North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Louisa Rogoff Thompson <louisagardener@earthlink.net>]

Replying to:
Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 13:03:45 -0500
From: Ray Kaminski <rjkaminski@charter.net>
Subject: [NAFEX] Balmer Peach
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <6.0.3.0.0.20040523130217.0289d960@pop3.norton.antivirus>

Location: NE Wisconsin Zone 4 to 5
 ...Lady bugs helped eat a good portion of what grew. 
Noticed that the Balmer was later than the rest and so suffered more lady 
bug damage....
By the time the Balmer was ready in late September, the Wasps and the Lady 
Bugs had really started to take over ....

Ray,
Ladybugs don't eat plants.  They eat aphids, which are the real culprit.  
Aphids not only consume foliage (and flowers?), they spread several serious 
diseases of peaches.

Since the ladybugs haven't been able to control your infestation of aphids, 
you could try the following methods:  If you can get a hose out there, knock 
them to the ground with a strong spray of water.  They can't fly nor crawl 
far enough to get back up into the tree at that stage of their lifecycle.  If 
you can't get that much water pressure, try spraying soapy water or 
insecticidal soap.   Dormant oil alone, a mixture of sulfur (60% by weight, 
300-mesh talc (35%) and mineral oil with a viscosity of 100 (5%) are other 
methods.  All these methods must physically touch the insect.  If the leaves 
have curled around the aphids, they won't work.  I haven't grown peaches 
myself, so I hope someone who has will reply, too.

I've had problems with several kinds of wasps sucking the juices out of 
fruit, especially fall raspberries.  Also ants.  Does anyone have a 
prevention or treatment method for this?

Louisa Thompson
Southcentral PA, Zone 6; formerly from Baltimore (where the natives call 
their home town Balmer, by the way), Zone 7.  If your peachtree is named for 
the city, it would be adapted to avoid the late frosts we get here.