Grape mealybug white cottony bunches webbing ants honeydew angoor diagnosis IPM export residue
3 Answers
White cottony clusters inside and around the bunches, with sticky honeydew and often ants running up the vine, are mealybugs. They hide in bark cracks and at the bunch, suck sap, and their honeydew leads to black sooty mould that ruins the bunch for the table and export market. Because grapes have strict residue limits, manage them with care. Confirm with your KVK. Start with sanitation: remove loose old bark in the dormant season where the egg masses hide, and destroy heavily infested bunches. Control the ants that protect and move mealybugs, using sticky bands on the trunk, since cutting off the ants exposes the mealybugs to natural enemies. Release or conserve natural enemies such as the mealybug predator beetle where available. If chemical control is needed, use only KVK-recommended actives suited to grapes such as buprofezin, and time sprays to the crawler stage when they are most exposed, but strictly follow the label, the pre-harvest interval, and above all the residue and export MRL limits for your buyer, and rotate modes of action. Get the bunch checked and plan sprays well before harvest.
Removing the loose bark in the resting season really cut down our mealybug. That is where the eggs sit waiting. Also bait the ants, otherwise they carry the mealybugs back up.
For export grapes we talk to our exporter about which sprays are allowed and the residue limits before we touch the vines near harvest. One wrong spray and the consignment is rejected.