The following is regarding a sample of raspberry sawfly submitted to this office this afternoon.  This sawfly, very likely Monophadnoides geniculatus, is not that common on the Central Coast but the infestation described to me was sort of acute.
As one can see from the photos below, the larvae of the raspberry sawfly are rather bristly and run around 10 to 13 millimeters in length.  The damage is distinctive, consisting of a patchwork of holes on infested leaves.  The literature describes leaves being skeletonized by raspberry sawfly feeding, but I have yet to see anything as severe here.
The important part for growers and consultants to know is that raspberry sawfly is a wasp, not a moth or fly.  It belongs to the family Tenthredinidae in the insect order Hymenoptera, which derive the common name of sawflies from the ovipositor of the females which is adapted for sawing.  The female raspberry sawfly inserts her eggs into the leaves in May, and the larvae emerge obviously right around now.  They feed for two to three weeks after which they drop to the ground to form a cocoon, from which the adult emerges the following year in the spring.  There is only one generation per year.
From a pest management point of view on the Central Coast, the incidental damage we see on the leaves will not harm the plant and by any measure the damage is short lived and limited to the two to three week feeding period.  However, growers who are concerned about incidental contamination of the harvested fruit from a medium to heavy raspberry sawfly infestation may want to treat. 

Thanks to the PCA and his apprentice for bringing these samples by the office this afternoon.  It really helps me keep current on what is going on out there.

The pictures below are of mis-shapen fruit from two commercial blackberry plantings (one cultivar in each) which have a significant proportion of their fruit affected as shown in the two pictures below.  Both cultivars have many fruit which are incompletely pollinated, in other words, the druplets at the tips of the fruit are not filling and forming.  The result of this is that the fruit has a distorted appearance and a reduced saleability in a fresh market venue.  Nevertheless, since in blackberry the receptacle is harvested together with the fruit there is some structure and stability so the fruit will not be crumbly as would the case be in raspberry.

One would think that the blackberry flower, composed of a succulent receptacle with so many pistils on top of it surrounded by yet more whorls of stamens would not have difficulty pollinating, but it does on occasion.  Along with the pollen, these various structures of the flower are viable for only for short periods of time, and if anything impedes with their intended function during this time, for example wind, rain, excessive heat or lack of pollinators, active pollen will not adhere to the stigma.  The end result of this interference of normal flower function is that the druplet in question will not “make” properly, and the fruit will be mis-shapen.

Indeed, it is common to find pollination problems to be often manifested across one cohort of fruit, i.e. of one size since all the flowers of that cohort were exposed at the same time.  The situation today was that fruit of different ages however were affected, which clouded the case somewhat.   However, thinking back and double checking the records of CIMIS Station #111, we see that there were several (as opposed to one) rainstorms in March and especially April which could have wrecked havoc on many cohorts of flowers over time.  The determination was made that it was this number of unfavorable weather events that caused this malformation of the fruit.  We would not expect to have much fruit malformation past those events, and certainly not going forward.

The pictures below are of a species of sap feeding beetles (Family Nitidulidae) found in one section of a local strawberry field.  This case of these insects is pretty interesting simply because they are so uncommon to find in Watsonville.

Conditions of discovery are the following.  The location is a beautiful strawberry field full of big fruit, bordered by apples and blackberries. It is only the five or six rows bordering the apples and blackberries that have these sap beetles.

The beetles occur in groups of four to six mostly on the undersides of the fruit and excavate holes there, in which several beetles at a time gather.  One characteristic of infested fruits is that they are quite mature or even over ripe, which is in keeping with the host and feeding preferences of this family of insects.

As one can see from the first two photos below, distinguishing characteristics of sap beetles are the club shaped antennae, and shortened elytra exposing in this case three abdominal segments.

The solution to this problem is quite simple.  One would want to remove and discard affected fruit from the field, and if very concerned, one could even do a cover spray with an insecticide of the infested rows- it's really not necessary to do the whole field.  Additionally, I have a feeling some of this is related to the moist weather we have had over the past few weeks, so as we move into the drier summer period it's quite probable that these insects will simply go away on their own.

I mention the use of pesticide for management of sap beetles in this article.  Before using these products, check with your local Agricultural Commissioner's Office and consult the product label for current status of product registration, restrictions, and use information.

This comes up a couple of times every year so it is worth reviewing and certainly adds value to our catalogue of plant disorders on these berry blogs.

The following plant sample of a proprietary variety was received 4/24/2012.  One can see immediately that the leaves are chlorotic and burnt at the margins and in some cases (photo 2 below) newer leaves are somewhat deformed as well.  Most often one will encounter a pink tint to many of the leaves.

The situation in the field was as follows, a mixture of Round Up (glyphosate) and Shark (carfentrazone) was applied to the field to control weeds one month prior to planting.  According to weed scientist Steve Fennimore,  the Shark does not linger in the soil for any significant period of time, actually around three hours tops.  On the other hand, Round Up can linger for a while, maybe even longer than a month especially in a sandy soil in which it is not adsorbed to fine soil particles as it would in a clay.

The solution to this predicament, and indeed in all cases of Round Up toxicity, is to let the plant grow out of it.  Raspberries have substantial stores of carbohydrates to draw on and can usually overcome the temporary inhibition of photosynthesis caused by mild herbicide damage such as the case presented here.

There are several herbicides mentioned in this article.  Before using any herbicides, check with your local Agricultural Commissioner's Office and consult product labels for current status of product registration, restrictions, and use information.