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Apricots with maggots

3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago

I have a few apricot trees that had a terrible infestation last year. At least 9 out of 10 apricots were bad with the clear sap looking ooze coming out of the fruit and a small larvae inside (light/white body with a tan head). I don't know if it's from the Oriental fruit moth, codling moth, or something else. I'm in Northern Illinois if that makes a difference. I'm planning on getting pheromone traps (for both moths until I know exactly which one is causing trouble) to put out very soon but also wanted any advice on a spray to use and when to use it as a second line of defense besides just the traps. Thanks!

Comments (9)

  • 3 years ago

    I have a question about starting apriocts from seeds im doing the cold start method to germanate my seeds but the seeds still seem to hard any advice for gettingbthem to germanate and sprout? they havent finshed the cold part yet not untilmthe end of may

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    Back to the original topic:


    Also try vinegar traps, they will attract both moths and flies.


    Note that fly larva are maggots, fruit flies are the usual suspects here.


    Moth larva are caterpillars, often called worms when in fruit.


    There are subtle differences in the appearance of maggots and "worms".

  • 3 years ago

    The Plum Curculio pest would be my guess if you're located in the US and east of the Mississippi river. This insect will carve a little crescent moon shaped slit into the skin of the fruit (esp on stone fruits) and lay an egg that hatches into the maggot. The maggot then proceeds to drill down into the core to start the rotting process.

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    The Plum Curculio mentioned above is a beetle (weevil); beetle larvae are referred to as larva or grubs, not maggots.

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    "Maggot" here is being used as slang for larvae/grub. If you bite into a fruit and find one present it will surely come across as a nasty "maggot", no adult egg laying fly required.

  • 3 years ago

    If very tiny larvae/maggots, likely fruit flies. If a single larger creature, then plum curculio is a more likely suspect.

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    Some fruit flies are as large or larger than a housefly, and have larger larva.


    The problem with calling all fruit pest larva "maggots" is that it can cause a mis-identification of the pest insect, and different pests may require different control methods, and time and money could be spent treating the wrong pest.

  • 3 years ago

    Updated the post, though if I knew what the pest was, I wouldn't have needed to ask the question

  • PRO
    3 years ago

    Well, duh.


    Given the limited information, helpful people only offered an educated guess.

    Compare images of the two moth larvae and curculio larvae and see if "a tan head" eliminates any of them from consideration.


    The vinegar trap will not attract the curculio.