Pests & diseases › Codling Moth
Codling Moth
The classic 'wormy apple' culprit. Larvae bore into the core through the calyx end. Also attacks pears and walnuts.
Symptoms
- Hole at the blossom end of apples with brown frass
- Pink-cream caterpillar in the core when cut open
- Premature ripening and drop
- Damaged calyx-end of apples
Lifecycle
Two generations per year.
What to do
- Bag individual apples in nylon footies
- Pheromone traps (1–2 per tree) for monitoring and mass trapping
- Granulovirus spray (organic, specific to codling moth)
- Trichogramma wasp release
If it's bad
- Spinosad timed to first egg hatch (use pheromone trap counts to time)
Stop it coming back
- Scrape loose bark in winter to expose overwintering cocoons
- Sticky cardboard bands around trunk capture larvae crawling down
- Sanitation of dropped fruit
Crops it goes for
Plan the plot, track every sowing, cook the harvest
Sowing reminders and harvest forecasts for your own frost dates, the Seed Tin, Scan Centre for any label or packet, and the Potty Mouth Garden Club. Free to start.