Rainy winter weather has me thinking about what I'm going to do differently next spring in the garden. Number one problem to solve is codling moth. We practice extreme sanitation in our own orchard, a heavy oil spray during dormant season, cardboard traps, but still seem to have an ever growing problem with the pest. I know I could spray some nasty chemicals but would like to try some softer controls first. Does anyone have good or bad experiences with "Last Call" (phermone + insecticide) or Spinosad as moth control? (Getting my neighbors to clean up or remove their old, heavily infested trees doesn't seem an option).
I personally have not tried the "Last Call" method, but I know that several HOS members have, and the product is sometimes available from the company at HOS events. There was a little discussion about the product in this thread:
They are a problem.
I suggest visiting Integrated Fertility Mangement web site for an orgnai spray guide for codling moth and other pests.
I have dwarf trees so that I have bagged the apples and if I cannot bag them they are removed from the trees. I have now switched to nylon footies. the kind that are found in shoe stores. Last year I experimented with 24 of them on apples, none fell off, none had any insect damage.
I also use pheromone traps to check on population pressure and have found that after four years of bagging I have fewer moths and apple maggots in my home orchard. I am straving the critters out of my orchard.
Ted
As it turned out, 2006 was a banner year for Coddling Moth. My apples are alternate bearing, but it made no difference. That year without fruit production, didn't lower moth numbers. I had lots of fruit damaged. Grrrrrr.
No apple maggots here abouts. Don't know why not. There used to be some. Oddly enough, they seem to have died out on their own.
I used spinosad this year as codling moth control, and was very happy with the results. Last year we lost more than 50% of our crop to CM, this year less than 5%. Because it was a trial year for us, we did not buy the big bag of Entrust from Integrated Pest Management but used Monterey Garden Spray- higher cost per tree, but less investment. We added a light summer oil to the spray, and sprayed 3 times, tracking degree days. Our neighbors had significant codling moth damage, but ours was very minimal. Luckily we do not have Apple Maggot (yet), but following the degree day method, it looks like one more spray in August would also have gotten those nasties, too. We will use this again next year, maybe even buying the commercial quantity.
RE: SPINOSAD -- Does anyone know what effects (if any) spinosad has on bees? It would be wonderful if spinsad is harmless to the bees.
The recommendation is to spray early morning or evening when bees are not active. It seems, according to the literature, that bees may be affected by direct spray contact. We tried to spray early mornings before it warmed up; we did not see decreased bee activity (we have both mason and wild honey bees in abundance).
Researchers are working on a new method of Codling Moth control. It turns out that Pear Ester, a major fragrance component in Bartlett pears, is about as attractive to Codling Moths, as pheromones are.
The bonus is....the Pear Ester, is attractive to FEMALE Codling Moths, as well as males. Rather than trapping or poisoning males, in an ATTEMPT to keep the females from becoming fertilized, the females themselves may be trapped or poisoned.
Much more efficient.
Sadly, the Pear Ester is still rather expensive, at about 150.00 per ounce. Though an ounce would be enough to bait several thousand traps, $150. is spendy. If a demand develops, prices will probably come down. The only practical way to obtain usable quantities of ester, is to produce it synthetically. And, demand would encourage chemists to develop better processes for producing it.
Anyone have a recipe for the "water/molasses for codling moth" mentioned in Pome News? Any success with it?
I am using footies, ziplocs , and the micro-perforated bags, which are still quite new. I don't want to poison my yard, the positive animals, or the food I eat. My two cents.
JohN S
PDX OR
Thanks! I am trying the footies too. I put them on my pear and apple trees around May 1st, but I've noticed some pest activity recently 
I was wondering what else to try.....
If the following is true, it would seemingly be advantagous to pool resources amongst a group of HOS members and somehow divide an ounce between 10 to 15 individuals. I would assume that the concentrate could be suitably diluted in an appropriate solvent to a more measurable quantity and then proportionally rebottled for those participating in the pool. If I would be able to significantly reduce coddling moth damage, a $15 to $20 investment is something I would eagerly join in on.
Researchers are working on a new method of Codling Moth control. It turns out that Pear Ester, a major fragrance component in Bartlett pears, is about as attractive to Codling Moths, as pheromones are.
the Pear Ester is still rather expensive, at about 150.00 per ounce. Though an ounce would be enough to bait several thousand traps, $150. is spendy.
I would like to see HOS conduct potentially publishable research using the facilities at the HOS arboretum -- this seems like an appropriate topic because of the level of coddling moth infestation there.