North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]



I appoligize for the off-topic question, but I know there are several on this list who keep honeybees and I have a question.

 

Here's the deal.  I am considering enclosing my blackberry and blueberry planting in hardware cloth.  The purpose of the hardware cloth is two-fold. 

 

1.  To keep the birds out.

 

2.  To keep the Green June beetles out.

 

It's a pretty big area to enclose, but I'm tired of the pest pressure.  However, if possible I'd like to make the hardware cloth big enough to allow the honey bees to pollinate the berries.  I'm thinking the Green June beetles are about the size of a queen bee, so my question is, does anyone know what is the size of the holes of a queen excluder? Do queen excluders have round holes, or are they square?  I'm thinking 3/8" hardware cloth would keep a queen out and let the workers pass through, but I'm not sure.

 

Mark

KS