Video: Controlling Apple Maggots

comments (0) August 5th, 2009

Vegetable Gardener, editor

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Video Length: 1:56
Produced by: Gary Junken

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If you live east of the Rockies and grow apple trees, you have probably been "bugged" by apple maggots, or railroad worms (Rhagoletis pomonella). Luckily, apple maggots are easy to control without spraying. Here's how to make a simple pesticide-free trap for just a few dollars.

Make the trap
Locate a bright red, apple-sized object. Since apple maggots love apples, real ones make good traps. In our video, Lee Reich uses a store-bought Red Delicious apple because it's a cultivar known for its bright red color. Then cover your trap with a sticky insect trap coating (Reich uses Tangle Trap).

Hang the trap in your apple tree and wait
You can probably use one trap per dwarf apple tree and four or five in a full-sized tree. As they fly around looking for a place to lay their eggs, apple maggots will find and get stuck in the bright, shiny red trap you set just for them.

Make your trap more effective
Place your trap in front of a yellow background to make it visible. You can also try hanging a scent lure nearby.

posted in: pests, fruit, apples

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