Pests & diseases › Blueberry Maggot

Blueberry Maggot

Cherry fruit fly's blueberry cousin. Maggots inside ripe berries.

Symptoms

  • Small white maggots inside ripe blueberries
  • Soft, prematurely-ripe berries
  • Berries dropping early

Lifecycle

Adults emerge as berries start to ripen.

What to do

  • Yellow sticky sphere traps with ammonium scent
  • Spinosad sprays during berry coloring
  • Pick all ripe berries every 2 days

If it's bad

  • Carbaryl

Stop it coming back

  • Fine mesh netting over bushes during ripening
  • Aggressive sanitation

Crops it goes for

Plan the plot, track every sowing, cook the harvest

Sowing reminders and harvest forecasts for your own frost dates, the Seed Tin, Scan Centre for any label or packet, and the Potty Mouth Garden Club. Free to start.