North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>]

On Jun 19, 2006, at 9:05 AM, Jim Fruth wrote:

> Of the few apples on my trees, a new pest has discovered them.  All of
> the apples are bagged and some critter eats a hole through the bag, then
> devours most of the marble-sized apples, hollowing it out as though it was
> done with a jagged spoon.  There are similar chunks eaten out of some of my
> black raspberry primocanes and suspect the same critter is doing both.  I
> have the pupa of one of these critters in a jar.  When it hatches, who would
> you suggest I send it to to find out what it is?

Call your local Cooperative Extension (probably listed under county name) and find out whether they can ID it and how/if they would like it prepared. You may be able to just carry it in alive in the jar; possibly without waiting for it to hatch first.

How sure are you that the pupa is of the creature doing the damage, and not of something else that happened to be there?

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly (drip, drip, drizzle. Will it actually rain? and if so, a nice soaker, or another flood?)