We have raspberries, not blackberries. When I see evidence of cane borer damage, I immediately prune off the damaged cane, and cut up the section where the insect is hiding, before placing this material on the compost pile. The raspberry plant recovers, grows a new cane, and typically begins fruiting within 6 weeks or so. For me, this insect is more of a nuisance than a serious problem. Spotted wing drosophilia is another matter, however...

The problem on blackberries is that most of your fruit is concentrated on a few canes, generally. So if you cut the cane to remove the borer larvae, you lose out on all of that potential fruit. I had a row of boysenberries that I had to basically cut down to remove the infested canes. I'm going to use an Imidacloprid-based insecticide later in the year post-bloom. That should help resolve that problem for next year. This will be the first insecticide I have had to use so far.

Olpea said he tried to cut them out but could not control it. I have a bad infestation and have not yet worked out a good treatment. I am going to try this year being very eager about removing any bulge right when I find it. I'm trying to avoid the insecticide route. More generally I'm not sure what my future with blackberries is, the SWD will be showing up here soon.

Scott

Going in I thought this was going to be my berry of choice. Everything I read indicated that if you water when needed most of the other issues would take care of itself. I guess I was drinking the kool-aid. Without exception my Natchez, Apache, and Triple crown has borer infestation. As stated earlier the small number of canes per crown would mean removing 3/4 of crop. I prefer not to use insecticide but will be willing to if I can do during the non-crop time. Thanks, and and other information is welcome.