North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

Jim Furth wrote:

>    I bagged over 2,000 apples this season and no sign of Apple Maggot yet.
> Did I waste my time bagging?  Could the weather have killed off the 
> Maggots
> or are they still coming?

Same here along the Wisconsin-Illinois border in Zone 4b.  We've had cold, 
wet weather all spring and summer.  It looks like July will go down in the 
record books as the coldest July ever.

I bagged about 300 apples and Asian pears and then had to stop due to 
constant rain and injuring my back.  The unbagged apples don't look any 
different than the bagged ones.  No sign of disease or insect damage on any 
of the trees.

According to Cornell University, the cool, wet weather has fostered fungi 
that has killed cabbage moth larvae and a host of other destructive insects. 
Perhaps, the apple maggots suffered fungal death, too.
Doreen Howard