Damn Sawflies - shouldn’t be allowed!

Nollie · July 2020

Ok, everything has it’s place in the eco system and someone is about to tell me how critical they are, but if there were one type of critter I would ban it would be these!

Still trying to deal with a massive rose sawfly invasion, every time I think I have got all the slugs, more foliage is ravaged. Berberis sawfly larvae are busily stripping all my Berberis shrubs faster than I can squish em!

Is it just me or are sawflies having a good year?

mikeymustard · July 2020

Every pest known to humankind is having a good year! Darned slugs have destroyed a calibrachoa I only planted a week or so ago - one day it was there, the next - nada. I could actually hear the slugs chomping last night, they've even managed to decimate our golden hop: there were several giants over 6in long on it!

Pianoplayer · July 2020

Empathy from me! I have taken to going out into the garden far too frequently to look for the bright yellow females as they try to attach to my roses, and killing them before they have laid their eggs. I had never come across them before this year, but have learnt more about them than I ever wanted to know!

Omori · July 2020

I have many many damaged canes but thankfully this year the larvae seem to be eaten before causing much damage. On the plus side, I have never seen so many ladybird larvae as I have this year.

floralies · July 2020

I had the same problem last year with Hazel Sawfly Larvae, they were decimating my young plants in a wild life hedge, I picked off as many as I could and put them out for the birds. This year I haven't seen one at all, very strange.

Nollie · July 2020

First time for me too with the rose slugs. I have discovered I have the Bristly Rose Sawfly rather than the usual type, which explains why I keep seeing repeated attacks since they can go through half a dozen breeding cycles a year. Also explains why I can’t find any cane scars either, as the black, unassuming-looking flies lay their eggs on the underside of leaf margins.

I have virtually no ladybirds this year for some reason and nobody but me seems to be preying on them, but there is only one of me and thousands of them!

GemmaJF · July 2020

Have you got any log piles? We see the adult ladybirds emerge from them in our garden every year, right at the same time our common lizards do in the spring. So providing habitat for adults in the winter, will help a lot with good populations in the summer.

Nollie · July 2020

Lots of wild areas, log and brush piles, outbuildings, nooks and crannies, ladybird-friendly planting and certainly enough pests to keep them happy @GemmaJF. They nested in my polytunnel a couple of years ago so I deliberately keep it messy and undisturbed just in case, but no... It’s a bit of a mystery!

floralies · July 2020

Bob the Gardener answered another question about Sawfly Larvae on a birch tree. I think this is the same advice for all of them, maybe why we don't have any (at the moment) Nollie.

Nollie · July 2020

I only noticed the damage, then the slugs, then the sawflies from around April/May this year, @Floralies, no holes last year, so I think they have just arrived. I am very prompt at clearing up any leaves and scruffling up the soil around the roses. but I will be super vigilant in clearing, scruffling and replacing the mulch around the roses this winter! I buy bare root normally, but bought an imported potted DA rose in a local GC around that time for the first time in a few years. That one is the only one, so far, that additionally, has the curled rose slug. Hmm, I wonder... Princess Alexandra of Kent I blame you 😆

Bee witched · July 2020

Hi @Nollie ,

Worth giving neem spray a go for the sawfly .... it works on the solomon's seal, aruncus and gooseberry sawflies.

Bee x

Damn Sawflies - shouldn’t be allowed!

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