North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>]

Steve wrote:
> Moments ago I wrote that we seem to be on track to have a good pear 
> year, here.
> So what causes many of my pears (later in the summer)to have a big pit 
> on one side? It looks like a "sting" on one side of the pear and that 
> point doesn't grow. By the time the pear is half grown the pit is obvious.
> I think I once tried to look this up and possibly this is caused by 
> tarnished plant bug. I don't usually think of tarnished plant bugs being 
> high up in a tree but I suppose there's no reason to think that.
> What ever causes it, can it be prevented by a simple spray (or two or 
> three) of Sevin? Any idea of when to spray? I haven't yet figured out 
> when the damage is actually inflicted.
>
> Steve in the Adirondacks

After I wrote the above, I did a Google search. I did not find a good 
picture of pears with the damage mine get.
I did find a picture of apples with tarnished plant bug damage:
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/fieldguide/plantbug.htm

This is NOT exactly what I see on some of my pears. The pear damage is 
usually a single pit on the side at the widest point. The pit has a 
black dot in the deepest point. It is so deep that the black dot appears 
to be anchored to the core. (This makes me believe it happens when the 
pear is still quite little.)

If no one is familiar with this problem, I'll try to remember to get 
some pictures this summer when it happens again.

Steve