North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

Chickens have long been used as a partial control.  The animals that have done the best job in studies have been pigs; but if chickens or guineas are what you have, they should help.  I also wonder how deep the grubs go; there have been some people using burning to control curculio, and report success; makes me think they must not be so far down they’re protected from the heat.  The burning thing isn’t scientific – it’s anecdotal, not a large study.  The results with pigs have been anectodotal but there have been so many tries over the years you can accumulate the experiences and get a positive metaanalysis; and that had been encouraging enough to yield more structured trials, including whether the curculio grubs can survive their trip through the pig (no, they can’t).

 

~ Stephen

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Donna &/or Kieran
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 8:07 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Question on Plum curculio

 

When the our peaches and plums first dropped the curculio were still in them.  Sometimes fruit that had been on the ground for a few days no longer had grubs in them.  I wonder, how deep do the grubs go down?  I assume that if chickens were on hand all year round, they'd get some when they first leave the fruit, and when they start coming up in the spring.  They also peck the fallen fruit, to eat it yes, but also looking for the grubs inside, which they consider the best part.   Donna