Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [NAFEX] bagging apples & winter moth

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Betty Mayfield <bmayfield@opusnet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] bagging apples & winter moth
  • Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:35:05 -0700


During my recent Google search on caterpillars, I found the description of the forest tent caterpillar (Malacosome disstria) similar to your description.

"Anyone who has been in the woods during a FTC outbreak knows not to eat an open faced peanut butter sandwich there. It might sound like rain but it's really insect frass (excrement). This frass serves as fertilizer just like any other manure."

Betty Mayfield
Northwest Oregon

At 02:22 PM 5/31/2008, Diane wrote:
On 31-May-08, Ginda Fisher wrote:

> I had very poor fruit set as a %
> of bloom, probably some combination of the effect of winter moths,
> which damage the fruiting parts well before the buds open, and the
> sprays for winter moths, which probably took out some of my
> pollinators.*


I can remember some of my apples didn't start bearing for about 12
years - almost as bad as seedlings.

In the 1970s we had several years of winter moth which had been
inadvertently imported from Nova Scotia, on the Atlantic coast of
Canada. Every deciduous tree would start to leaf out and then be
completely stripped. The air was full of little caterpillars on long
long silk threads, swinging out on a search for a tree still with
leaves. The frass dropping sounded like rain falling. Of course, we
got no fruit at all as the flower buds were eaten out before they
opened. My opinion of earwigs and birds changed - I saw earwigs
carrying the caterpillars down the apple trunks, but I never noticed
birds eating any.

We used tanglefoot to prevent the females from climbing up the trunks
to lay eggs, since they can't fly. This may have helped a little, but
what really changed our landscape back to green was the importation in
1979, '80 and '81 of some natural predator of the winter moth. By
1985 their population had crashed. It was so great to have fruit
again. I suppose we still have some winter moths but they aren't
noticeable enough for me to do anything to prevent them.

Diane Whitehead
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate
mild rainy winters, mild dry summers




_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed.
This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web sites.
Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have permission!

**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded.
No exceptions.
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

File attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!

NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page