Ever since I moved to the country my garden has been plagued by picnic
beetles.
I have 5 30 ft rows of raspberry's, had strawberries, and usually
plant watermelon, cantaloupe, sometimes corn, cucumbers a couple of
tomatoes, etc. The biggest problem I have is with the raspberries.
These have 2 crops/ yr. The problem is I cannot wait till they are
ripe and go out and pick without finding many of them with beetles in
or on the fruit. When I lived 15 miles from here I had never seen a
picnic beetle. I try to pick up as much fallen or over ripe fruit as
possible and removing it from my rows but they seam to get really
thick after the first week or so of my late July early August harvest.
I have heavy clay soil. These things can fly and I understand they
feed on rip fruit and lay eggs in the ground. I get them in tomatoes,
corn, apples, and if a watermelon, or cantaloupe should crack , they
are drawn to it like a magnet. I would love to plant strawberries
again but don't want to deal with the beetles. When you go to pick a
nice raspberry and you may sometime find several picnic beetles
inside, you loose your desire to pick them. The only time I don't
have to worry so much is after a couple of frosts that may kill the
beetles, but not the berries.


Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with these pests? I
love growing and eating raspberries and strawberries, but can't stand
the beetles!!!!

Thanks