Lawrence Akutagawa wrote:

I've decided to battle with the coddling moth on my apple trees in the back
yard this year. Has anyone had experience with either Bulls-Eye
bioinsecticide or Neem-Away as described in the Gardens Alive catalog and
website? I would appreciate knowing how effective each is against the
coddling moth larvae and eggs in your experience.

I doubt either would be very effective, although the Neem product may have some
value as a smothering spray.

Coddling moths are rather difficult to control and are not effectively treated
with sprays, cetainly not for the home gardener. It is not the moths which
cause the damage, it is their larvae which lives inside the fruit - a product
like Bulls-Eye will have no effectiveness because it must be consumed by the
insect (usually from the leaf) and the the larvae, immediately after hatching,
burrow their way into the fruit and are protected from any further spray
treatments. And they don't eat the foliage, only the fruit.

The recommended treatment here (and we grow a lot of apples in this state) is
to use a dormant spray to smother overwintering pupae (can be done now here)
and follow up with pheremone traps. What adults are not controlled by the
dormant spray are then prevented from mating by the traps. No mating, no eggs,
no larvae. It often takes more than one season to effect complete control.

The Neem product could be effective as a dormant spray, I guess, but you should
be using it for this purpose ONLY if it is registered on the label for such.
Even Neem oil is toxic to pollinators, which is why any spraying should be
limited to a dormant product.

With any type of pest it is extremely important to understand their life cycle
and how they cause damage - only then should treatment/control be effected to
address their most vulnerable stage. With CM, this is by trapping the adults,
as it is virtually impossible to control the larvae once they are protected
inside the fruit.

There is a lot of information about coddling moths available if you do a
search. Disregard the statements recommending diazinon or malathion - they are
outdated and no longer valid control methods. Diazinon is now restricted from
home use and personally, I wouldn't want to eat fruit that has been treated
with malathion. Trapping is really the only effective control method.

pam - gardengal