I had a number of Surround-soaked-footie-covered apples sacrifice themselves in July's "June drop," but I figured I just chose the wrong apples to protect. Now some of my apples are ripening, and I'm picking others up off the ground. None of those that fell are whole.
These I actually took out and inspected. Not a pretty sight.
Still on the tree, with nastiness under the layer that was supposed to protect them. I haven't looked. I'm not optimistic.
Different from but no improvement over last year's apple maggot infestation. This may be another year when the only good apples I get I buy in Hood River. Now what?
mh
Okay.....I can tell you for sure that footies WILL work for apple maggot infestation.....virtually guaranteed.....I have done this for years on a multitude of places and know that.
It is important to know when you put the footies on, though, and when the bug pressures come on in your area.....and what it is exactly that is under your footie that you say is not a pretty sight.
If it is apple scab that is not a "pretty sight" , then that is another problem and i hope to talk about that later.....but if it is only apple scab, then be assured that the apple is quite edible and you have no living life forms inside the apple.
If it is another bug, then we need to know what that bug is.
I sincerely doubt that what you see is an apple maggot problem at this point.....without explaining all my reasoning, I can just tell you that this would not make sense.
Oh, I know that what's chewing on the surface isn't apple maggot. The slight sinkholes, on the other hand, are kind of suspicious looking. I am starting to think that I put a nice protective covering on bugs that otherwise wouldn't be feeling so safe. I did not have that much predation on the outside of my apples last year.
I put most of the footies on when the apples were very small - 1/2" to 3/4" in diameter (I've got previous posts on the subject, and I believe they're all from before the bugs arrived this season). This may be the start of my education in a different pest. The apples that I didn't cover look OK, but are probably filled with apple maggot.
mh
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