Codling Moths, Fruit Flies, and Fruit Maggots

Wormy fruit is inevitable after an invasion by larvae of codling moth, oriental fruit moth, and the like.  Apple maggots and cherry fruit fly maggots are larvae of flies.  Eggs of these pests are laid on, in, or near the fruit.  The immature insects feed and develop inside the fruit, often ruining it and causing the fruit to drop off prematurely.

Thorough covering sprays, begun when the insects first become active and repeated frequently, are usually needed for control.  Collecting dropped fruits may reduce apple maggot populations for the following year.  Banding tree trunks with several thicknesses of corrugated paper is a way to trap many codling moth larvae as they move down the tree trunks to their pupation sites.  Remove and destroy the bands in late fall.