What's eating my worcester pearmain apple?

Worcester Pearmain's thin-skinned, early-ripening fruit makes it especially attractive to birds and wasps as it colours up in August. Codling moth, apple scab-associated aphids, and winter moth caterpillars also cause significant damage. Net fruit or use fleece to keep birds and wasps at bay.

Larvae bore into the core, leaving frass-filled tunnels; fruit drops early or is riddled at harvest. Pheromone traps from late May; spinosad or pyrethrin at petal fall; collect and destroy windfalls weekly.

Peck into ripening fruit, creating open wounds that then attract wasps and trigger rapid rot. Net the tree with fine-mesh fruit netting once fruit begins to colour; remove netting after harvest.

Excavate ripening and wind-fallen fruit, especially at blemish sites; greatly worsens bird-peck wounds. Hang wasp traps (sugary water or beer) nearby; pick up windfalls daily; wasp populations collapse naturally after the first frosts.

Curls and puckers young leaves; infested fruitlets remain small and distorted, often not reaching marketable size. Encourage ladybirds and lacewings; spray with insecticidal soap or pyrethrin at green-tip stage before leaves fully curl and shelter the colony.