How to Fight Peach Twig Borers (Anarsia lineatella)

By Erin Marissa Russell and Matt Gibson

The peach twig borer is one of the biggest pestilence problems for stone fruit orchards , attacking not only peach trees , but the tree diagram of other stone fruits , such as nectarines , peach , and plums . The peach twig borer would n’t be that big of a problem for yield James Leonard Farmer if it was just a pest known for boring into the twigs and branches of stone fruit trees , as it is known to do .

Unfortunately , the peach sprig borer does n’t stop at just the twigs , as afterwards in the season , the pest is known to also bore into the fruit , assail stunner , nectarine , apricots , and plum , sometimes put down entire crops in the process .

peach twig borer

Not to be confused with the peach tree borer , a pest known for boring into the torso of peach trees , the peach tree woodborer causes damage to the tree diagram that can become a trouble after long menstruum of infestation , while the peach twig borer can cause new growth to fail back and damage stone fruit harvests within the first year of an infestation .

Identifying Peach Twig Borers

Young spill the beans twig borer larvae are off clean with black caput . As they maturate , larvae become chocolate-brown with go around light and dark band or bar around their belly . grown peach twig borer larvae are around a half - inch long . The pupa , which organize in protected locations on taint tree diagram , or sometimes in the stem turn of infested fruits , miss a cocoon , and are small ( one quarter - inch to just under one half - inch long ) and brown .

Adult peach twig borer moths are quite small , measuring under a half - inch long , with metal grey , stippled fore-wing . The long , thin forewings are fringed , but not as much as the hindwings , which are a light gray-headed color . The transmitting aerial on their heads make it look as if they have snouts . The peach sprig borer ’s eggs are orange or yellow-bellied , oval , and found on the Earth’s surface of sprig , leaves , and now and then the yield of Harlan Stone trees .

The impairment do by peach branchlet woodborer is due to their eating on shoots or the fruit of infested trees . Twig injury is most prevalent on new , immature increment , especially on youthful , developing trees , as the pest ’s eating kill terminal maturation , often resulting in unwanted lateral branch development . As the fruit becomes mature , it becomes more prostrate to attack from the pests , as the flesh is softer and more easily penetrable . Peach branchlet borer damage to yield usually come between the color change and harvesting . The pests have into the yield near the stalk or near the surgical seam line and feed just beneath the surface of the skin .

Preventing Peach Twig Borers

Environmental and cultural controls can allow nurseryman to inhibit or minimize the population of peach branchlet stone drill in their trees . When these coping method acting are in gambling , gardens are less likely to call for insecticides or other rough treatment .

Treating Peach Twig Borers

While many gardener turn to insecticides to defend their tree from peach twig borers , there are options that have low perniciousness . microbic products or those that determine louse growth can be carefully administered so they are timed with nut hatching and the alimentation of new generations to be extremely effective .

Whenever possible , gardeners should strive to forfend insecticides as a treatment for peach twig borers . Some of the potential insecticides that fight peach twig stone drill have harmful side effects , such as being detrimental to come out water quality or cause a health jeopardy for beneficial wildlife like aquatic invertebrates , bees , raptor birds , and other animals that are not part of the insecticide ’s target coinage . With careful monitoring and employment of the alternative treatment we ’ve discuss here , there ’s no reason gardener should postulate to trust on potentially harmful insect powder to keep their tree free of peach twig borers .