What's eating my pink lemonade blueberry?

Pink Lemonade blueberry faces the same pests as other highbush types: birds are the primary threat at harvest, while blueberry maggot fly larvae damage fruit internally and spotted-wing drosophila attacks softening berries. Blueberry tip borer can damage new growth. Its pink-fruited berries are slightly less visually obvious to birds than blue ones but still raided heavily.

Ripe berries eaten directly off the plant; entire clusters can be stripped in hours by flock-foraging species; even pink fruit is heavily targeted Cover bushes with fine bird netting (1 cm mesh or smaller) secured to the ground; install netting before berries begin to soften; remove promptly after harvest

Ripe and softening berries develop sunken spots and collapse; larvae visible when berries are cut open; infestation often mistaken for overripeness Fine mesh netting (1 mm or less) excludes egg-laying females; spinosad or malathion sprays at early ripening; monitor with apple cider vinegar traps

Larvae tunnel through berry flesh, causing soft, shrunken fruit; often not detected until berries are sorted; adult flies resemble small houseflies with banded wings Hang yellow sticky traps baited with ammonium acetate from late June; clean fallen berries from the ground; kaolin clay as a physical deterrent during fly season

Larvae bore into shoot tips in spring, causing wilting and die-back of new growth known as flagging; affects the current year's fruiting shoots Prune and destroy wilted tips in late spring before larvae move deeper; no chemical control is generally needed if pruning is timely