Pest Mangement RSS

Codling moth Cydia pomonella is the most common pest in our area (Intermountain West of United States) of apples and pears.  If someone is complaining of "wormy apples", it is likely codling moth larva causing the damage.  We deal with codling moth in our apple and pear trees, and we've tried a lot of organic control methods.  Here is a bit about our experience of what we have tried. Lifecycle: Larvae drop with fruit, well fed, in the fall and hide under leaves, soil, apple containers, or in the bark grooves on tree trunks where they overwinter.  Larvae pupate in the...

Cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, is one of the most visible insects, pest or otherwise, in our garden.  It looks lovely and innocuous, dozens of white yellow butterflies floating around the garden on a warm summer day.  But watch them closely and find that what they're really doing is laying their eggs on host plants, which are those in the brassicacea family.  For us, the larva are mostly a problem in cabbage, as the leaves they feed on are also the part we eat.  They're frass fills the crevices of the growing cabbage, making it a disgusting mess.  Their feeding can stunt broccoli,...

Last year was the first year we dealt with Sand Chafer, or White Grub in our potato crop.  The damage to potato crops from this pest can be devastating.  White grubs, the larval stage of the Sand Chafer beetle lifecycle, feed on potatoes just as their about to be harvested in August and September.   Signs and symptoms: Adults are the only above-ground part of this insects life cycle: White grubs are large and easy to spot if they're in your potato patch.  They are sort of horrendous-looking things: Their damage is large bites, which create craters in the potatoes.  They...