My husband loves listening to radio talk shows of any kind. Saturday mornings usually involve a gardening show. Aaron persuaded me that all we needed to control the worms in our apples was some dormant oil.
He wasn’t quite right. OK, he wasn’t at all right.
Apparently, all the dormant oil in the world won’t do anything against those @#%^& codling moths. (As this is a family-friendly blog, replace the @#$%^& with dear, darling, adorable. Because you know that’s exactly what I meant. It was just saving me some keystrokes.)
Codling moths can quickly destroy an apple crop. It takes dedication and vigilance to prevent them—and I say prevent because once the worms (we call them worms, but they are actually caterpillars) enter the apples, they are home free. To be able to defeat an enemy, it’s important to learn a little about that enemy. And what we need to know about codling moths is their life cycle.
The codling moth begins life when the adult moth lays the eggs on leaves and small fruit. When the eggs hatch, the caterpillars feed on the apple skin for a few days then eat their way to the center. They feed inside—where they are perfectly protected—for a few weeks, and then eat their way out and find a happy place to spin a cocoon. Depending on the climate, there may be up to several generations per year. The caterpillars that winter over usually do so under loose bark on a tree trunk or in some other protected area. Adult moths emerge in April to May.
So here are the steps I will be taking to eliminate them:
Trapping moths. Phil Williams at Peak Prosperity tested some homemade moth traps and attractant solutions. The moths and caterpillars are attracted away from the fruit and to the solution, where they die the death they deserve. Here’s how to make the trap:
- Cut two holes on opposite sides of a clean gallon milk jug just below the shoulder.
- Drill two much smaller holes in the neck of the jug for stringing wire through and hanging.
- String the wire through and twist it into a hook. You’ll want wire strong enough to hang the jug in the tree.
- Add the attractant to the trap and hang it in the tree.
Codling moth attractant:
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup molasses
1/8 teaspoon ammonia
4 1/2 cups of water
Remove dropped apples. Caterpillars leave dropped fruit quickly. Do not compost, as composting doesn’t necessarily kill the caterpillars.
Thin apple clusters so that there is only one apple remaining. Be sure to remove all that have worm holes. Again, do not compost these.
Bagging. Staple paper bags around the apples when they are 1-2” in diameter. You can also purchase nylon bags at maggotbarriers.com for about $16 per hundred. They are placed over the apple when it is about 1” in diameter and secured with a rubber band. A less expensive option would be to use nylon footies. They’re available on Amazon for about $10. People on the Home Orchard Society forum indicate that the nylons are easier to work with than the paper bags. Some also state that the nylon bags from maggotbarriers.com are more effective than nylon footies.
Other ways of dealing with codling moths:
Plant resistant varieties. Early-maturing varieties like Gravenstein, Jonagold, Red Delicious, Gala, and Macintosh are supposedly more resistant to codling moth. I say supposedly because my Macintosh had plenty of worms last year.
Permethrin is a real, true-to-life pesticide that will take out codling moths. It is not organic and it’s not sustainable. But it is something you might have on hand for dealing with other pests like scabies, bedbugs, and ticks. So if you’ve got some around, you can use it for codling moths also. You’ll need to follow directions on the bottle for getting the right dilution for codling moths. The Hi-Yield Vegetables Plus Permethrin instructs to dilute 1.5 ounces in 1 gallon of water.
Pyrethrin is a natural insecticide extracted from chrysanthemums. Use 1-2 ounces per gallon of water as needed to control codling moths.
Links to related posts:
References:
https://peakprosperity.com/how-to-make-a-codling-moth-trap-and-lure/
https://bugspray.com/article/codlingmoth.html
https://www.hunker.com/13429079/when-do-you-spray-apple-trees-and-with-what-chemicals
https://www.pesticide.org/moths_codling
In your earlier post about dormant oil you made the comment that it would control "worms in the apples", which I really question. Glad to see your clarification here.
ReplyDeleteI think I meant to clarify that false belief further down in that post, but then forgot. So thanks for mentioning that. I went and edited that article to make it perfectly clear--I hope--that dormant oil does nothing against codling moths.
DeleteJennifer what did farmers do about coddling moths before sprays?
ReplyDeleteFirst my grandmother wasn't quite as picky as I am about damaged foods. She used to put every egg cracked into a small bowl before dumping them into the cake recipe for example. WHY? Because if one was bad better to toss into the pig bucket one bad egg than a whole recipe.
A worm in the apple was cut out or ate around. Food was too hard to get to toss over a bug's nibble. That joke about finding half a worm is just life.
Now about coddling moth worms, not to be a broken record but my grandmothers free range chickens and other critters never let a fallen apple survive the afternoon. Tends to reduce the lifecycle of those pests.
I've done a fair bit of study on the lifecycle of various problem bugs and keep running into the same factor that animal controls are the most effective aside from mass chemical deployments.
Very few bugs survive to breed around hungry critters :-) And running mixed species in paddock rotation even intestinal worms and such are greatly reduced. I first learned that from Saladin and keep seeing it as I followed various Rabbit hole research.
BTW my Moth trap is similar, but I've never put in ammonia. Seems to work well and I'd not feed my chickens-ducks something in ammonia.
Chickens sound like the best way to deal with codling moths, but there are probably some people who don't have chickens. Or maybe the tree is in a place unsafe for chickens. It's always good to have options. And it is so true that people are going to have to learn to be a lot less picky about what they eat. Having family members that scrutinize every leaf of lettuce for a bug or speck of dirt that escaped being washed away drives me up a wall. But they also work really hard to keep things going. They'll be working a whole lot harder when things fall apart. I'd like to do what I can to help.
DeleteWe bought BT solution to spray for coddling moth this year. It’s an organic pest control which infects the caterpillar with a disease which won’t hurt birds, small animals, or humans, but devastates the moth offspring. Have you ever tried it in your area?
ReplyDeleteI grew up with a mom who would cut out the best part of wormy apples and bake pies with them. Coddling moth doesn’t seem to leave enough good part to process, so I’ll try your trap as well as the BT.
I haven't tried BT. Having multiple approaches to controlling pests is a good idea. Maybe I'll pick up some BT this week and give it a try.
ReplyDelete