Ruud Kleinpaste: Codling moths and a trick to thwart them

Codling moths are a pain in the backside for people that grow apples. A week or so after flowering, the fertilised, tiny apples (known in the UK as “codlings”) are the perfect target for the moths to lay eggs in. 

The caterpillars emerge from the eggs and tunnel into the developing fruit, causing ugly tunnels, often with fungal infection, brown decay, and “frass” sticking out of the hole. Once these caterpillars are inside, you won’t get them out and the fruit will be rather awful as it develops. 

In the old days we used to regularly spray pretty nasty insecticides on our apples: Carbaryl, Organophosphates, etc. Not nice! 

The moths are quite pretty: golden colours, about a centimetre in size, flying around the orchard when the flowering has just finished. 

The caterpillars exit the fruit when full grown – they descend down the stem/trunk and pupate in loose bark or further down in the soil. 

A second Generation develops in summer, especially in the northern parts of NZ. 

Second generation moths can be detected by using a Codling Moth pheromone trap, which indicates exactly when the moths are flying again, looking for mid-summer sized apples to lay their eggs on. 

Those sticky pheromone traps will trap some of the moths, but not in sufficient quantities to significantly reduce their numbers in your home “orchard”. 

To really get rid of the majority of codling moths you better use a specific virus that knocks the caterpillars out before they take their second bite of the apple. This virus only targets codling moths and no other insects. That Virus is called MADEX 3, and the active viral particles are a Granulosis Virus. Excellent and safe to use, unless you look like a codling moth caterpillar! 

A couple of stockists of Madex 3 who focus on the DIY online business are: Good to Grow and NZ YUZU.

Commercial distributers who purchase somewhere nationally but may not stock Madex at every branch are: Farmlands, PGG Wrightson, Fruit fed Supplies, Horti centre, etc. 

This is a commercial product, used by apple growers – it covers large orchards and is very effective indeed. It is also quite pricey (around $180 for 100 ml) but if you put it in the freezer and only use what you need, it’ll last for many, many years. Share it with your neighbours to cut costs, follow the instructions, but KEEP IT IN THE FREEZER AFTER USE. 

It’ll be time to use it in the next week or so! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
At be.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Climb Past. Is our man in the garden on Saturday Mornings.
Got good morning, sir.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Jack, Yeah, garden. All right. I don't know if you
know this, but it's really all over the place now,
isn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
It is all over the place. It's always all over
the place at our place. Yes, everything's just going gangbusters.
Everything's going gangbusters. It's going to be twenty two and
or on today they reckon, So you know our place.
Then everything's growing. Is it going to be twenty four
and the three?

Speaker 4 (00:42):
Don't you worry? Ever since you and your friends left,
it's been great.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, funny there the cold cold hearts. We're keeping them
below the average for so long.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, you got it. Have you got apples where you are?

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Not at our place? Not at our place?

Speaker 4 (00:59):
But but well the in laws.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
The in laws are in Nelson, and in fact, my
brother in law grew up on an apple orchard. So
I'm all these Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Oh well they should they I think they.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
On top of the coddling moth situation. Yeah, that's not
the first.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Coddling moths are real braggers.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Actually, because those things, of course originated from places like
what is it? Then we had them a lot, but
they're not where they're originally from. I don't know exactly
where they came from. But anyway, in the in those orchards,
that is their big gig. Because these guys basically make
holes in apples and that looks awful and it tastes
even worse. So I think we better have a check

(01:41):
about that. And the reason is this is actually quite
interesting Jack. In the past, when I started working with
the Ministry of Anger and Fishheads, sorry meth, we used
to use a lot of really nasty chemicals on apples,
carver or geno phosphates, you name it. And suddenly they

(02:02):
found this lovely material called the medex three, which is
basically a material that kills the caterpillars as soon as
they come into developing fruit.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
And so I want to have a little check about it, yeah,
rather than the stuff. Yeah. Okay, So at the moment
the apples.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
Are flowering, some are have already finished because their earlier settlers,
I suppose, and there's also later ones coming up. And
this is the idea how this works. The virus that
kills the caterpillar is a natural virus that only kills
the coddling moth, nothing else, right, So then that's that's

(02:44):
quite organic, isn't it if you think about it.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
So that's number one. Number two is the time when.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
The moths are flying is from now onwards, right, And
the very first thing they do is they find a partner,
they mate, and then the females are laying their eggs
literally on the tiny fruits that are forming right now
after flywer and the tiny fruits in London are called codlings,

(03:11):
hence the name coddling off right, So that's important. So
from now on we should start looking at these sort
of things and instead of using nasty chemicals, we can
use the material that is that virus that they found.
It's called granulosis virus, and especially putting bottles under the
name mad X three m A D E X three.

(03:36):
I've used it now for decades and it works beautifully.
If you do that at the right time, you can
actually stop those clotal little catapillas from getting into developing
fruit and you will have clean fruit at the end
of the season.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
That is really important. I think, well do you reckon?

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Sounds very good. And at last ones, right, I mean
you can just you can just freezer.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, well there you go, you go.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Let you read it you Yeah, if you put it
in the freezer, you can have that particular stuff. I
know it's expensive, sorry, I know, but it will last
for at least four or five years if you put
them in the freezer and only take it out when
you have to quickly loot it in your water and
spray sprady apple trees.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
That is the way to go about it.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
So it's actually and the second thing is what you
can do is, of course, if you find it too expensive,
you share it with your neighbors. It's the other thing. Yeah,
you're looking at one hundred and eighty dollars for a bottle. Yeah,
it's quite dear, but it works, and boy does it work.
So those are really important things. Keep it in the
freezer after use and it'll be easy to use next

(04:44):
year again madex three.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
There you go, very good, Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
We started a bit of a contest this morning.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Rhodes.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
If it's twenty two in Auckland, it's twenty four in
christ Church, twenty Sex and Hastings seizmus how about that.
Here you go twenty five degrees and Ashburton right now.
See I've always said that Hepton was paradise, but my goodness,
how about it. Yeah, you're bitter, get going if you
haven't got your bearzel, and now is the time. Thank
you very much, Rude. We'll make sure all of the

(05:14):
details for that. Medics three is up on the News
Talk CB website as well, so you can get your
apple tree sawed at your place.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to News Talks' b from nine Am, saturday or follow
the podcast On iHeartRadio