Trimming Apple Trees To Deal With Maggots

Apple trees are a great decorative item that can also provide homeowners with delicious fruit. Unfortunately, apple trees are prone to apple maggots, and these creatures can devastate a tree's health. However, tree trimming can help manage this problem quickly and effectively.

Symptoms Of Apple Maggot Infestation

Apple maggot infestation is a pretty easy thing to spot. The apples hanging from the trees will start to whither and die off as they are eaten from the inside-out. This will cause them to fall off the tree, where the maggots can feast and grow to adulthood. As a result, a lot of apples lying on the ground around a tree is a good sign of an infestation.

Another common sign is small white dots on the surface of individual apples. These are the areas where the adult fly laid her eggs in the apple. These should be spotted across the surface and are likely to be noticeable from a few feet away from the tree. Picking an apple that looks infected and slicing it in half should reveal small, writhing maggots if it is infected.

How Trimming Can Help

There are many different ways to eliminate apple maggots from an apple tree. The quickest way is to pick the apples early on to prevent a large infestation. It is also necessary to pick up any fallen apples to keep other apples from getting infected. Another method that is useful is trimming excess limbs, branches, and fruit.

Trimming away these dead or dying branches will keep away flies that would otherwise lay eggs in apples. Eliminating a majority of the apples will also make it more difficult for them to lay their eggs. It is then possible to place small bags over the remaining individual apples to protect them from getting infected with apple maggots.

Apple Tree Pruning Tips

When it comes time to trim an apple tree, it is important to do it at the right time. Doing it in the late winter can help stimulate stronger growth and a heavier resistance to infestations like this. However, it is also possible to trim in the summer and spring. This is a useful way to eliminate the apples that would otherwise attract apple maggot flies.

Hand tools, such as pruners, loppers, saws, and pole pruners are a useful way of performing a DIY trim or prune job. However it is usually better to get a professional to do it instead. They will have better tools, a stronger understanding of how to trim properly, and will do it more quickly and efficiently than just about any amateur trying it out on their own.

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