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Raspberry Cane Borer

Categories: Pests and Diseases of Plants

Can you tell me what to do for my Loganberries and raspberries? A small

worm got into them in the new growth of wood lost summer, right in the

tips of the new growth of wood, and then worked down through the pith of

the wood, and as fast as they worked down the can wilted.



This is the raspberry horn-tail, or the cane-borer. The adults are

wasp-like insects about a half-inch long and very active. They come out
/> of the canes in spring and the females soon lay eggs in the tender tips

of the young shoots. These eggs soon hatch and the larvae eat their way

up toward the tip, which causes it to wither and die. It is this injury

that causes much notice. As the tip dies, the larvae turn and go down

into the canes, as in the sample sent, also injuring them greatly,

though possibly not killing them for some time. The only way to attack

them is to pinch the spots where the eggs were laid; then those that

escape and cause the tips to wilt should be destroyed by cutting off the

tips below the point of injury or cutting off the canes when they show

damage. Likewise, the insects work on the wild rose, and cutting all

those out around a place will prevent enough adults from developing to

permit little damage to be done, always provided the berries are well

looked after.



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