Nylon ‘footies’ kick apple maggots out of tree

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, May 16, 2007

If you grow apples in your back yard, you probably already know about apple maggots, the pests that leave fruit an inedible, mushy brown mess.

Apple maggots hang out in the ground through the winter and then emerge as flies beginning midsummer. They lay eggs in the flesh of apples, the eggs hatch into maggots, and the maggots eat their way through the fruit. These critters are so bad, they get their own quarantine signs on the highway.

The insects pose a serious threat to home and commercial crops because they’re so destructive and so difficult to eliminate, particularly for homeowners who can’t use the same pesticides as commercial growers.

The few other methods available include lures and sticky traps, clay sprays and protective bags. All are a real pain to use or aren’t entirely effective.

It’s no surprise, then, when I started receiving many excited and persistent calls and e-mails from members of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society gushing about a solution: maggot barriers.

It’s a little sack made of nylon that slips over the fruit just like a sock. An Oregon grower got the idea after watching his girlfriend pull on her nylon footies.

The solution is cheap and effective. Local growers who’ve tried the maggot barriers report they are nearly 100 percent effective in controlling apple maggots and another pest, coddling moths. Flies are fooled by the brown color and both flies and moths don’t like the texture of the footies. The footies breathe so they don’t retain water.

Unlike other bags growers have used, these don’t require ties. That means they’re faster and easier to slip on.

One woman approached society vice president Greg Giuliani after a meeting and told him that she had been ready to give up growing apples because they had been so infested with the maggots. Out of desperation, she covered 700 of her apples with footies last season. The result: 700 perfect apples.

The time to put them on is June, when the fruit is nickel-sized, Giuliani said.

The society is selling them to the public for $20 for a bag of 300. You can find them on your own or you can buy them from the Seattle Tree Fruit Society by contacting president David Connors at applesandmore@hotmail.com or 206-782-7352 (e-mail preferred).

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.