Pests & diseases › Plum Curculio
Plum Curculio
Small dark snout weevil that scars and infests apples, plums, peaches, cherries. Distinctive crescent-shaped egg-laying scar.
Symptoms
- Crescent-shaped cuts on developing fruit
- Premature fruit drop
- Worm-like grubs inside dropped fruit
- Misshapen lumpy mature fruit
Lifecycle
One generation per year (some southern areas have two).
What to do
- Jar method: tap branches over a sheet at dawn — beetles 'play dead' and fall, collect and destroy
- Pick up all dropped fruit promptly (larvae crawl out and pupate in soil)
- Kaolin clay (Surround) weekly during egg-laying
If it's bad
- Pyrethrin or carbaryl during petal fall to two weeks after
Stop it coming back
- Aggressive sanitation
- Chickens or guinea fowl under trees eat the larvae from 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.