White worms in Montmorency cherries

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by MsWendalyn, Sep 27, 2011.

  1. MsWendalyn

    MsWendalyn Member

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    Fort Collins, Colorado USA
    I too had the very same thing happen to my Montmorency Tree. I just couldn't believe all those little white worms. Last year I had a beautiful bounty of cherries. This year it was just ruined. I was wondering what the solution is as I am just joining this and have lots of questions. My Montmorency Tree is only about 5 years old and this year it was just full of those nasty little white worms. I would like to know if there is something I need to do now to avoid this for my next years crop?

    Thanks
    Wendy
     
  2. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    Location:
    Burnaby, Canada
    Re: Worms

    Google "spotted wing drosophila" to find out the latest about this fast spreading pest. I see that it has recently reached Colorado. I noticed it on my Montmorency cherries last year.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 27, 2011
  3. MsWendalyn

    MsWendalyn Member

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    Re: Worms

    I got to a couple of informative sites but what I am getting from them is to harvest asap? Is there nothing we can feed the tree to ward off these darn flies to begin with? Maybe I just didn't read enough. Oh and thank u for the response this is great!!
     
  4. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    I read that there are some insecticides that commercial orchardists can use against SWD, but there is nothing available for home gardens. I'm just removing all old fruit and picking everything as early as possible to limit the damage. Don't toss over-ripe and damaged fruit in the compost; this will just breed more SWD. I store unusable fruit in a bucket with a tight fitting lid until it's full and then bury the contents in the garden. This applies to almost every fruit; I see the flies hovering around any damaged or ripe fruit in the garden, except perhaps kiwi fruit.
     
  5. sleepdeficit2

    sleepdeficit2 Member

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    Not sure if this will be helpful, but I've found that picking the fruit earlier means no worms, but waiting until the cherries are sweeter (if you can say this about sour cherries) means they might have worms. Doing this for the past 5 or 6 years, and so far has worked. It could also be that the worms have disappeared, I couldn't tell.
     

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