What's eating my english walnut 'pedro'?

English Walnut 'Pedro' (a soft-shelled California variety) faces the same pest complex as other English walnuts: walnut husk fly, codling moth, walnut scale, and aphids. Its thin shell may make stored nuts more vulnerable to insect damage post-harvest. Husk fly is the primary in-season threat.

Maggot-infested husks turn black and cling to the shell; kernels stained, shrunken, and often inedible Yellow sticky traps + spinosad bait spray (GF-120) from first adult catch through husk split; reapply weekly; remove mummified husks

Grey armoured scales encrust bark and scaffold branches; heavy infestations cause branch die-back Dormant-season horticultural oil spray; summer crawlers can be hit with insecticidal soap; prune and destroy heavily encrusted wood

Larval bore at nut base; frass plug; kernel partially consumed; early nut drop Pheromone traps to time spinosad sprays at egg hatch; trunk banding with corrugated cardboard to catch descending larvae