Hi Rjinga,

Oozy gooey sap means oriental fruit moth to me. Harvestman will disagree, but that's all I've ever seen cause that problem around here.

The bottom line is there is no systemic insecticide available to homeowners for this pest.

However, there is a non-systemic that offers good control.

First, get rid of your light green fruit tree spray. It's probably a combo spray and not nearly effective as a sole insecticide.

Triazicide once and done is what you need for your oriental fruit moth problem. It can be picked up at Walmart or Home DoDo.

Spray this after petal fall, and every two weeks thereafter. A little Captan in the mix 30-14 days before harvest will prevent the peaches from rotting on the tree.

So are you saying that since I had these moths last year, I'll have them again? (the ooey gooey reference is to what happened last year).

I have also noticed reddish sap on the trunk and/or branches of the tree. What could this be and how to treat it?

Yes, you will have the same pests this year that you did last year. It could be plum curculio if it's early that the peaches are dropping. Plum curc is easy to recognize with a bigger scar, and the grub is legless whereas the OFM grub has legs. Triazicide will treat both.

Hard to say about the reddish sap on the trunk/branches, but it doesn't sound good. Cankers ooze that kind of sap and can be the death of the tree. Dormant copper sprays are generally recommended for preventing it.

Re: On the height of the tree, I'd prune it down to a manageable height. Last year I was fed up with how tall some of my trees were getting, so I pruned them with a chain saw (seriously). I don't have time or inclination to fool with ladders. People will think that I shouldn't have let the trees get to such a state, and they may be right.

A commercial peach grower near me prunes his peaches that way when they get out-of-hand, and has good results with it. The trees I pruned this way had good growth rest of the summer and filled back in some. I did notice some winter bark kill on some of the larger limbs that were pruned, but it doesn't look like it's anything that won't heal. Large pruning wounds can open up a peach tree to Lesser peach tree borer, so it would be important to keep your trees sprayed.

If your tree is LOADED with pea-sized peaches, don't forget to thin, thin, thin them! You probably want to pick off enough peaches that there's a good 6 inches between each remaining one.