Codling Moth

• Modern control rests on mating disruption: the air is saturated with synthetic female pheromone and the males cannot find the females, a technique that has hugely cut insecticide use in fruit growing.
• It is also fought with a granulosis virus specific to the species, harmless to any other organism.
• The exit hole and the damp frass on the surface of the fruit are the sign that the larva has already left: by the time the hole shows, the apple has been occupied for some while.
• This is the worm in the apple. The caterpillar bores into the fruit shortly after hatching, feeds on the flesh and the seeds, and exits through a hole, leaving a trail of droppings.
• It is the most important pest of apple and pear in the temperate world, and it also attacks walnut and quince.
• Its control is a case study: it is fought with mating disruption, dispersing synthetic pheromone through the orchard so that males cannot find the females, a technique that has greatly reduced insecticide use.
• And it has been a pioneer in biological control with viruses: a specific granulovirus is used, harmless to everything else, which kills the caterpillars.
• It has developed resistance to numerous insecticides and also, in some populations, to the granulovirus itself.
• It overwinters as a caterpillar in a cocoon under the bark or in the soil, and pupates in spring.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Apple, pear and walnut trees worldwide

Size at birth

Lens-shaped flattened egg 1.3 by 1.0 mm, opalescent with a red ring during development; the larva measures about 2 mm at birth and 13-19 mm when grown

Sexual maturity

The adults rest camouflaged on the bark during the day and become active at nightfall if the temperature rises above 10-15 °C; one to four generations a year depending on the climate

Gestation / incubation

The eggs hatch between 5 and 20 days depending on the temperature; the larva goes through five instars in 3-5 weeks inside the fruit

Litter / clutch size

50 to 100 eggs per female, laid one by one on the developing fruit or on nearby leaves and shoots

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydia_pomonella; IRAC, ficha Cydia pomonella; Cornell CALS; Eurasian Tortricidae, ficha Cydia pomonella; IRAC; NCBI PMC3629207, tolerancia al frio de Cydia pomonella; Eurasian Tortricidae

Best time: The first flight coincides with the end of apple blossom; the last generation overwinters as a larva under the bark or in the leaf litter