What's eating my blackberry 'triple crown'?

Triple Crown blackberry's large, sweet berries are highly attractive to spotted wing drosophila, which lays eggs inside ripening fruit and is now the top commercial concern across the US and UK. Japanese beetles skeletonize foliage and damage fruit in the US. Aphids and cane borers round out the main threats. SWD is the definitive worst threat.

Female uses a serrated ovipositor to puncture intact, firm-skinned ripening blackberries; larvae cause the berry to rapidly collapse and turn mushy; infestation rates in blackberry are among the highest of any fruit crop Fine exclusion netting (under 1 mm mesh) is the most effective barrier; apply spinosad or pyrethrin sprays at first colour change; harvest frequently and remove all overripe fruit; use adult monitoring traps from midsummer

Adults skeletonize leaves, leaving a lacy brown skeleton; large groups feed on ripe fruit simultaneously, causing rapid crop loss Hand-pick adults in early morning into soapy water; use row cover fabric during peak beetle flight (early to midsummer); neem oil or pyrethrin sprays; avoid Japanese beetle pheromone traps near the planting as they attract more beetles than they catch

Colonies on growing tips cause shoot distortion and honeydew; can transmit blackberry calico virus causing pale leaf mottling Apply insecticidal soap or neem oil to affected tips; attract ladybirds and lacewings; ant control helps as ants protect aphid colonies from predators

Larvae tunnel in a spiral under the bark of first-year canes, forming a distinctive cigar-shaped gall; galled canes snap or die back from the top Prune out and destroy affected canes at the first sign of wilting or galling; cut 15 cm below the gall; dispose of canes away from the planting; no effective chemical control once larvae are inside the cane