Lucky1: 1. If your apples had visible worms (larvae) in them, they were most likely those of the codling moth. Apple maggots leave small tracks in the fruit, but the actual larvae are so small as to be difficult to see. I checked out your profile to see where you live (always an important diagnostic fact), and north of Seattle is codling moth country, as is much of the Pacific Northwest. That is not to say, however, that you don't also have apple maggot infestation. 2. The best technique for the small grower to prevent infestations of codling moth, apple maggot fly, and/or plum curculio, is to bag the apples in ziplock sandwich bags immediately after thinning them. Bags should be installed after thinning the small apples to the one best per cluster (usually the king fruit in the middle), and you want to ensure a firm zipper seal right up to the stem on both sides to make sure the bag holds through wind and rain. Before installation, cut the bottom corners from the bags with a scissors to allow water drainage, and, after opening the bags, remove the excess plastic on top by slitting with the same scissors. If you get the bags on while the apples are still relatively small and undamaged, you can grow perfect apples without any spraying at all, all season long. I do it here every year. After picking, leave the apples in their bags for storage, and the apples will have less tendency to shrivel in refrigeration. If you have only one tree, you ought to be able to do the entire installation job in less than an hour, and you are good to go for the rest of the season. 3. Agree with Warren that the best preventative for aphids is dormant spraying with horticultural oil, and the most important time to apply it is just at bud break. Use a strong oil mix when dormant spraying -- about 4 ounces per gallon (2 oz./quart for smaller jobs), but if you still have aphids after leaves emerge, use the oil at a much lower rate of about 1 ounce/gallon. Oil spray is non-toxic, and you can apply it with a hand trigger sprayer if you don't have a larger pump-up. If you apply dormant oil spray to your plum tree, do the apple tree at the same time. Aphids can show up there too. 4. However, aphids were not responsible for the cracking of your plums, which can occur after a rain or heavy watering following a dry spell. Some fruit varieties (pluots come to mind) are so crack-prone that it seems they can crack with only high humidity. But if you have a dry summer, which is typical for your region, you might want to try watering more regularly and moderately, and avoid heavy watering when the soil is very dry. My brother, who lives in Belleview, seems able to grow the Italian plum without cracking, and without much care at all, and I don't think he waters the tree much. 5. For Warren: Recommending insecticidal sprays is always pretty spongy territory, which brings out many different views. As you have mentioned, natural pyrethrin is produced from flower blossoms, and is generally considered to be organically acceptable, though it is not non-toxic, and is EPA classified as a restricted use pesticide. Permethrin is a synthetic chemical pyrethroid which mimics the action of natural pyrethrins. While both these substances have been widely used, it is rare to see either of them available on the local retail market today, although many chemicals can be found online that seldom show up at Home Depot or Lowes. In addition to being restricted, natural pyrethrin is extremely expensive. Rotenone, once a favorite of the organic grower, is also difficult to find today, and when found it is in a 1% formulation instead of the 5% formulation sold in the past. Rotenone is produced from the ground cube resins of South American plants, and although Jicama contains some cube resins, that is not the usual commercial source of Rotenone. Rotenone in its powdered form was usually used as a dust. When mixed with water, the ground resins tended to quickly clog a sprayer head. Rotenone is also highly toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms, although much less toxic to humans or animals. This product can still be found, but is not a very practical alternative for a fruit tree spray. For the backyard fruit grower, oil spray, especially dormant application, is a much better alternative for aphid control. Sevin liquid and dust are still widely available, but I have not found this product to be very effective against either aphids or codling moth. Sevin is, however, very effective against Japanese beetles, and I still use it for that. The best feature of bagging apples is that you don't have to sort through the various pesticides or guess at their relative toxicity or effectiveness. You don't have to use them at all. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Something has been eating holes in the cots, but I haven't seen any definite curculio scars. They're supposed to be active mostly at night, in warm weather, so I've been assuming they would be lying low up to now. And when it was so hot, there were no fruits for them to infest. The weather is probably confusing them as much as the rest of us. I sprayed yesterday, because the plums and cherries have joined the cots out of the shuck and the pears are almost big enough to bag. The codling moth is supposed to be egg laying around now. Maybe.

Dropped to 61F, but the temp was on the rise even before the sun started rising with strong south winds kicking in... Today hit 89F here. Yesterday didn't even 70F. Tonite they should be out hard and heavy with the temp still above 80F at 9pm...

Randy: I don't know when your codling moth will begin to show up, but with temperatures finally rising in this unusually cool month of May, it can't be long. How old are your apple trees? Do they have a heavy fruit set this spring? Are you spraying your trees at all? The most common early problem on apples in Virginia is the plum curculio, which seems to die out around the end of May, but can do plenty of damage before that. Then along comes codling moth, and a little later the apple maggot fly should arrive if it is present in your area. If I did not do several early sprays and subsequently bag most of my apples in ziploc sandwich bags, I am sure I would see some codling moth damage, but maggot has never been a problem for me even on unbagged apples. I install hundreds of ziplocs on my apples every year just after thinning to one apple per cluster, and stop spraying after that since the apples are protected. With only two trees, it would be easy for you to bag your apples and produce some really high-quality perfect fruit with no spraying after bag installation. You would spend a lot less money on a couple packs of sandwich bags than on those traps, which I have not found to be of much use. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA