Last year I reported the failure of footies to protect my heavily infested pears (something like 95% or more damaged by codling moths), so this year I tried Spinosad instead.
The short answer is that I have seen zero codling moth damage! Not a single "sting" in repeated cursory inspections of easy to reach fruit, so far. Picking time will tell the tale in full.
I started applying the Spinosad spray with a hand-pumped sprayer, drenching my 4 trees, when the timing of moth emergence was predicted by the calculator found at http://pnwpest.org/cgi-bin/ddm.....#038;sav=1 using the model for Corvallis (I'm in Monmouth, 20 miles north, at essentially the same elevation). Following the instructions on the container, I did 5 applications at 7 to 10 day intervals.
The Spinosad application was relatively expensive as, even for my small plot, it took more than one bottle to make enough mix and it says that you shouldn't try to save mix for future applications - it must be mixed fresh each time.
So, good bye to useless footies, bags, etc., hello to more perfect fruit!
Frank
If you have tried ziplock bags with the bottoms cut off, please tell if it works or not at keeping moth larvae out of fruit. Thanks.
I put 1200 bags on fruit this year with only corners cut off, and that turned out to be insufficient. The plastic sticks to itself by capillary action, with only corners cut. I think the whole bottom needs to be removed. Next year I will try such, unless someone can talk me out of it!
When the plastic sticks to itself, instead of filling the bag the expanding apple can pop open the zipper lock. Or rip the bag wide open. Either case unnoticed can lead to CM entry. That's why I "fluff" the entire bag open during the installation. Once fluffed open, the plastic will not stick back together, at least in my experience.
The ziploc bags appear to have worked, but I haven't checked many apples. Right this moment I'm looking at a pair of Williams Pride apples that were bagged and are now ripe. Neither are infected. But I did have to wipe some earwig pellets off of one of them.
Thanks,
That makes sense. I've had a few bags work themselves off in the manner you describe. I also see evidence of earwigs in a significant percentage of my bagged apples. I seem to have also gotten a couple with bird pecks and sunburn. But I don't see any evidence of codling moth damage on any of the bagged ones yet.
Jafar, pretty much what Tim said. I was unhappy that they were not getting any ventilation, all the moisture was building up inside. Somebody said a thing or two about cutting the whole bottom open. I think it was Ted Swenson who said it - I could be wrong though.
I find earwig poop too, but I am not queezy about that sort of thing. There are bugs and worms pooping in my soil all the time and I have never caught a disease from it. I just wipe whatever on my jeans, my t-shirt, or rinse under the hose, and eat. Shine that apple on your t-shirt, it'll sterilize it!
I found a couple of bagged apples on the ground this morning. The bag was still around each apple, but a divot was apparent in each. And the matching little "bite" was found in the bag also. I think the deer pulled them off the tree and tried to eat the apple, but gave up after the "bite" would not go into their mouths! So I ate them. They were good.
Now that all of my pears are picked and I've handled every one I can report that Spinosad was very effective. Instead of having a 95% infestation rate with the footies, I have 95% codling moth larva-free fruit.
Also, as I reported here earlier in another message, my trees suffered serious flower loss apparently due to pseudomonas or a similar infection this spring, but, it turns out that the fruit loss was beneficial. I didn't do any fruit thinning this year and even left fruit clustered in groups of 5 or more (contrary to good codling moth reduction practice) and got a lot of beautiful 1/2 lb+ fruit.
Frank
I live in Milton-Freewater, OR and have about a dozen apple trees. I had good codling moth control until I ran out of diazanon acouple of years ago. This year I tried footies, a home orchard spray(carbaryl, malathion and captan), Surround (kaolin clay) and a few ziplock sandwich bags with bottom corners cut off.
With the footies I got 222 good apples out of 288 footies. 77%
Home orchard spray, 30% good apples. Ouch.
Surround on one tree, almost 100% effective.
The sandwich bags seemed to do as well or better than footies.
What to do next year? Surround seems good but were the moths going to other trees because they had no Surround and if all trees had Surround they would be forced to use the Surround trees? Surround doesn't kill them just discourages them.
What brand of Spinosad have people used?
[quote="John S":1wcd6l53]Is Spinosad toxic? What is it made of?
Thanks
John S
PDX OR[/quote:1wcd6l53]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinosad
Sounds like its better than most but hard on bees until it dries. Apparently doesn't harm predatory insects. It has some effect on fish and birds.
If I'm reading the reference to the rodent study, apparently they could handle the human equivalent of about a pound of the stuff .
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
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