Wednesday 28 April 2010

Pear midge - Morettini

The blossom dropped very suddenly on the Morettini standard, so I decided to try an experimental treatment for pear midgel. This tree was very badly affected last year and is fairly isolated from others, so it should be easier to assess if spraying for adult midges has any effect. Fortunately the wind was low yesterday and as soon as the derris spray hit the foliage a cloud of midges flew up. Unfortunately the same thing happened when I tried spraying again today, suggesting the insecticide isn't really having a deterrent effect. I went back later to see if I could retrieve any dead midges for identification, but the one I found managed to fly out of my grasp. So I'm not holding out much hope for the effectiveness of spraying. I probably should have started a day earlier too, as the midges were clearing active before full petal drop, given the large number that had already arrived.

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