What's eating my blanka whitecurrant?

Blanka whitecurrant shares the pest profile of red currants: currant blister aphid disfigures spring foliage, gooseberry sawfly caterpillars can defoliate a bush in days, and birds prize the pale sweet berries. Because the translucent berries are harder to spot against foliage, bird damage often goes unnoticed until harvest is ruined.

Spring foliage develops raised yellowish or pinkish blisters; undersides host aphid colonies; repeat infestations weaken fruiting spurs. Spray insecticidal soap or diluted neem at bud burst before leaves cup; encourage hoverflies and parasitic wasps as biological control.

Caterpillars eat all leaf tissue except the main veins, defoliating entire branches rapidly from the centre of the bush outward. Check inner stems weekly from late April; hand-pick early instars; apply spinosad or pyrethrin once larvae are confirmed but before mass defoliation.

White currants blend with the sky when viewed from above, but birds locate berries by scent and memory; clusters picked clean before full ripeness. Install a permanent fruit cage or drape netting (15 mm mesh) from color-break; remove netting promptly after harvest to avoid entangling wildlife.