Coddling Moth

jimjammies, Jun 11, 7:53pm
Just had a first summer in new home and my pear tree produced heaps of greats sized fruit which were damaged by coddling moth. Suggestions for treating to get an edible crop next season?
dibble35, Jun 12, 6:29am
You can buy codling moth traps/lures or if you google it there are quite a few home remedies you can do,
ceebee2, Jun 12, 10:59am
Get slim rags and grease them and simply tie around the tree trunk. Stops the codling catipillar from climbing the trunk. easy as.
articferrit, Jun 12, 11:15am
you can also tie corrugated cardboard topped with grease around the trunk so the bugs cant travel up the tree trunk higher than the top of the cardboard collar.
harrislucinda, Jun 12, 12:02pm
yes and works
mark_g, Jun 12, 6:21pm
Great. When to do it?
tjma, Jun 12, 9:20pm
Last year my apples had coddling moth in them, I used a pheromone trap in the tree that I changed regularly, I also had sticky traps wrapped around the trunk at ground level that I also kept renewing over the top of the existing sticky tape they were wrapped really tight around the trunk and seemed to catch a lot of bugs, however I still had coddling moth through the apples. The traps were put out really early in the season about 8 weeks before recommend. I don’t want to spray the tree so not sure what I am going to do this year.
mark_g, Jun 13, 7:51pm
I was under the impression that Pheromone traps are intended as an indicator of the presence and maybe the numbers of the moth. I don't think they are intended as the complete trapping solution. You would have to have a lot of them and all this would do is attract every moth from miles around.

I also think we are supposed to put the trap somewhere in the vicinity of the apple tree(s) - but not in the apple tree, as again, all this does is attract the moths nearer to your apples.

The idea of having an indicator to tell you the moths are about is that it tells you when to race off and spray, if that is what you want to do.

Personally I'm beginning to think that a range of measures is required. I have had broad leaf chives growing in pots under my apple trees for a few years now and I know this reduces codlin moth infestation noticeably - but it does not negate the problem. Thinking now of the grease band around the trunk thing as well. Just got to do the homework and find out when to do it. Life cycle of the grub and all that.
gsimpson, Jun 14, 6:50pm
We have had success dealing with them cheaply.
Plastic milk bottle
1/2 cup vinegar (cider best)
1/2 cup sugar
Banana skin
Attracts the male moths and we have had good results with this and cheap
hottie_babe, Jun 14, 7:10pm
We had a really nice Granny Smith apple tree, really nice and juicy apples. Then we got coddling moth, so horrible to see beautiful fruit with a hole in it, knowing it's ruined. I couldn't get rid of them, I think maybe spray might be the best option.
starseeker, Oct 30, 6:14pm
For cooking apples such as Granny Smith codlin moths don't detract from the taste, simply cut out the affected bits & cook the rest, don't be too precious!