MiGarden
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Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 7:45 pm
Location: Southern Michigan

wormy apples - How to Prevent Worms in Apples?

help, new to gardening and have a million questions.

we bought our property mid season last year. We have an apple tree and last year when I harvested the apples they were very wormy. Am I supposed to do something to prevent this? We want to try and be as environmental and organic as possible but we would like to enjoy the apples with out worrying that we will bite into a worm.

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Habanero
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Joined: Sat May 10, 2014 10:23 pm
Location: Sierra Nevada Foothills, California. Zone 8a

My solution to any sort of bug pest (so far) is lady bug larvae. You can buy them in bags in the nursery section of hardware stores. I had an entire plum tree covered in aphids one year, wouldn't even walk under it because it was literally raining aphids. We got a large bag of ladybug larvae and set them loose in the tree. Problem solved.

I also looked it up a bit more, and found this neat site:
https://www.groworganic.com/organic-gard ... ling-moths

It listed neat ideas like codling moth traps, sticky trunk wraps, and making the larvae sick.

Hope that helps your poor tree.

-Habs

JONA878
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Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:14 am
Location: SUSSEX

Hi Mygarden.
worms.....or as we call tbem on this side of the pond...maggots....are the larvae of the Codling Moth. Tbey lay their eggs on the growing apples in the hight of summer and the young grub quickly burrows into the fruit. So there is only very short time that anyform of control ca be made.
So...in the summer months...june .july hang a pheromone trap that you can get from your garden centre......this gives of the scent of a female codling moth .and the males get stuck in the trap before they can mate. Not 100 o/o but unless you spray every 10 days after every warm spell in that period that period it is the best system.
hope that explains.

JONA878
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Posts: 1014
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:14 am
Location: SUSSEX

Sorry Mygarden for the various mistakes on the last message. ..but I am trying to write it on my phone in Cyprus.


As an extra on moths...there are three that are major pests of apples.
Codling that I spoke of above.
Tortrix which graze the surface of the fruit causing scar like trails.
Winter Moth. This one hibernates in the soil over winter so sheds her wings to do it. As a result in the spring to get at the developing fruit clusters she to climb the trunk. This is where the grease band does the job of catching her.
The only one though that actually penetrates the fruit and becomes a worm/maggot is the Codling.



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