What's eating my cabernet sauvignon grape?

Cabernet Sauvignon vines are attacked by grape berry moth that ruins fruit, leafhoppers that stipple foliage, and grape flea beetle that damages emerging buds in spring. Deer browse young canes heavily. The thick-skinned berries are relatively resistant to some rots but berry moth infestations open wounds that invite botrytis.

Larvae bore into flower clusters and later into ripening berries, causing direct fruit loss and inviting secondary fungal infections. Monitor with pheromone traps; apply Bt or spinosad at first-generation egg hatch; practice good canopy management to reduce humid micro-climates.

White stippling across leaf surfaces reduces photosynthesis and can cause premature leaf drop on heavily infested vines. Maintain cover crops to support parasitic wasps; apply insecticidal soap or pyrethrin to leaf undersides in summer if above threshold.

Adults chew holes in swelling buds in early spring, destroying primary shoots before leaves emerge; this is particularly damaging in cool springs. Apply kaolin clay to dormant buds before budbreak; insecticide applications timed to adult emergence protect the most vulnerable growth stage.

Browse young canes and emerging shoots; buck rub on trunk posts causes serious structural damage to training systems. Install 8-foot (2.4 m) deer fencing around the vineyard; individual tube guards protect young vines during establishment.