We moved into our home in 1992. The garden has about two dozen very old pome fruit trees. Apples, pears and quinces, some planted over 100 years ago. The pear trees are huge – about 12 metres high with trunk diameters of about 1 metre. The trees were riddled with Codling Moth, with over 90% of fruit having grubs inside.

In the second year we decided to start using pheromone ties. The Codling Moth damage dropped to around 25%, and after two seasons the level of damage stabilized around 10%, so we were quite pleased. Pheromone ties must be placed near the tops of the trees for best effect, but doing this in the pears was out of the question, so we just lived with a bit of damage.

Then three years ago huge flocks of lorikeets and parrots arrived early in the season, when the fruit was only golf ball size. Due to the drought and the resulting lack of nectar in nearby Eucalypt forests, the birds were hungry. They consumed every last apple, pear and quince, so we were not at all pleased.

However since that event, the birds have not been so numerous and we have not seen a single Codling Moth grub here for three years.  

Since a mated female Codling Moth is not supposed to travel more than 300 metres, for us Codling Moth are a thing of the past here at home, so long as we don’t become careless and re-introduce them ourselves. No need to use pheromone ties anymore.

By removing every apple, pear and quince early in the season, the birds were able to break the life cycle and thus eradicate Codling Moth from our home garden. Every cloud has a silver lining. And a lesson was learnt.