Apple "maggots" and "worms"

[WrexTheDragon]

These are my apple trees in Shropshire. No maggot damage on any of them. Number of trees in brackets.

Katy (3) - Very healthy no problems
James Grieve (1) - Very healthy no problems
Golden Delicious (1) - Very healthy no problems
Red Jonaprince (2) - Very healthy no problems
Red Windsor (1) - Very healthy no problems
Braeburn (2) - Wooley Apids on the odd branch
Bramley Cooking (1) - Branches with brown cores and Canker. Not looking good. Very old 25foot tree.
Falstaff (1) - Very healthy no problems

[divvy]

I am in Camberley Surrey , I have 3 dwarf apple trees , Discovery , prone to maggots , Braeburn , no maggots and russet , no maggots . Last year I used traps and grease bands but it made no difference . I also have a victoria plum with no problems as yet . I would be really interested in how to make the jam jar traps as the traps I bought were very expensive and didn't make a lot of difference. I have a south facing garden and the discovery seems to be affected all over , not just one side . The trees are about 3 years old and produce about 8 apples each.

[FB.]

Divvy

I'd just let the maggots have the Discovery apples - think of it as a companion planting. I find that Ellison's Orange and Scrumptious are even more attractive to the maggots than Discovery.

I seem to recall people having success with something like the following:

Plastic milk bottle with a small hole near the top of each side (half-inch to an inch wide hole), but with the holes at different heights and not central to each side (so that moths can't fly straight through and out the other side).

Add the following to the bottle and replace lid:
Quarter cup of water.
Quarter cup of cider.
Quarter cup of crushed ripe apple.
A spoonful of sugar.

Hang the bottle in the tree canopy when the petals start to fall - and hope that the moths are caught (and drowned) in the bottle.
Leave dead moths in the bottle because they could be females whose pheromones attract more males into the trap.

I've not actually got around to trying it (and there might be a missing "magic" ingredient that I've forgotten).

[rana]

I use a concoction of vinegar, water, cider and sugar. Then throw in some banana skin. The solution is put in jam jars with small holes punched into the lid. The jars are suspended in the trees. It works at least as well as pheromone traps..

[boundtothesoil]

How badly affected by "maggots" and "worms" are your apples?

Thought this thread might be relevant at this time of the year (incidentally FB, why did you ask the original question in February? ). AS a non-sprayer, I am experiencing a fairly heavy attack of apple sawfly on my Ellison's orange, James Grieve and Sunset apples. Definitely the heaviest infestation for five years. I'm wondering whether it has something to do with last year being so wet? I also fear that Codling Moth might be bad this season, not to mention scab, , already a major problem for me on developing fruitlets of George Cave, James Grieve, Sunset, Katy, Bramley's, Tom Putt. It's the end of the world

On the other hand, there is an interesting and optimistic Australian video on organic control of codling moth here:-

Organic Codling Moth Control - YouTube

[FB.]

Not a single codling moth, sawfly nor damaged apple in sight. No scab either - nor mildew.
Lost Golden Harvey and Barnack Beauty to canker.
Discovery (x2) and Scrumptious are usually badly affected by codling/sawfly but not a blemished fruit in sight (and looking like a super-heavy crop this year on almost all my trees).

But the weather here has been abnormally cool, damp and sunless - and it was a bitterly (abnormally) cold winter for us over here.

Even the woolly aphids are scarce this year.

But the aphid attack is very bad this year on most of my trees - their growth brought to a standstill for the last few weeks, with many crinkled leaves, some dead leaves and some twisted shoots. The hoverfly larvae have the aphids under control now, and the trees are preparing to burst out a lot more buds.

So my guess is that I'm mostly pest-free this year because of the very cold winter in this area killing a lot of the hibernating pests, and the cool/sunless summer severely slowing their development.

[FB.]

(incidentally FB, why did you ask the original question in February? ).

I was probably dreading the likely wave of attacks, which, until the abnormal weather of 2012-13, were a major problem causing heavy losses of fruit on certain varieties (such as Ellison, Scrumptious, Discovery).