Apple Maggot Barriers
Even though we don’t have apple maggot flies in the Inland Northwest, there are barriers you can purchase that also help with apple codling moth, which we do have.
The barriers look just like the little nylon footies that we ladies use to try on a new pair of shoes at the shoe store.
These barriers help keep a clay-like substance that has been sprayed on the young apples and increase its effectiveness. They definitely create an un-apple-like surface to fool the moth and hold more of the clay on the apple to thwart the larvae. A few years ago, we skipped using the barriers and only used kaolin clay but had significantly more codling moth damage as a result.
I have never seen the apple maggot barriers for sale in garden centers, so we’ve always ordered them from online sources (i.e., maggotbarriers.com and seattletreefruitsociety.com).
For more information on the timing of applying the footies, please refer to my blog post, Growing apples organically – 2017.