"ned" wrote in -
berlin.de:

Your thoughts please on how to protect apples from wasp predation!

We have successfully protected our currant and strawberry crops from
the birds this year with mesh cages. But have lost virtually all of
the apples (good crop from two compact eight foot trees) to wasps and
flies which seemed to get to the fruit before we felt it was 'ripe for
the picking'.
The smallest plastic mesh I have seen is about quarter inch square
which would be no good against the insects.


Could you perhaps pick a little earlier next year? The crop on my eater (a
lot bigger than your trees!) is just starting to get wasped a bit now, but
the apples have been edible for about a month.

I've noticed the insects start with the windfalls rather than the apples on
the tree - did you tidy the windfalls away, perhaps, so only the ones on
the tree were available to them? If so, how about setting aside an area
for them to provide an alternative attraction?

Though I suppose if you have particularly thin-skinned apples, the net
curtains may be the only answer.

Victoria