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Fruit & Orchards

Winter Moth

10 years ago

Just received my weekly report, from the head of Hort. from the Uni. of RI. She mentioned this am. that the Winter Moth eggs have started turning blue and that our first spray of insecticide should start in a week if not sooner. That said, question. . . My peaches (what will be left of the flower buds due to frost) will be opening within the next week. Is it wise to spray so soon? Mrs. G

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Comments (3)

don555
10 years ago
If you've got insect issues, I think you want to get in at least one spraying before the buds open, a week ahead sounds good to me. Once the flowers open you won't want to spray again until petal drop unless you want to kill all the bees and other pollinating insects.
alan haigh
10 years ago
I think you should spray on need and not by recipe for this pest. Isn't BT affective against winter moth? If so, you can wait to determine if there is infestation in your own trees before spraying. They should stop feeding as soon as they ingest BT and it will not harm the bees.

I get a little of this pest every year- they only affect the apples for me but I never spray them- there are usually plenty of flowers to spare it there are any, so the moths are helping me thin.

You might consider getting a good magnifying glass for the purpose and scout your trees for eggs. It is a good exercise for the serious home orchardist. You can't develop monitoring muscles without exercise.

Too much Triazide will create an imbalance in your orchard, for sure, and you will likely eventually pay for doing the easy thing and killing too many allies.
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Is this a winter moth?
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Comments (2)
There are several different species of moths whose caterpillars are green with several pale longitudinal stripes. A winter moth is a geometrid and its caterpillar is an inchworm or looper--they move by arching up and forming a loop and then flattening out again. If handled, it would raise up and appear to "look around". The Quaker moth mentioned above is a noctuid and its caterpillar would just crawl along, not raising up as it travels.
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U Mass has fact sheets including ones on winter moth that include treatment at different times in the life cycle and different levels of benign-ness vs. toxicity. Less toxic options range from physical barriers to dormant oil spray (too late for that this year as it is sprayed when the moth and tree are dormant) to bacteria that only infect caterpillars (Bt). https://ag.umass.edu/fact-sheets/winter-moth-identification-management https://ag.umass.edu/fact-sheets/winter-moth-overview There are also a fair number of folks on the New England forum who deal with this.
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I just noticed tiny caterpillars inside the buds of my Japanese Maple! Can I spray spinosad (Captain Jacks Deadbug) directly on the buds?
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My understanding is that if the buds are tight the spinosad won't penetrate to the caterpillars. Spraying only works if the buds are partly open or the caterpillars are feeding freely on the foliage. Spraying the buds might help prevent more newly hatched caterpillars from getting inside through the bud scales, but it won't affect caterpillars already inside. Claire
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mrsg47
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks all! Mrs. G

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