# European grapevine moth

- URL: https://backyardgrapes.com/diseases/european-grapevine-moth/
- Scientific name: Lobesia botrana
- Category: Insect / pest
- Affects: Fruit clusters
- Severity: moderate
- Favored by: Mediterranean and wider Europe (with past incursions elsewhere); several generations per year.
- Easily confused with: Grape berry moth, Botrytis bunch rot (grey mould)

**Summary:** The main cluster caterpillar of European vineyards — eats flowers, then berries, inviting rot.

**What to look for:**
- First generation webs and eats flower buds and blossoms into loose "nests" (glomerules).
- Later generations bore into green, then ripening, berries.
- Webbing, frass, and hollowed berries within the cluster.
- Feeding wounds lead on to Botrytis and sour rot.

**Treatment — Cultural / prevention:**
- Keep the fruit zone open and airy to discourage egg-laying and speed drying.
- Remove infested, webbed clusters and flower nests where practical.
- Monitor flights with pheromone traps to time any treatment.

**Treatment — Organic / low-toxicity:**
- Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) or spinosad timed to egg hatch of each generation.
- Pheromone mating disruption — the mainstay in many European vineyards.

**Treatment — Conventional (chemical):**
- Targeted insecticides timed to egg hatch, guided by trap catches and models.

*Lobesia botrana*, the European grapevine moth, is the classic cluster pest of Old-World
vineyards and the counterpart to North America's grape berry moth. Its three or so
generations track the vine's season: the first feeds on flower clusters, spinning them
into little silken nests, while later generations bore into the berries themselves.

As with the berry moth, the damage that hurts most is often the rot that follows — every
punctured berry invites Botrytis and sour rot into the cluster. Control leans heavily on
timing and, in many regions, on pheromone mating disruption, which floods the vineyard
with the female scent so males can't find mates. Traps tell growers when each generation
is flying so that Bt, spinosad, or a conventional spray lands when eggs are hatching.

**Image credits:**
- Adult European grapevine moth on a grapevine leaf — [Photo: Jack Kelly Clark, Regents of the University of California, USDA APHIS](https://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-pests-diseases/egvm)
- Adult European grapevine moth (Lobesia botrana) on a leaf — [Photo: Zoran Bozovic, Bugwood.org, Bugwood.org](https://www.ipmimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5633464) (CC BY-NC 3.0 US)

**Sources:**
- [Tortricid Moths/Worm Pests in Grape Clusters](https://ucanr.edu/county/ucce-sonoma-county/tortricid-moths/worm-pests-grape-clusters) — UC Cooperative Extension Sonoma County
- [European Grapevine Moth Pest Profile](https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/pdep/target_pest_disease_profiles/EGVM_PestProfile.html) — California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)
- [European Grapevine Moth](https://cisr.ucr.edu/invasive-species/european-grapevine-moth) — Center for Invasive Species Research, UC Riverside
- [European Grapevine Moth](https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/invertebrates/european-grapevine-moth) — USDA National Invasive Species Information Center