What's eating my bartlett pear?

Bartlett (Williams) pear shares the pear-family pest complex. Pear psylla is the headline threat, fouling fruit with honeydew. Codling moth larvae ruin the flesh. Fire blight infection enters through blossoms. Birds and wasps are drawn to the thin-skinned, aromatic ripe fruit in late summer.

Sticky honeydew coats foliage and fruit; sooty mould follows; infested trees show early leaf drop and reduced fruit size Dormant oil spray before bud swell; kaolin clay barrier during the season; avoid nitrogen over-fertilising which promotes soft growth psylla prefer

Worm-in-fruit: larvae bore from the calyx to the core, fruit drops early or harbours larvae at harvest Pheromone traps from petal fall; codling moth granulosis virus or spinosad timed to egg hatch; sanitation — collect fallen fruit daily

Feeding produces corky, cat-faced depressions in the flesh, making fruit unmarketable; especially severe in mid-Atlantic and Pacific Northwest Exclude from fruit with fine netting; collect overwintering adults from buildings; use kaolin clay or pyrethrin as a last resort

Birds and social wasps (Vespula spp.) puncture ripe Bartlett fruit, accelerating rot and attracting secondary pests Drape fine bird netting over branches before colour break; wasp traps placed away from the tree reduce local populations