what's eating my grape vine

17 years ago

Please help, I have a vitis vinifera purprea, and it is being eaten. Any new growth is being eaten as quickly as it grows. There is nothing visibly munching but it's making light work of my vine.!!! thank you for any advice.

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Comments (3)

susanlynne48
17 years ago
Boy, grape vines and anything else in the grape family is beloved by many different species of moths. I get eumorpha achemon sphinx and eight-spotted forester moths on my Virginia Creeper, both of which I love and have raised. But, in the UK, I don't know what you would have. Do you see rolled leaves on it? Some kind of spring moth would do that, as well as the grape leaf roller. Check these out by googling "Grape Vine+moths+United Kingdom" and see what you might come up with. Many moths are generalist feeders, meaning they will eat just about anything. There are few, however, that are specific to grape vines.

Susan
birdinthepalm
17 years ago
I've found two different beetles really chew huge holes in bigger leaves and eat the youngest ones entirely, and Japanese beetles seem to love mine, though they only recently arrived in my garden and most likely will prove a major problem. Theres' also a much larger beetle with beige overall shells with black spots, which I've never identified, and that one loves them as well. As for not seeing anything, I'd assumer you have looked very carefully, and in some cases those beetles are very good at conceiling themselves and you have to look hard to find them. Nocturnal munchers that live elsewhere during the daylight hours are also good candidates, though most caterpillars will stay with the food source as will the beetles. I'd guess snails love them as well, and those would depart during daytime hours.
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I have had the same problem with my grapes I would say for about the last 3 to 4 growing seasons .. I am not satisfied with the explanation that this is part of the growing process .. I have clusters that don't have a lot of individual baby grapes on them to begin with, yet all of those grapes disappear as shown in the picture .. and .. it happens gradually from one end of the vine to the other until "ALL" the clusters look like spurs with no grapes on them at picking time .. Never had this problem before .. I live here in Concord, Ontario, Canada .. It seems like this phenomenon of grapes disappearing on the clusters .. and that spur-like appearance .. is something I don't recall having seen in the past. I'm thinking this is something that can be remedied by some kind of pesticide .. I used "WILSON SPIDER BAN" brand and it helped a little but not completely .. don't know which pesticide works best though for this problem .. DOES ANYONE HAVE AN IDEA HOW TO REMEDY THE PROBLEM? .. especially because it happens at such an early stage?
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I try to cut them down every year, but man do those things grow fast! And thick vines! Some are as thick as my wrist and grow so high up in the trees there's no way I can reach them. But...I'll find a place for the new ones and keep a good eye on them. Thanks. ;) V.
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'Looks like an eight-spotted forester. They make beautiful little moths If there are wild grapes in your area, moving them to those wild vines would be the best thing to do. Just cut off the leaves they're on and put them on the wild vines. I thought I had a picture of an adult moth, but I could only find this picture of a caterpillar - They have an odd method of making their pupa - they burrow into soft wood. I'm not sure you'd have that among your cultivated vines. Sherry Here is a link that might be useful: Eight-Spotted Forester
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This a 10 year old grape vine. It used to produce a decent amount of grapes until a few years ago. A new company has been applying the herbicide on our lawn since 2014, though I don't remember the exact year. They only come and apply it once in spring, and our grass manages to stay relatively weed free until fall, believe it or not. Another thing. Every season, right in the middle of summer, between mid-July and late July, the grape vine suddenly "wakes up" and produces more healthy leaves and longer canes, as it is the case now. New leaves don't look distorted at this point in the season. So I'm assuming that by mid-summer, the herbicide ingredient is no longer present in large quantities. That's the reason why? Also, I cut the vine all the way to bottom trunk last spring. New canes showed up on the trunk in late May or June. The herbicide was applied on May 10 when there was nothing but a woody trunk. So no leaves or canes were exposed to the herbicide. I will send Fiesta an email and see if they can find out what exactly is being applied on my lawn by the company. Thank you for the replies. I will update and hope to hear back.
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vazwell_yahoo_com
14 years ago
I think what you are talking about are the Harrisina Americana caterpillars. I moved to Central Florida this spring and noticed a wild grape vine on the ground. I trellised it and hoped for muscadine grapes. The plant was really lush at the top of summer and til last week was nothing but a vine thanks to these yellow caterpillars with black stripes and tufts of white hair. They lined up side by side and reduced the leaves to nothing but their veins. I'm disappointed that they ate so much of the vine but I don't approve of insecticides being that I'm on well water. I am enjoying some regrowth now that the caterpillars have went to cocoon. Wish me luck on the grapes ;)

Here is a link that might be useful: Dave's Garden

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what's eating my grape vine

Comments (3)

susanlynne48

birdinthepalm

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