My grape vine (Italia) has a plague of these tiny beetle, which look black, but have almost metallic stripes.
They also have black caterpillars. I presume these then turn into beetles, which lay eggs which....etc., although my biology is not very good.
They have virtually stripped a very large vine, and I cannot treat them, as we are eating the grapes at the moment.
I would like to identify them, and to find a way of getting rid of them, other than using pesticides, as they appear just before the grapes ripen. Advice please!
Invasion of tiny beetles on grape vine.
I think you have the pest. Beetle larvae look a lot like caterpillars, and are entirely capable of eating the leaf as shown in your first picture.
Some pests crawl down the plant in the day, to stay hidden in the soil. If these beetles do this, then you might be able to kill them there with either poisoned bait or spray.
You might be able to control them next year by spraying earlier, before the grapes are ripe, to catch the earliest larvae starting in on your plants, before they grow into adults.
At this time, not wanting to spray with toxins, you could try a couple of things.
1) Spray the plant with a pretty strong jet of water. Perhaps knock the beetles off, then spray them with something when they are on the ground.
2) Spray with something that does not affect the grapes. Perhaps a concoction of kitchen herbs (garlic, hot pepper, mint...)
3) Spray with something that is easy to wash off like insecticidal soap.
Trap the adults, especially if they stay on the ground through the day.
See if they are willing to go into a rolled newspaper to hide. Then remove the newspaper daily, and put out new ones.
Thanks, once again, Diana. Do you know what the species is? I always like to know my enemy!
Don't know about the ground bit, as the vine grows up on to a first floor terrace, and they would have to climb down about 10ft. each night.
I will try the insectiicidal soap, and I like the idea of the rolled up newspapers. Don't know what the family would think of garlic and hot pepper grapes!
Thanks again.
Other than saying, yes, it is a beetle (Coleoptera) I do not know. There are a lot of plant eating beetles, and I am not familiar with the ones in Europe. Perhaps the local equivalent to our department of agriculture could help?
The nearest I have come to identification is Popillia japonica, or Japanese vine beetle, which is very similar, but about twice as big. "Mine" are only about a 1/4 inch maximum. Apparently there are over 10,000 species of European beetle, so think I will call it a day. Thanks again for your help.
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