Pollinating insects are crucial to a successful home orchard. This blog post highlights bumblebees as important pollinators in addition to honey bees. Other native pollinators besides bumblebees are mentioned. Future posts will explore some of them further...
Certain insects can be damaging pests to orchard fruit. The apple maggot and spotted wing drosophila are two fruit fly species that I monitor and control at Raintree. Biologically intelligent organic controls give the home orchardist hope for having clean in spite of these flies. Monitoring for apple maggot and Suzuki fruit fly using traps is a powerful tool for me. The traps also catch and kill some adult flies. When used widely, traps can help make a real dent in their populations. I discuss the life histories of these insects and how understanding their life cycles can be applied to their control. The codling moth is also mentioned.
