Currant Shoots Chopped!

[Andrew1306]

Hi All,

I’m distressed to find the vast majority of the spring shoots on my red currants each carefully cut and dangling. Just a small part still attached and they pull off easily. Any ideas for a culprit and mitigation?

Great thanks for any guidance!

 

[Tetters]

What was that creature on the stem on the second picture?

 

[Andrew1306]

Behind? Just a fallen piece of leaf or something.

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

This is the work of the Currant Stem Girdler (Janus integer), a Sawfly (Cephidae, Symphyta, Hymenoptera) native to eastern North America. Gravid female adult sawflies insert their eggs inside young stems of Currants & Gooseberries (Ribes spp.). Each larva eats a hollow within the interior of the stem, eventually girdling the stem entirely, shortly before pupation. The lower half of the girdled stem in the OP photographs likely contains a larva or pupa of the Sawfly.