they exclusively eat fruit.
I have not seen many caterpillars this year thankfully. I think, MrTJForman that they are fruit worm pests as the leafroller caterpillars are much larger than the ones I am finding in the fruit. I think the motto is to get rid of any webbing on the plants and search out the caterpillars before they dig into the fruit!
yes random_bubble- war on the light brown apple moth!!
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Thank you so much for your advice, i will follow that. I'm sure random-Bubble will do that too. The link sent by NannaBoo showed white maggots and that is not correct, they are definitely small green caterpillars. If I find them in fruit i put both the caterpillar and the fruit on the bird table and they get gobbled up! saves squishing!
I'll definitely be checking each fruit for holes as i don't much fancy snacking on them myself!
To me they look identical to the gooseberry sawfly but they might be a bit bigger.
Edit: I don't think I saw this apple moth as they exclusively eat fruit.
I saw a leafroller larvae which nibbled leaves too https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/insects/leafroller-damage-control.htm
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/identification-worms-blueberry-bushes-94365.html
I think the motto is to get rid of any webbing on the plants and search out the caterpillars before they dig into the fruit!
yes random_bubble- war on the light brown apple moth!!
Thanks for everyone's help.