Currant Sawflies

If you grow currants, you should know about currant sawflies.

Currant sawfly larvae (I, Karon ind) CC BY-SA 3.0

Currants make delicious jellies, pies, sauces, and even wine, but currant sawfly larvae can completely strip the leaves from your currant plants in only a few days. 

Also known as imported currantworms and common gooseberry sawflies, these pests feed on gooseberries and other members of the Ribes family. Native to Europe, this pest is now found throughout North America.

Currant sawfly identification

If you see chewed holes in the leaves of your currant bushes, take a closer look. There are several pests that can cause this damage. It may be currant borers (Synanthedon tipuliformis), currant spanworms (Itame ribearia), the Epochra ribearia maggot, gooseberry fruitworms (Zophodia convolutella), or currant sawflies (Nematus ribesii). Sawflies tend to feed in groups, while those other pests do not.

Currant borer larva (Gyorgy Csoka) CC BY 3.0 us

Adult currant sawfly (gailhampshire) CC BY 2.0

Currant spanworm larva (Whitney Cranshaw, CSU, Bugwood.org) CC BY 3.0

Adult currant borer (Whitney Cranshaw) CC BY 3.0 us

Like other sawflies, adult currant sawflies look like a cross between a wasp and a fly. The larvae grow to 3” in length, but their coloration makes them difficult to see. They start out green with black heads. As they grow, they develop yellowish ends and black spots.

Currant sawfly lifecycle

Adult currant sawflies lay tiny, oval white eggs on the underside of leaves and there can be three generations each year. The first brood emerges after the first leaves appear in spring, the second occurs in early summer, and a third generation may occur, weather permitting. In each generation, feeding is very heavy and rapid.

​To make matters worse, feeding often begins on the lower, inner reaches of the shrub, so you may not even notice the damage right away. Be sure to inspect plants regularly for signs of feeding and look on the underside of leaves for eggs.

How to control currant sawflies

Before you take any drastic measures, you need to know that the larval stages of currant sawflies look a lot like little green caterpillars. The distinction is important because control measures are different for moth and sawfly larvae. Take a closer look. If you have one, grab a hand lens or magnifying glass. If if you see 6 or more pairs of hookless legs, it’s a sawfly. Caterpillars have tiny hooks on their stubby legs and they usually have only 3 pairs of prolegs. 

You can treat moth larvae infestations with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). That treatment will not work against sawflies. Commercial growers spray plants with Malathion as soon as currant sawflies appear. Your best choice for controlling currant sawflies is to spray infested plants with insecticidal soap and handpick currantworms as they are seen.