Just Starting Up A New Fruit Orchard? Understand The Coddling Moth And Its Control Methods

Fruit orchards provide a great potential for profit because owners can sell fruit to grocery stores, at farmer's markets, or to various types of manufacturers. Unfortunately, fruit is often heavily infested with a broad number of pests. One of the most devastating of these is the coddling moth, which lays its larvae directly in fruit. Thankfully, orchard owners can minimize this problem by working directly with pest control experts. 

How the Coddling Moth Affects the Fruit Industry

Coddling moth larvae are laid inside of fruit, where they burrow to the center to eat the seeds. As they grow, they eat the fruit as well and eventually start burrowing their way out. They then leave behind a sticky and unsanitary fecal matter trail. Beginning orchard owners may be shocked at the end of the growing season when they see these infestations spread throughout their many trees.

Unfortunately, these infestations make fruit inedible and unusable for an orchard owner. And, sadly, this moth can quickly spread its young to many, many pieces of fruit throughout an orchard. Therefore, it is necessary to manage their population as soon as possible to ensure an orchard remains strong. Thankfully, many different care options are available for this situation.

Immediate Treatment is Necessary

Beginning fruit growers need to consider one of many codling moth treatment options. Thankfully, there are many options from which to choose. Doing so is necessary because devastating losses so early in an orchard career may cause serious financial loss from which it can be hard to bounce back. Care options are very diverse because the codling moth is often a very difficult pest because it works into fruit.

In many situations, infested fruit is a loss and must be thrown away to ensure that the situation doesn't worsen. Then, growers should consider treatment methods such as pesticides or pruning the trees properly. Try to start with the least-restrictive option possible, as this helps to keep trees strong while also eliminating moths. Usually, professional help is necessary to prevent serious financial loss.

These care options can be done by orchard owners on their own, particularly if their financial situation is a little precarious. However, they may also want to work with professional pest control experts instead. These individuals are a great investment because they can do what it takes to make sure that beginning orchard owners don't find their career ending before it begins. Contact a local pest control company like Environmental Services Pest Control to see if they can help treat for coddling moths. 


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