I have been reading online about using trichogramma wasps to keep down codling moths in apple trees without resorting to pesticide: http://www.buglogical.com/trichogramma_ ... gramma.asp
I'd like to give it a shot for the trees in our front yard, but it sounds like you need to re-treat every week during the peak season, which runs into a lot of shipping costs: more than is reasonable for the two trees I'm trying to protect. Does anyone know of a place in Portland, OR to purchase trichogramma eggs?
I'm in Multnomah County, OR. More specifically, SE Portland near SE 39th and Hawthorne.
Hi Marsha,
Thanks for the welcome. Nice to meet a neighbor -- I'm actually on Lincoln between SE 41st and 42nd, so I'm sure I've walked by your place before.
I did actually find a place that sells trichogramma eggs in smaller quantities: $12.50 for enough to protect 15,000 square feet: http://www.planetnatural.com/site/trich ... wasps.html
I think my "orchard" is more like 50 square feet, but that's the smallest amount they sell. Any interest in splitting a weekly order of wasp eggs once the moths show up? (Apparently you're supposed to release them weekly for 3-6 weeks.)
Cheers,
Dan
Hi Marsha,
Great! To be honest, in 4 years with these trees, I've never seen a moth flying around either. So, I'll get some pheromone traps and place the first wasp order when I start seeing moths in the traps.
Only one tree bearing could be a blessing in disguise: in a good year, my wife and I sometimes have to struggle to use all the apples from our 2 trees -- a big crop from 8 trees could be a handful! Fortunately, we've discovered that FH Steinbart rents a cider press, and it's something like 20 or 30 pounds of apples for a gallon of cider. The last few years, whatever we don't bake or dry, we've pressed into cider, and that's worked great.
I'll shoot you my contact info via PM, and get those pheremone traps.
From what I have been reading, it is good to have plants that are used by Trichogramma wasps under or near your trees (see below). Has anyone done this? Do you think it was successful?
As adults, Trichogramma feed on insect eggs, nectar, pollen and honeydew. Trichogramma live several times longer and destroy more pests when supplied with nectar plants (e.g. between rows, borders). These refugia (safe havens that are never sprayed) grow large populations of beneficials that migrate into trees. Soviet studies reveal that Trichogramma minutum parasitism of codling moth is highest in release trees. Though there is some T. minutum movement with the prevailing wind, downwind from release points, the parasite tends to remain on crowns of release trees, leading to the recommendation that "Trichogramma should be released in the morning hours in the lower tiers of the crown of EACH fruit-bearing tree." In single release Soviet studies, there was 6-28% parasitism with 2,000 Trichogramma per tree. "With 500 and 1,000 eggs of codling moth per tree and a ratio of parasites to host of 10:1 and 5:1 the rate of parasitism was 30 to 39%." Achieving 70-96% Trichogramma parasitism required releasing either 10,000 or 20,000 Trichogramma per tree. Studies in various climatic zones "revealed that when the pest population is low the release of fewer Trichogramma, done once in the first days of oviposition, yield a low rate of parasitism -- a little more than 10%. Only with the appearance of the progeny of the released Trichogramma, i.e., 10 to 20 days later, does the rate of parasitism rise to 30 to 40%, gradually increasing to 70 to 90%" (Zhilyaeva et. al., in Pristavko ed. 1981).
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