Dealing With Pest Control for Your Vineyard Grapes

Vineyard grapes are subject to a number of different threats. These include diseases, insects and larger animals such as birds and even deer.

The common diseases seen in vineyard grapes include black rot, mildew, phomopsis cane and leaf spot and various other fungal infections. There are symptoms which will help you to spot diseases in your grapes. Discoloration of the leaves is usually the first sign of disease, as is a film which covers the leaves, lesions or a deterioration of the grapes themselves. If your vineyard grapes are suffering from disease, a fungicide will usually be able to take care of the problem. However, this is not always the answer – so vineyard keepers should have an understanding of the different diseases which may afflict their vineyard grapes in order to be able to treat them.

Insects are one of the largest threats faced by vineyard grapes. Grape berry moths can destroy your crop in a hurry if left untreated. These moths lay their eggs on the grapes, with the larvae bring into the grapes upon hatching. Small holes on the grapes and webbing in grape clusters indicates the presence of a problem. Thankfully, it will take a sizable infestation to completely ruin your crop for the year. Not only a threat to ash trees, Japanese beetles can seriously damage grapevines. Larger beetles like Rose chafers will actually eat your grapes! However, grapevines are relatively resilient, with low or moderate infestations not generally posing much of a hazard to your crop. Insect control is usually necessary only when there is a serious infestation, with a large amount of leaves or fruit being at risk.

Birds can really damage your crops, however. You’re actually better off if you have a flock coming for your grapes rather than a small number of individuals, since a flock is easier to frighten off en masse. If birds are posing a threat to your grapes, the best way to prevent them from causing too much damage to your crops is to place netting over your vineyard. This will prevent bird damage for about two and a half years; however, remove the netting before winter, as the weight of the netting covered with snow and ice can also damage your vines. Sound devices can be used to repel birds, as can scarecrows. If you are growing grapes in your backyard, however, then these sound based repellents are more likely to cause trouble with your neighbors than they are to scare off birds. In this case, you can protect your vineyard grapes with aluminum pie plates, as well as artificial owls, hawks and snakes.

In spring, deer are a threat to vineyard grapes as the shoots begin to emerge. Deer can usually repelled using scents – dog hair, human hair and soap are effective deer repellents. Coyote scents also work well, since these are natural predators of deer. Your vineyard grapes require a significant degree of work in order to produce a crop, so pest control is one of your most important duties as a viticulturist.