Authored by Thea Tan in Gardening
Published on 02-06-2009
It’s always great to have a steady supply of fresh fruits right from your backyard. A lot of people struggle to achieve this dream but fail to realize how easy it is to attract serious worm infestation in their fruits. Isn’t it horrendous when you bite into a fruit of the tree you’ve taken care of for a long time, only to find out that you have not been liberal enough with your pesticides?
Sometimes, it is indeed a hassle to spray pesticides regularly, but it is something you should deal with. Spraying pesticides is a process that’s relatively quick and easy, and something you don’t have to do very often at all. Keep in mind that it’s worth it to go outside the yard and spray every 2 weeks.
Aside from being a time-consuming process, spraying will require you to buy all the supplies, mix the chemicals, apply them, and then clean up everything you used in the process. You’ll even need a ladder so you can reach all parts of the tree. If you have large trees, the entire process can take you around 4 hours. Imagine doing this every 2 weeks. Seems tiring and irritating, doesn’t it? Perseverance is key. Being determined when it comes to spraying regularly will help spare your tree from infestation of such pests as moths. You will also need to do a little bit more.
You can detect the presence of moths on your tree if they have laid eggs by the ends of the branches. If you find moth eggs clustering in a branch, you should immediately destroy the cluster and prune the branch. Thoroughly examine the rest of the tree. Don’t wait for the eggs to hatch. Else you would have a whole lot of moth larvae crawling all over your tree and inside your fruits.
Once, I had a friend whose tree was severely infested by moths. Not a single fruit was free from worms so he ended up having to cut down the entire tree. The stump was a wriggling mass of white larvae. He even hired a professional to get rid of all the traces. Indeed, seeing the tree you’ve worked on for a very long time wasted and having to start all over again is devastating.
I live in the same area as that friend I mentioned, but I’ve never had a problem with moths. This is because during springtime, I make it a part of my schedule to go outside every Saturday and to spray my entire tree. It sure is better to be cautious and experience a little pain in the neck rather than to cut down my entire tree and start from the beginning.
With this, you might want to go to your local gardening supplies store today. Find out which pests are most prevalent where you live, and buy the appropriate pesticides to keep them from infesting your trees. This will save you a lot of trouble later on.
