Losing it to plum curculio - Ambrosia Pear

Looks like my Surround timing was not ideal and I’m loosing Ambrosia pears to plum curculio. Had to hand pick about 20 fruits already. Hope some will stay. Otherwise, next battle next year.



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@ukie

Plum curculio should be crushed to death as the pear grows leave them on the tree. The little c shaped cuts a pc makes on a pear wont matter much. See this old thread Explain it to me...plum curculio in apples . Pc on everything else is what you have to worry about! Not that anyone wants a scar on their pear!

@clarkinks Thanks for your response. What do you mean “leave them on the tree”? Fruits are almost dead already.

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@ukie

Dont pull off pc damaged fruits. The rapidly expanding fruitlets will crush the pc in some cases. Not all pc strikes are eggs either. The premature drops are the infected ones as you likely know. Some will drop, but many pc picked the wrong tree to pick on. Have you had rain lately? Hopefully, the fruitlets grow quickly! Plum curculio . No one wants fruit scarred up here is a solid treatment Insect Pests - Cooperative Extension: Tree Fruits - University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Picked up like 30+ dropped pears yesterday :frowning_face:

Is it really plum curculio larva? Found !four! in one pear!

I saw a few moon shapes which are entry wounds of plum curculio. If the larva do not crawl away, they are PC larva. However, if they crawl away, they are likely to be either Oriental Fruit moths or coddling moth larva.

There are other pests , too, but these are the big three. Sometimes, more than one pests lay egg on the same fruit. If you read up on their characteristics, you can tell what they are.

Time to figure out what type of spray you want to use, Check out the Guides category for detailed information.

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I did use Scott’s organic Low-Impact Spray Schedule this year. This Ambrosia pear got a good coat of Surround WP + Spinosad. Was I too late with Surround 1st coat on April 22nd? Damage says yes I was.

I used to do low impact spray for 4-5 years. The buggers got to my fruit before me everytime. I had enough and switched to synthetics with much better results. As you realize it now that, not only what to spray, when to spray is as important.

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Yeah, I know that Surround timing is crucial. Here’s a pic of fruitlets when I sprayed 1st layer.

Surround does not kill PC. It only irritates them. If you are in a PC high pressure area, some of them will press forward and get to your fruit.

I prefer killing them these days.

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So what works best for you to remediate PC?

I use the one that can be easily found at big box stores. I have used new Sevin with zeta cypermethrin as the main ingredient. It is quite lethal so I am careful not to kill beneficial insects.

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