Pheromone traps - verdict

Really pleased with the traps, despite reservations they worked well. Sadly the plum didn't set any fruit at all, so no way of evaluating how well the trap worked other than to count the moths, but the one attached to Rosemary Russet caught approximately 10 moths and there is no sign so far of any holes in the surprisingly good crop on this cordon, and that without spraying. Unfortunately, the full standard Grenadier on the other side of the garden is full of the things again, so clearly they aren't effective over a very large area, and I'd need at least one more to help clear the problem over the full area. But certainly well worth trying again next year.

Mea Culpa - pheromone traps

I meant to post quite a while back that I'd decided to try moth pheromone traps for the first time as a couple of apples and one plum are very badly affected by the relevant species. I bought some from a common-or-garden centre in Bicester, and managed to get them both in place by mid may. 4 codling moths appeared in the trap around the last couple of days of the month, and I notice the first plum marauder turn up about a week later. All dark, dull, undistinguished moths  about 5mm long. My aim was to spray the trees soon after to catch the tiny caterpillars just before they started to burrow their way into the fruitlets, but the weather was so bad that it was just impossible. Yesterday I found a nice, plump fruitlet with a pin-sized hole, and cut it open to reveal a surprisingly large grub around 4-5mm long, so it's now completely pointless attempting to spray the affected apples; I will try to spray plum tomorrow, deluges-permitting.


The moth 'reservoir' Grenadier tree in the new plot of land has been thinned by one third for the third year in a row, so that hopefully there will be fewer infected windfalls to dispose of or infect the neighbouring garden, as well as the hope of better quality fruit overall. 

Codling control - the results

Slightly disappointing results for codling moth control. Picked several bored fruits off Pixy and Orlean's Reinette. I've come to the conclusion that the worst affected varieties are those where fruit is bourn in clusters that are very tight, sheltering the caterpillers sufficiently to bore into the fruitlets hidden from predators. I think the nematode treatment was worth doing, as I haven't found any on varieties other than these two yet. In future, I think I'll try spraying these varieties individually, using pheromone traps to identify when the adult moths are on the wing.

crop: Pixie and Rosemary Russet (our late varieties)

A very disappointing crop of both Pixie and Rosemary Russet, our late apple cultivars. Rosemary was probably having a slightly 'biennial' year after cropping well last year, but Pixie was very badly affected by codling moth for the first time, leaving us with only one medium-sized box to see us through into Spring.

Final Nemasys treatment

Final Nemasys treatment was applied last Monday, a couple of days over the suggested interval of 7 days, due to lack of time and terribly strong winds.

Nemasys - second treatment

Not very exciting, but just for my records I applied second treatment of Nemasys codling moth treatment this afternoon, six days after the first one. It rained this morning, so it was nice and damp for spraying but the sun came out later, I hope this doesn't mean the nematodes are spoiled by drying out.

Nematode treatment for Codling moth

The Nemasys nematodes turned up on Friday, and the weather was cool and dull enough to spray today. I was a bit worried that they would not be sufficient for all our various trees, but I needn't have worried as the cordons are very easy and efficient to spray. The sachets had to be dissolved in 10 litres of water, but my sprayer only takes 3 litres so I had to make up 1 litre of concentrate and then fill up in three sessions. I now realise just what a boon cordons are, much easier to access and spray. The M25 standard Grenadier was a nightmare, and took half the treatment volume alone, so we've resolved to remove it in stages as there's absolutely no point in maintaining a large producer of inedible fruit that rots and poisons my poor poultry.

The second treatment should be done 5-7 days from now, exactly when will depend on the weather conditions. Only time will tell if this is an effective treatment though.

More Codling Moth

No mystery about the source of the codling moth, the ancient cooking apple in the newly-acquired neighbouring garden is absolutely full of moth larvae. The fruit has not been picked or cleared for years.

A lot of the Morettini fruit has developed signs of infestation since being picked and stored, quite a significant percentage now. I'm not sure why it's taken so long for the infestation to build up on the other side of the fence, but now it has. I think the apples are less affected as most of them are quite strongly biennial, so over-wintering females have found no fruit to infest.

Lets dispel some myths about control. Most of my cordons are grown between regularly dug vegetable beds, this has made very little difference to the incidence of pests that spend part of their life cycle in the soil below. I also have chickens, and a very wide variety of wild birds that feed enthusiastically, which also has made little difference. I haven't tried any barrier methods of control (greasebands) yet, or pheromone traps, so this will be the first approach.

I might try the biological control, as there aren't many other fruit trees in the vicinity and I'm sure the main reservoir is probably the cooker next door. Pheromone traps are an option, but will catch some of the males, not enough to make a real difference, so their use would probably be only as a guide as to when to spray as a last resort.

RHS info on codling moth

Pests: codling moth

Just found one that didn't manage to escape! Spotted a Glou Morceau that had a large amount of frass emerging from the eye and cut it open to find a large grub devouring the core. Very large in comparison to other fruit-mining grubs, even cut in half it was nearly 1cm long and 2-3mm wide, a greyish colour with a dark brown head.

Codling moth

Pest: codling moth damage on pears

The first pears to fall were all infested with some kind of fruit-mining larvae. This time I'm inclined to think the culprit is codling moth, rather than fruit mining moth which was a problem last year. The latter tends to make multiple tunnels nearer the surface, whereas the damage here is mostly to the core with one escape tunnel.

Only a handful of fruit were infected, so not a major problem as yet. If the numbers increase next year I might have to think about controlling it down the line, but not at the moment.

More about codling and other fruit-mining moth damage to fruit.