Hah! I finally found where to start a new topic. Doh!
I have used Tanglefoot moth traps and red spheres. Despite using them my peaches and apples are wormy. I don’t see any moths in the traps. Do they work or am I wasting my $$$
They must work, they are so often recommended in university publications and the like. Last year I used some old red Christmas balls hung about in the trees spread with tanglefoot and like you, I never caught a single CM. I did however catch sweat bees,tons of gnats, and a bunch of common houseflies.
It seems to me I remember reading that the color yellow was more attractive to CM, but I might be mistaking that for something else.
I for one am not wasting my time with them anymore. Monitoring is not so important for me anyway as I pretty well keep my trees sprayed all the time anyway. Also, I never really have any fruit with CM damage.
Isn’t the red for apple maggot?
Do you use neem? yeah, I never caught the damn moths either! I am looking for an organic spray that is harmless to bees and wildlife. My peach have blossomed so it maybe too late to spray? apple about to blossom.
That is what the manufacturer of those red spheres claimed!
Red spheres are mainly for apple maggot flies. Unfortunately, they also trap bees, mosquitoes, and other flying insects. I used to put them on my apple and peach trees. Turned out, once in a while, I caught some flies. After losing a few chunks of hair on the tangle foot and finding out that they won’t work much on PC and OFM, I gave up on them and spray insecticide instead.
Plum curculio and Oriental fruit moths do a lot more damage on apple and peaches. You can spray insecticide or Surround (with or without Spinosad). Timing is everything, though.
What is surround? cant find any info on it., I am looking for a safe organic spray that will take are of the beasties for apples and peaches. thanks
Surround is a trade name for a spray that is comprised of kaolin clay which is a natural organic and harmless material.
No, I don’t use Neem oil it’s really not effective for any of the big bad guys. Honestly, everyone would prefer to not spray insecticides and fungicides, but they work and most of the other stuff does not. At least not to a satisfactory level. Surround is apparently a very good product though, but I’ve never used it and probably never will.
Yeah…the spheres you buy are always red, and I used red also.
if you search Surround + fruit trees or anything like that you’ll find out all you ever wanted to know. It’s a widely used product.
thanks Appleseed70. I found it! Do you mind if ask why U would prob not use it?
Yeah…I just went and double checked myself. I wasn’t mistaken, apparently yellow as a color is an attractant and there seems to be disagreement over red vs. yellow. There is conflicting research data concerning it and it seems some are now yellow red or yellow with red. Even yellow and white.
I’m not sure it matters, I don’t think the visual is a big draw anyway. I’ve dispensed with the idea entirely anyway since simple experimentation yielded piss poor results and it doesn’t really fit with my attack plan anyway.
The traps are not going to get enough moths to make a big dent. Also it sounds like your trap may have had an old lure in it, they don’t last forever. I can smell a good lure from a bad one, they give off a vaguely sweet perfumed smell if good.
The two ways to avoid poisons are mating disruption and Surround. Also there is codling moth granulosis which is a poison to codling moths and only codling moths - its a disease only they catch. Oh, you could also bag individual fruits.
I use mating disruption and granulosis, it took a few years to get control going but now I am about 95% CM free in my harvest.
It makes sense if the lure is old. God knows how long they have been sitting in the store. Do they sell the pheromone to refresh the “new lure” I got. must admit I didn’t have a whiff and it did not occur to me until you mention it!
So Surround works? I called Feedstore and they can get me 25lbs for $45. I am debating over it as there is alot and I dont want to spend $45 if it does not work, Thanks!
Yes, Surround really works. I use it for plum curculio and without it I would get no fruits on apples, pears, plums or peaches. Last night I did my first Surround spray of the year on my apricots.
thanks! I guess I have to get it. It is truly safe as the mfr claimed? only I don’t want any wildlife/critter to take a bite and end up dead. Is your spray intervals as per mfr? My peach blossoms have drop petals so I need to spray soon I think?
The codling moth traps I use are the little white pup tent-looking things made by Tanglefoot:
They aren’t designed to catch the females and don’t provide much in the way of mating disruption, but they do alert you to the presence of the adult moths and let you take whatever steps you prefer. I’ve found that spraying with Spinosad can be a complete control if you nail the timing.
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that is what I have used for a few yr and I have not caught any moths. Scotsmith said that the lure maybe old. He may be right. So I need to buy the pheromone that I can use to refresh but not sure who sells the pheromone, I have the tents and the pheromone lure already, just to purchase the lure/pheromone to refresh. at the moment my peaches have bloomed and lost the petals. apple just started.
Roundface - I use Surround soaked footies. I put them on after I sufficiently thin fruitlets. The footies are nylon socks. I use a mask when I work with the powder btw. One mixes a slurry of Surround + water. Then I dip the footies, toss in a strainer, I then dry them but you can put them on the fruitlets while still wet. Here is a link with more info: http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/fruit-sox/
If I notice the footies are loosing Surround in rains (it is water soluble so can wash off), I will mix a slurry in a squirt bottle and touch up each footie while still on the apple. I will also occasionally check the placement of footie on the apple as it grows and adjust as needed.
This gives me excellent protection vs. both Coddling moth and Apple maggot flies. It seems to be too time intensive for large growers but works well in backyard orchards here. I live in the Pacific Northwest.
Carole
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Thanks for the info. Do you get the sox with surround? Surely what the company sells shd last all season and there is no need for further application?
I just spoke with a very nice gentleman from Tanglefoot. I told him that I had no success with the coddling moth traps and red spheres and wondered if the coddling moths lures are old .
Scotsmith had said that there is a possibility my lures are old. He said he would send me 2 free fresh lures and would also send lures for Oriental fruit moths as these beasties cause wormy peaches. We also talked about red spheres (these are for apple fly maggots) he said using it with ammonia carbonate would help (the smell is like a lure for the maggot flies) and he would send me some ammonia carbonate too 
Now I need to go look for the red spheres and hang them out in June for apple maggots. I am excited to see if this would lead to fewer worm fruits. on a note of the colour yellow, he said yellow coloured sticky cards can be hung when there are no apples to get the maggots flies.
I must admit I thought my wormy peaches were caused by coddling moths so it would be interesting to test these oriental moths lures. I also thought that coddling moths were the cause of my wormy apples. I did use the red spheres but still wormy apples so, using this ammonia carbonate together with the red spheres would be good and if i dont get wormy apples later this yr, then they work
Good laugh at your comment. I haven’t actually used it but surround is what I hear that is both organic and works. Good luck Bill