One of the most damaging insects to raspberries is the raspberry cane borer (Oberea affinis). You rarely see the insect itself, but the damage it causes is very visible: the cane wilts and bends downward around 6 inches (15 cm) from the top and eventually the leaves affected dry up and turn brown. You’ll probably start to notice damage at the end of June or in early to mid-July, but they can continue into August.
The raspberry cane borer attacks raspberries (Rubus idaeus), plus blackberries and brambles (various other Rubus species). Sometimes it is also found on roses. The insect is native to North America and found all across that continent.
If you look carefully, just below the wilted part, you’ll notice two “rings” around the stem about ½ inch (1 cm) apart: two series of small holes pierced by the adult female. They are said to look like zippers. The female lays one egg per stem, between the two rings. The white maggotlike larva digs into the stem as it feeds, hollowing it out, and slowly moves downward, overwintering about 2 inches (5 cm) below the lower ring. It then spends a second summer in the stem, this time tunneling more deeply, overwintering near the base of the stem the second year. The following summer, the adult emerges and starts a new infestation.
Because of its 2 year life cycle, you’ll usually see a great deal of cane borer damage one year, but very little the following one, then the problem returns the third year.
The Rarely Seen Adult
The adult raspberry cane borer is a very slender beetle about 12 mm long, dark brown or black with an orange mark behind its head and very long antennae… but few gardeners will ever see one (certainly I’ve never managed to photograph one): they work very discretely.
What to Do
It’s almost impossible to control raspberry cane borers with insecticide treatments, because the adult is present only for a few minutes per plant, the time it takes to pierce its characteristic rings and lay an egg, and then it flies to other plants. However, you could try spraying your raspberries with an insecticide offering some persistence, like neem or pyrethrum, when plant is in bud and also after the flowers have faded. (Never apply an insecticide while the plant is in flower to avoid harming pollinating insects).
But the only really effective treatment is cut the off the wilted stem 6 inches (15 cm) below the rings in June and July. (And yes, you can put them in your compost.) This way you eliminate not only the current season’s larvae, but also seriously reduce the infestation that would have occurred two years later.
It may also be helpful to remove wild raspberries, blackberries, and other brambles from the vicinity of your raspberry or blackberry patch, as they are a major host of future cane borer infestations.
So raspberries and blackberry fans: get out your pruning shears. You have a little chore to take care of!
Thank you so much for posting this article and photos. I work on a U-pick strawberry farm in Caribou, Maine, but also inherited a raspberry patch when I bought my old farm house a few years ago. A customer asked me if I had any trouble with cane borers and I wasn’t sure. I just came home and that is going on with some plants , but not many. Heading out to search and destroy. Thanks again.
I sent a some pix to the grower I bought them from and he said cane borer (probably). But I can’t find any of the ring damage you and he mentioned.
Is there anything else that could be causing it?
Btw, this also happened about six weeks ago to the same bush but the new growth at the same tips grew fine.
Thank you for this informative post. You described it perfectly. I’m off to trim my raspberries.
I don’t have this problem, luckily. What I do have is a 5 year old bed that does not produce fruit. An abundance of flowers,an abundance of pollinators but no fruit set. I did have a partial fruit set 2 years ago. I’m beginning to think I have a botanical aboration. I garden at 6500 feet. Any thoughts. Ready to rip em out. ??
Did you buy these raspberry plants or harvest wild ones? Because raspberries are notoriously subject to viruses. And virus on raspberries are invisible: all you see is fewer and fewer fruits. Any serious commercial supplier would be selling you “virus-indexed plants”, ones tested and shown to be virus-free. I ask, because it usually takes 7 to 10 years for viruses to “find” cultivated plants, yet yours are seriously in decline after only 5 years. Other possibilities: poor soil, insufficient fertilizer, too dry.