What's eating my small cranberry?

Small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) shares pests with its commercial cousin. Spotted wing drosophila targets ripening fruit; cranberry fruitworm hollows developing berries; black-headed fireworm caterpillars web and brown foliage. In boggy habitats, frogs and some waterfowl also consume fruit, while deer browse low-growing shoots.

Eggs deposited into softening fruit; larvae collapse the flesh; affected berries ooze and rot rapidly on the vine Monitor with fermented-fruit traps; fine exclusion netting where practical; spinosad applied at fruit softening stage

Larvae bore into young berries at the stem end, hollowing them and often web-spinning several berries together Apply Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) or spinosad at egg-hatch (when Juneberry is in full bloom); remove webbed berry clusters by hand

Caterpillars web shoot tips together and feed within; affected growth browns and dies — looks like tip blight from a distance Bt or spinosad timed to early larval hatch; flooding (where irrigation infrastructure allows) drowns overwintering pupae in bogs