Rob, with such a small area its hard to use mating disruption. If you do use it you will need to put disruptors over a much bigger area, and/or use many more. All the recs state that you need a minimum of something like 5 acres in a square or fat rectangle shape to get good results. My feeling is the greater area is stated because there need to be an overwhelming number of artificial scent trails so the odds are something like 1/100 or less that a male will ever catch onto a real trail. Remember they have a whole evening to be looking out there, and if you fool them only 90% of the time they will still win that 10% and there will be tons of moths since each mating produces so many eggs. On a smaller property one way to get more trails is to just put more lures out, for example if you were to put out 30-40 of them. I vaguely recall someone posting here who had good luck that way. I have about an acre and I have had OK but not fantastic luck with mating disruption. I have put out around 30 disruptors in that acre area but I plan on upping it to a higher concentration this year to see if I get better results.

In terms of buying small quantities, there was a place selling only a few but I can't find it now. The manufacturers have all these exclusive sales regions etc and it looks like they have been busy shutting down online stores selling outside of their zones. The good news is if you get a large package if you fridge them they seem to last a long time and you could also put out the large number I think you need to do to really test the method.

Scott

Thanks Scott. I really appreciate the advice. It sounds like unless I leave OFM lures all over the neighborhood to confuse them I might do more harm than good, since the lures might just concentrate them in my yard more. Maybe I'll try leaving an OFM trap by each tree. I know I've seen those sold in small quantities.

Rob

Rob, I was hit by the OFM last year and I'm considering using the mating disruption rings. I only have 15 trees so the expense is tough to justify. I'd be willing to split an order with you if you want. I just received yesterday the delta traps and OFM pheromone to hopefully check their activity, but would like to use the mating distractors. Let me know if you want to split an order with me. Thanks, luke

I think it is worth experimenting with putting about 30-50 lures in your yard and see how that works. Don't just go by one year's results, if the orchard was filled with them even the studies done by professionals show it takes 2-3 years before the population is hammered. I think the lures will last five years in the fridge (and maybe longer in the freezer) so as long as it ends up working it would not be a waste to buy or split one order. That is how I have been buying mine. I have what is probably a lifetime supply of spinosad and virosoft as well.

One other thing is look closely at how many days of protection you get and when your first flight is, and plan accordingly. Each brand of lure has a different time span and its a lot cheaper if you need only one batch per season, but on the other hand if you get them out too late you could have way too many moths to get under control later. I use a monitoring trap containing an OFM lure so I can see when a flight has occurred; the tip flagging is happening 2-3 weeks after the flight so its also a good indicator but is a trailing indicator. Don't expect the confusion alone to control the moths for several years. I still do a few spinosad sprays, regularly am laying oil down on any eggs, and prune flagging tips at least once a week. Last year I had something like 2/3 worm-free peaches, varying a lot from variety to variety.

Scott

Thanks Scott for your realistic assessment and information. I'll wait to hear from Rob, or anyone else that wants to split an order. I'm thinking seriously about the bug zapper and lure that was posted recently. Thanks again, luke