Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [NAFEX] apple maggot attraction

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] apple maggot attraction
  • Date: Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:38:28 -0400



Alan Haigh wrote:
I never encounter apple fly maggot although they are a problem for commercial growers not far away. Always thought the deer might be helping out by picking up the drops but a lot of customers have fencing these days and (knock on wood) still no afm, even though all insecticide is usually put away after the first week of June. AFM usually appears in those nearby orchards well after this.
In the literature the word as I remember it is that AFM prefers the earliest, reddest apples at any given site. Same ones the squirrels go far, except squirrels will go for Honeycrisp before they feed on earlier apples. What is it about that apple that attracts everyone and everything?


I don't know, but even the leaves are more attractive to insects. A couple of years ago, I was flicking Japanese Beetles from my grape vines into a pan of soapy water. I noticed several Japanese Beetles on one of the apple trees. It's a tree where I grafted different cultivars on different branches. The beetles were ONLY on the one branch grafted to Honeycrisp. I've never noticed them eating any other apple leaf.

Steve in the Adirondacks (Where a bear with 2 cubs was seen at the end of our street today. I hope they don't discover my trees, hanging with apples and pears.)




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page