If you've ever bitten into a freshly harvested apple and found the center to be rotten and wormy or plucked apple after apple out of your tree, with every piece of fruit plagued with worm entry holes? This is the article you need. Step by step instructions for how to break the bug cycle without using harsh chemicals on your food crop.
- Step1
Codling moths are the first assault of the season. They start showing up a couple of weeks before your trees start to bloom, looking for a good place to lay eggs. Keep them from breeding on your apple tree branches with codling moth traps. Codling moths are responsible for the tunnels in and out of your fruit. Technically, you can still eat the apple by cutting away the damaged parts (sometimes you even get the pleasure of finding the worms still in the fruit), but yuck! 2 weeks before your apple trees begin to bloom, hang two moth traps per tree, inside the canopy of the tree. Check the traps often, once they’re full of moths, throw that trap away and hang a new one. If your traps are getting full quickly, add extra traps to the tree. Remember, one moth can lay 50 eggs that turn into 50 worms crawling into your apples. The first year or two, you might find a giant population of moths that have been allowed to breed like crazy. You’re taking a giant first step in getting them back under control. Each year will only get easier.
- Step2
Now that the fruit is starting to grow, check your little apples often for signs of worm damage. If you see any baby apples showing worm entry holes, cut that apple out of the tree and destroy it with the little bugger hopefully still inside. 4-6 weeks after your apples have started to develop they’ll be big enough for “bagging”. Take your big bulk bag of nylon footies and stretch one onto each piece of fruit, or one stretched over a small cluster (this would also be a great time to thin your fruit). Make sure you are not bagging worm infested apples and see that the nylon goes all the way up to the stem. As the apple grows, the bag will stretch to fit and the nylon keeps the worms from penetrating the fruit while still allowing sunlight and air circulation. Bonus: the nylon footies are reusable for next year. Bummer: if you have a ton of apples to cover or the fruit is too high to reach.
- Step3
The next pest to fend off is the Apple Maggot. These are the ones responsible for the rotted, worm infested center of your apples (barf). One little lady fly lays her eggs under the skin of the apple and 7 days later the maggots hatch and feast. Your nylon footies are a great first defense. Next up is the Red sphere traps, the fly thinks that red sphere is a ripe apple waiting for her maggot babies, instead she finds herself permanently stuck to the sticky tangle-foot coating. You need 2-3 red spheres per tree. Assemble the trap (some say to coat the inside, go ahead and do this now), attach the hanger, then ooze on the tangle-foot, spreading evenly around the outside (pick up the can of tangle-foot that includes a brush inside the bottle for easier application). Hang on the tree just like it was an apple. The flies begin attacking trees in June, so hang your traps by June 12th.
- Step4
A badly infected tree can take a year or two before you start to get those pests under control. Be patient and vigilant. Apple maggots and coddling moths are the two worst pests for an apple, but you can get them under control. In the fall, keep the old fruits and leaves cleaned up and disposed of, so they’re not harboring pests for next year. Spray dormant oil in the winter to kill over wintering eggs and in time you will be rewarded.
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