Xtremehorticulture

Treat Now to Prevent Wormy Peaches

Peach twig borer seen now flying in the Las Vegas valley. These small brown moths are very similar to the insects that produce wormy apples. Treat now and prevent that from happening later. This insect usually enters the fruit at the stem end or along the suture of the fruit. It feeds just under the skin. Usually you will see some “frass” or brown excrement at the entry point. In Nevada our experience has been that we don’t usually start catching this insect in our monitoring traps until around May. If you have had wormy fruit in the past, later in the season, it would be important to apply either Bt (Dipel® or Thuricide®) or spinosad) now to the entire tree or trees, paying particular attention to covering the fruit with the spray.  I add a surfactant (an additive that helps cover the fruit better) to the spray when mixing it in the sprayer. These organic pesticides will set up a protective barrier to this insect and keep it from getting inside the fruit. Follow label directions. Repeat applications as the label directs. A good website on peach twig borer can be found here: http://axp.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r602300611.html

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July todo: change out the pheremone traps and pheremones

Pheremone sticky trap (sticky part is removable on the bottom) with an orange rubber thing that is impregnated with the synthetic pheremone. These must be changed regularly. Change pheremone sticky traps and replace the pheromones. Are you plagued by wormy apples, wormy pears, wormy peaches or nectarines, or wormy apricots? You may have codling moth in appes and pears and peach twig borer in your stone fruits.         Pheremone traps are sticky traps that attract specific problem insects through releasing of sex hormones produced in a laboratory to mimic the opposite sex and then trapping them with a sticky surface that can be replaced.         To control these insects you will most likely need to spray pesticide. Don’t be too alarmed because the pesticides you can use are listed for organic production. The most common ones used include Bt (Bacillus thuriengensis; aka Dipel or Thuricide).         The other chemical you can use is Spinosad. Spinosad is rougher on beneficial insects that Bt. You would spray just a couple of days when you get LOTS of these insects (the adults of these insects are small moths about 1/2 inch long. The larva or immature is the worm that gets into the fruit.

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