My only pear tree is infested with pear midge. Nearly all the fruit
have gone black and most of them are still on the tree. I cut open a
few fruit and cannot find any maggots inside which suggests to me they
have already left. (There appear to be "exit holes" in most of the
fruit).

Is it too late to take control measures to prevent next years crop
being ruined?

Do you recommend spraying next spring? If so, with what?

Cheers

Adrian

"Adrian" <efeef [at] owef> wrote in message
news:4pge72tcctrst3pp9h4t1d48m18s1j1963 [at] 4ax.com...
> My only pear tree is infested with pear midge. Nearly all the fruit
> have gone black and most of them are still on the tree. I cut open a
> few fruit and cannot find any maggots inside which suggests to me they
> have already left. (There appear to be "exit holes" in most of the
> fruit).
>
> Is it too late to take control measures to prevent next years crop
> being ruined?
>
> Do you recommend spraying next spring? If so, with what?
>
> Cheers
>
> Adrian
>

Aaah!
My tree had not had a surviving pear for years, and it turned out to
be pear midge. You are supposed to pick off infested fruit ( infested fruit
ends up guitar shaped ) and destroy it to kill the larvae: they drop out of
the fruit via little holes and blackened cracks eventually and remain in the
soil until next year. The advice is to till the soil around the base of the
tree to disrupt the larvae.

This doesn't work for me since my neighbour neglects his garden, and a big
pear tree there hosts zillions of pear midge.

There is supposed to be a spray option, I believe you apply it early in the
year before whitebud. I don't know the name.

If you are organic, I can tell you what will work without spraying, though
it's fiddly. Get some plastic bags, preferably stiffish plastic, ideally
florists plastic wrap which is a cellophane-like plastic with lots of tiny
perforations in it, pollinate the blossom asap after budburst with a model
paintbrush, and wrap the best blossom branches in this plastic. Hold in
place with ties.

In fact, to best thwart the pear midges, it's best to bag up the selected
branches prior to budburst, and then remove the plastic on a sunny day when
the blossom is in full flower, allow the blossom to dry out ( it'll be a bit
wet inside the plastic ), then pollinate. Then replace plastic wrapper and
leave it on until blossom drop.

I did try using net curtain instead of bags on several branches, but had a
zero fertilisation rate. I surmise that hand pollination is not very
efficient and the high humidity inside a bag helps the germination process
along tremendously ( same with cucumbers and tomatoes, that's why they tell
you to wet the greenhouse down daily in summer ).

It's a lot of bother but it does work. Another possibility that I have had
some success with is festooning the tree with smelly stuff, which seems to
confuse the midges. Don't use Citronella anti-mosquito cream whatever you do
since that blackens and destroys the leaves and fruit. I may try mothballs
or something and see if that works.

Andy.

"Adrian" <efeef [at] owef> wrote in message
news:4pge72tcctrst3pp9h4t1d48m18s1j1963 [at] 4ax.com...
> My only pear tree is infested with pear midge. Nearly all the fruit
> have gone black and most of them are still on the tree. I cut open a
> few fruit and cannot find any maggots inside which suggests to me they
> have already left. (There appear to be "exit holes" in most of the
> fruit).
>
> Is it too late to take control measures to prevent next years crop
> being ruined?
>
> Do you recommend spraying next spring? If so, with what?
>
> Cheers
>
> Adrian
>
We have battled with pear midge for 23 years!
The grubs leave after the black pearlets drop and are on the ground, there
is currently no spray available for domestic use and the best thing is to
collect all the dropping pears before the grubs get out, thus breaking the
cycle.
You will find some pear varieties much more prone than others even when
grown in proximity the difference appears to be flowering time, just a few
days either way and the midges fail. We also gained some relief from the
problem by cultivating under a tree rather than grass.
(I started writing this 3 days ago then got busy so sorry if it repeats
information already posted)

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)