Hi All ;
Our normally hardy current bush has dropped almost all of its leaves -
over the last 2 weeks or so ..
Southern Ontario Canada near Stratford.
Any ideas ? could the late May frost have caused this ?
The berries have just started - will they develop further ?
Thanks ; John T.


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hubops wrote:

Hi All ;
Our normally hardy current bush has dropped almost all of its leaves -
over the last 2 weeks or so ..
Southern Ontario Canada near Stratford.
Any ideas ? could the late May frost have caused this ?
The berries have just started - will they develop further ?

what kind of soil is this plant in? is it mulched
well? does it get any shade? has it been watered
during the recent dry spells?


songbird

Hi All ;
Our normally hardy current bush has dropped almost all of its leaves -
over the last 2 weeks or so ..
Southern Ontario Canada near Stratford.
Any ideas ? could the late May frost have caused this ?
The berries have just started - will they develop further ?



what kind of soil is this plant in? is it mulched
well? does it get any shade? has it been watered
during the recent dry spells?
songbird


Same soil as the last 20 years - always did well.
Not mulched much.
Not much shade at all.
Perhaps it was dry ? but the other plants around it seem OK.
Some tiny dark caterpillers are present on the sparse remaining leaves
... didn't see them at first
Difficult to imagine that these tiny bugs could have stripped the bush
- but possible I guess - if there was a huge population working ..
John T

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On Tue, 02 Jun 2015 07:17:22 -0400, hubops
wrote:


Hi All ;
Our normally hardy current bush has dropped almost all of its leaves -
over the last 2 weeks or so ..
Southern Ontario Canada near Stratford.
Any ideas ? could the late May frost have caused this ?
The berries have just started - will they develop further ?



what kind of soil is this plant in? is it mulched
well? does it get any shade? has it been watered
during the recent dry spells?
songbird


Same soil as the last 20 years - always did well.
Not mulched much.
Not much shade at all.
Perhaps it was dry ? but the other plants around it seem OK.
Some tiny dark caterpillers are present on the sparse remaining leaves
.. didn't see them at first
Difficult to imagine that these tiny bugs could have stripped the bush
- but possible I guess - if there was a huge population working ..
John T

Might be sawfly larvae. They can devastate a bush.

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

Hi All ;
Our normally hardy current bush has dropped almost all of its leaves -
over the last 2 weeks or so ..
Southern Ontario Canada near Stratford.
Any ideas ? could the late May frost have caused this ?
The berries have just started - will they develop further ?


what kind of soil is this plant in? is it mulched
well? does it get any shade? has it been watered
during the recent dry spells?
songbird


Same soil as the last 20 years - always did well.
Not mulched much.
Not much shade at all.
Perhaps it was dry ? but the other plants around it seem OK.
Some tiny dark caterpillers are present on the sparse remaining leaves
.. didn't see them at first
Difficult to imagine that these tiny bugs could have stripped the bush
- but possible I guess - if there was a huge population working ..
John T


Might be sawfly larvae. They can devastate a bush.


Thanks for that suggestion - it gives me a starting point
for identifying the bug - and then learning about control.
I'll put one under the scope and use some web searches
to identify .. hopefully. My first two web sites look promising ..
http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/...find/sawflies/
http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/sawfly_larvae
John T.



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snips

Might be sawfly larvae. They can devastate a bush.


Thanks for that suggestion - it gives me a starting point
for identifying the bug - and then learning about control.
I'll put one under the scope and use some web searches
to identify .. hopefully. My first two web sites look promising ..
http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/...find/sawflies/
http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/sawfly_larvae
John T.



Bingo ... I think - Much thanks !
When, at first - I quickly examined the bush - I didn't see
any caterpillers - I was looking for something bigger -
- second examination was at dusk - the 1 or 2 tiny
larva that I saw looked almost black .
Today in bright light it took me a few minutes to locate
a couple of green larva with black markings ...
Under my 5 x loupe ..
They look exactly like this photo of the gooseberry sawfly !

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=517

This was from a UK website - I'm in Canada ..
my only minor question as to identification .. ?
John T.


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On Tue, 02 Jun 2015 17:50:15 -0400, hubops
wrote:

snips

Might be sawfly larvae. They can devastate a bush.


Thanks for that suggestion - it gives me a starting point
for identifying the bug - and then learning about control.
I'll put one under the scope and use some web searches
to identify .. hopefully. My first two web sites look promising ..
http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/...find/sawflies/
http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/sawfly_larvae
John T.



Bingo ... I think - Much thanks !
When, at first - I quickly examined the bush - I didn't see
any caterpillers - I was looking for something bigger -
- second examination was at dusk - the 1 or 2 tiny
larva that I saw looked almost black .
Today in bright light it took me a few minutes to locate
a couple of green larva with black markings ...
Under my 5 x loupe ..
They look exactly like this photo of the gooseberry sawfly !

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=517

This was from a UK website - I'm in Canada ..
my only minor question as to identification .. ?
John T.


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Your countrymen know them well.

http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/fo...ad.php?t=68841


Boron