Codling Moth

These moths are brownish-gray, half an inch long with 3/4-inch wingspans. The wings have light and dark markings with dark brown patches at the tips. When closed, the wings appear to have arm bands. White flat eggs are laid on branchs, leaves, and stems. The larva are white with black heads and feed briefly on leaves then enter the fruit or nuts of apple, pear, quince and walnut trees. Once they exit the fruit, they pupate in a cocoon under loose bark or on the ground. Larva pupate over the winter months and emerge in spring to continue their damage. Adults form and the cycle starts all over again.

Are they good or bad? These are one of the naughtiest pests in the fruit market.

To control this pest, the following ideas may come in handy. Long-term strategies are a must.

1) Plant early maturing fruit trees. They sustain less damage that way by disrupting the life cycle of the moth.

2) Use pheromone traps and disruptors in your trees.

3) Release trichogramma wasps as soon as the moths start to fly in spring.

4) Spray Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) made for this pest at tje time of emerging larva as it generally only affects larval stage and caterpillars.

5) Examine fruit weekly and dispose of any that show entrance holes. This isn't an efficient way if you have more than a few trees.

6) You can cover your apples with bags, but who wants to see that in your yard? Or you can use tree covers similar to row covers but it can be a hassle to get it over the tree.

7) Place bands of corrugated cardboard with ridges inward around tree trunks and limbs. Check beneath the bands weekly during the summer and collect and burn the cocoons that could be nesting inside the little grooves of the cardboard.

8) Collect and destroy fallen fruit. They are great hiding places for eggs.

9) Provide nesting places for bats.

10) And finally, provide proper watering, fertilizing, thinning, and pruning for overall health and growth. But you do that for any crop and it will help greatly.

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